sayde

several questions...

what area of country do you live?

is natural gas available to your home?

do you have air conditioning?

any idea of current boiler's eff?

do you want to keep your radiator heat?

post back.

Hi tigerdunes,

Upstate New York
Yes, natural gas is available. We have heated with it before and we still have a gas fired water heater and a gas range.
Yes we do have A/C: Unico system-- about five years old --separate system with its own compressor. Not tied to the heating in any way.

Current boiler is about 80%. It is an old Timken. We just had it inspected. It has tight solid doors and is tight throughout from all that can be seen. The person who looked at it said it is top-of-the-line even for one of the old ones, and is one of very very few he has seen that he would feel comfortable doing a conversion. There are no signs of any impending problems, though he said that you just never know if/when it could develop a leak. He suggested a Carlin for the conversion burner. The same person would do the new boiler/burner if we chose to go that way but he definitely was not pushing us one way or the other.

Yes we want to keep our radiator heat. The radiators are all in excellent condition and the system operates completely satsfactorally. We don't want to perturb it any more than is absolutely necessary.

OK, here's more information than you requested but for anyone else who might be interested: to do the simple burner conversion: about $2000. To go to an 80% cast iron new unit -- about $6000. To go to a 90%+ modulating system like a Triangle Tube Prestige -- upwards of $10,000.

Thanks -- will look forward to reading your response --

sayde

I would look into a high eff nat gas boiler.

I would expect a very nice payback.

IMO

I grew up in a house with a boiler that was originally installed around 1895-98.

It was converted to oil after World War II.

Efficiency was, to say the least, terrible.

The last time you had the boiler serviced, what did they tell you the efficiency was?

I'd be absolutely shocked if it were over 50%

Say it is 50%.

That means that for ever $1 you spend in fuel, 50 cents of it is going right out the chimney.

On a new, high efficiency boiler, either gas or oil, you can expect efficiencies as high as 90% for oil, or higher for gas.

Given those numbers, it wouldn't take long for you to get a solid payback, probably no more than 5 or 10 years, depending on how much heating you do.

When my parents replaced the ancient boiler in the basement with a high efficiency model (1982-83), oil consumption was reduced by nearly half.

Just remember that the 80% figure is combustion efficiency, how well the burner uses the oil when fully warmed up. Annual efficiency, how much of the oil you pay for heats the house, is probably more like 50%.

Going to a gas high efficiency boiler could save more than $1000 even.

Baldloonie is so correct and fuel companies love to tell you what you want to hear.

Yes it may be operating at 80% but, that would be combustion efficiency.

If factoring was done on the unit the annual IÂm sure would be closer to 50-60%.

Going with a Modulating condensing boiler piped properly into an old system, could easily payback in 2-3 years, I've seen it over and over. ItÂs always funny, after the first heating season after a replacement the gas company will be out to change your meter, thinking it was defective. Once you tell them you got a new boiler, their response will be "OH, that makes sense".

50 to 60% (afue) would be my estimate also...
possibly lower...

at 80 years old replacing it would be a no brainer
for me.

ROI would be short, and ng may ge a better choice.
no experience with boilers here...heck we don't even
have basements..just hurricanes!

best of luck with your choices.

Thanks for all the responses. We will be talking to to heating contractors this week. I've mentioned the Triangle Tube Prestige to them -- they seem more comfortable with WeilMcClain but I am wary of an aluminum boiler. So we need to do more sorting . . .

I am just so reluctant to take out the old solid boiler -- no electronic controls, has never given us any trouble. One or two service calls on one of the new fangled units could wipe out fuel savings. I think I'm becoming an old fogey.

Burnham, Weil-Mclain, Buderus, all make good boilers.

Aluminum tube boiler?

I don't know of an aluminum tube oil fired boiler.

Burnham and Weil-McLain still make cast iron tube boilers.

Start looking there.

Burnham, Weil-Mclain, Buderus, all make good boilers.

Aluminum tube boiler?

I don't know of an aluminum tube oil fired boiler.

Burnham and Weil-McLain still make cast iron tube boilers.

Start looking there.

Hi Krame, we are looking to convert from oil to gas -- the Triangle Tube Prestige is a stainless steel gas fired boiler.

OK, stainless steel makes sense.

Aluminum didn't make much sense.

I wish I had found this site last week. We are in Toronto, Canada and have just signed a contract to replace our old Oakwood Ironworks, cast iron 1919 boiler. We love that old boiler but the Gas Company and Direct Energy, who rent us the gas conversion burner for the boiler are getting out of the conversion burner business. The conversion burner is breaking down, not the boiler. Anyhow, we are putting in a Triangle Tube model Solo 399 stainless steel boiler at a huge cost. (We are an 8 plex apartment building) We went with installers in business since 1908 who seem to be very good. I doubt we will live to see our money back as we are now 68 years old and the cost, installed is $33,000.00 plus, Canadian dollars.

Weil McLains Ultra boiler is an aluminum block boiler

Although there are other Stainless Steel heat exchanger boilers, Triangle Tubes Prestige boiler in 5- sizes; 60, 110, 175, 250 & 399M are all super boilers, with the only downward fired fire-tube boiler.