Is natural gas available in your area? If it is, you can go from about 65% efficiency to about 96% efficiency. Outdoor reset control is a must have. This will lower the water temperature from the boiler on warmer days when higher temperature is not needed, saving you money and energy. IâÂÂm surprised this was not proposed, itâÂÂs a big energy saver and relatively inexpensive to install. Boiler should have temperature and pressure gauges. Are your baseboards aluminum fin or cast iron? How do you heat your domestic hot water? Even with a series plumbed system it is possible today to modify the radiators to close and bypass the flow when a set point has been reached in that room thus setting up automatic zoning, saving energy, and ensuring higher temperature water further out from the boiler. This would be when a variable speed circulator may be of use and adding efficiency. Automatic air elimination devices should also be added to prevent air lock and associated problems. This would also reduce maintenance and nuisance service calls. The expansion tank should be checked and properly calibrated, assuming there is one. The bottom line is thereâÂÂs a lot that can be done with your system. As the technology has advance by quantum leaps over the past couple of decades you need someone who is passionate about radiant, follows the latest improvements, goes to tradeshows and attends technical seminars. The new radiant technologies are HOT - I LOVE them! SR

Tekmar control systems have been in use for years now. They have been installed on both residential and commercial projects we were involved with. My understanding is that they have an outdoor reset that monitors the exterior temperature and adjust the boiler temperature to meet the heating needs. If it is cold (0 degrees) they let the boiler fire at max temperature or what ever upper limit that is set. If it is a mild day (45 degrees) that may only allow the boiler to fire to say 145 degrees and provide for a moderate heating temperature. New boilers like Buderus have the option of Logamatic controller which does a similar thing. They will make old boilers more efficient, but new boilers with these controls are even better. Apparently Buderus even makes a oil fired condensing boiler which is 91% efficient. With gas or oil boilers the lower water temperatures can only be reached with these type of boilers as condensation will occur and they are designed for this. If your boiler is good and you install a tekmar you will save money. If you need an upgrade then the new boilers will save on oil consumption, but cost a lot more to buy and install. Tekmar will also control the indirect water heater. These type of boiler controls can prioritize the hot water and fire the boiler at a much higher temperature when hot water is needed. You have a lot of choices from adding controls to your existing system, changing to a new higher efficient boiler with integrated controls, or even going up to a condensing oil boiler with integrated controls. If you are remaining in the house for years to come then maybe replacement in the long run is best. If you don't want to spend a lot of money and still want to save the Tekmar will definitely help and make the house more comfortable. I am not n HVAC contractor, but we have these systems installed on all our projects or they come with new boilers we are installing. I am sure installers can explain better than I can as to exactly how these controllers work. I have a gas fired boiler with outdoor reset built in and it worked great this winter. It is the same principle as the Tekmar and it controls a modulating condensing gas boiler.

#1- 40 years old?, over 10 years past due for a cast iron steam according to averages. #2- Steam is a bit more complex than a water boiler, besides removing that mammoth dirty sooted boiler, most often the smaller foot print boiler required new return piping (hartford loop) new header, asbestos?, new safeties, auto fill, system vents, radiator vents.... Seems in the ballpark to me not knowing everything #3- I would but N/G is a choice of yours. Oil will continue to go up but still the fuel of choice in the NE states. If your chimmney is bad for gas it can't be good for oil too. It's not the operating efficiencies here, you may improve by 1-2% though. I'm sure you stand to save alot in fuel as a boiler today closely matched to your Btu's, square foot of radiation and EDR (condensate) will be much smaller thus, less mass to heat to receive heat and less lost due to standby loss after shutdown. Your planning on staying awhile? Get a new one and releive yourself of one more thing to fail (always at the worst time) and enjoy the payback now.

I had a plumber install a Rinnai E110C in my house(built in 1915,I live in Massachusetts) in September of 2014. So far I am very happy with it. The time it takes to get water my shower upstairs(about a 30 foot run from the boiler) is about 10 seconds in the summer and maybe 15 seconds in the winter. Ground water temp in my area is about 52 degrees. However there were a few issues that I experienced. First, I had a concentric intake/exhaust pipe installed out the side of the house. When it would rain, water(the rain) would get into the intake portion of the tube(the outer pipe) and make its way back into the boiler casing and splash around and condense at the bottom of the unit. This is something you don't want to happen as the electronics are housed here. The pipe outside the house was positioned in the corner of where two porches on the house meet and when we would have a rainstorm this was a turbulent side of the house. I eventually had the plumber reroute the intake/exhaust to a two pipe(separate pipes and at an added cost of $800.00 to me) system and on a flat wall in a different direction. Problem solved. My Rinnai E110C is positioned where the oil tank was. I had put speedi dry down where the tank was and right under the two pipes for hot water heating and return at various times There were moisture spots about 5 or 6 inches in diameter. Putting my hand on the pipes leading into the low loss header, my hand was wet with moisture - condensation. The low loss header itself is insulated with stiff Styrofoam. Just today I put insulation on those pipes and hopefully that will solve the problem.