| Author | Message | ||
     Davegess |
Anyone out there know anything about residential boilers? We need to replace ours. We are looking at Weil-McClain, Buderus, any other ideas? Thoughts on the 95% efficient ones versus lower efficiencies? What questions should I ask etc. Dave | ||
| Bads1 |
Dave, I'm totally unqualified to answer your question. Although I have a Boiler below me the size of a Mack truck. But what I can do is have a great cool drink to think it all over.  | ||
| Just_ziptab |
I have a 175,000 BTU Weil-McClain with radiant floor heat. Works terrific. The only problem has been in sub zero temps. The exhaust and intake pipes are under a walk way and the exhaust air carries moisture into the "critter mesh" protector on the intake and it will frost over if there is no breeze to carry the moisture away. I changed it from 1/4 inch mesh to 1" mesh and that solved most of it. Really just need to space the pipes farther apart. We have two of that same boiler at work heating tanks. They run long and hard year round. The oldest one is neart ten years old. Replaced one pump and one igniter. Also replace the boiler casting because we were using hot water from the boiler for another process(a big NO NO) and the incoming cold replacement water(lots) cracked the casting. My boiler is now just a holding tank.I have a wood burning outdoors boiler tied into the system with a water to water heat exchanger. Have not burned an ounce of natural gas all winter......but have burned a shit load of wood in this never ending , 6 month winter in Iowa(Boo) My highest gas bill last year was $216.00. Heating neart 4,000 sq feet at 65 degrees in a month of near zero weather.Your mileage may vary.......... | ||
| Davegess |
We are looking at 84,000 btu to heat 3000 sq ft with old cast iron radiators | ||
| Gentleman_jon |
Dave, Do you have steam or hot water? One pipe steam is a sweet system, sort of like the air cooled vee twin of heating systems; simple and efficient if you do it right, a real mess if you don't. | ||
| Davegess |
We have hot water. It has a feed pipe and a return pipe, we are not changing any of that just putting a new boiler. This is th ethird house I have lived in a long time with hot water heat and we love it. I grew up with this and hate forced air. | ||
| Mikej |
Check with WeEnergies to see if they have any rebates or discount or other incentives to upgrade your system. I also recall that ThisOldHouse has done a few episodes involving boiler heating systems. http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/ A search on boilers: http://search.thisoldhouse.com/search.html?Ntt=boi lers&bu= | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Can't help, got a Geo-thermal heat pump & underfloor heat. Mmm toasty pinkies. | ||
| Mikej |
How deep does your geo-thermal system go to make it cost effective? I've heard some of those systems get pretty deep at times. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
There's various sorts, but basically, either you have a whole load of pipes buried in your garden between 3 & 6 ft down where it doesn't freeze, or you have holes drilled & the pipes let down the holes. We've got an acre of garden so we went for the shallow option as it's a whole lot cheaper. For our house they told us we'd need 150m of hole for the drilled option, that'd be 3x50 or 2x75, apparently they don't like going down much further than that for technical reasons. According to the spec's of our system we're getting a 4 to 1 return, that means for every kw of electricity we use, we get 4k of heat out, Rule of thumb is that you need about twice the area outside for collection to what you want to heat inside. It works best with underfloor heat, as it's a low temp system, typically the fluid runs at about 35°c. When we ordered the system before we started the renovation work, the extra cost involved over a standard oil or gas powered system was going to be amortized over 7-10 years, but with the way oil prices have gone we're already over the curve & in the black. A good number of friends & family scoffed at the idea of paying so much over the top for newfangled eco-freak heating, now I just sit quietly with a smug smile when they start whining about their fuel bills. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
My cousin in Scotland, inherited the family mansion & castle (I kid you not) 18 bedrooms etc etc, he's got a huge wood burner that he loads with a tractor bucket. Mind you he's got 1500 acres of land & over half that is forest. |
