My wife and I are giving serious consideration into replacing our old oil boiler . . . anyone have any recommendations as to what they have and like . . . or don't like?
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RE: OT Oil Boilers
My wife and I are giving serious consideration into replacing our old oil boiler . . . anyone have any recommendations as to what they have and like . . . or don't like?
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the realization that there is something more important than fear."
"Death is only one of many ways to die."
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We got a cold start boiler with a water storage tank a few years ago and it really saved us a lot of money on the oil bill. Our family of 4 went from 1100 gallons of oil a year to 600 for a 3 BR ranch style house. (We had a really old boiler before) We chose a Buderus boiler and SuperStor water storage tank. I work at Dead River Company and got my recommendations from our technicians (those are the brands they chose to install in their own homes).
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I don't have any recommendations but I would hope that you could at least get something more energy efficient and maybe less dependent on the oil companies.....Sorry Jo. Maybe a combo oil and wood or something like that.
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Definitely cold start with an indirect-fired water heater. Buderous is good and well known. In other words, I agree with pj, but don't tell her I said that.
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I agree with Haffy, become less fossil fuel dependent. You should put in one of those big windmills with solar backup. Then you wouldn't be dependant on the oil companies, well,,, accept to melt the steel ...and... run the manufacturing plants to build all the components ... and... then ship the items to you... and ... then maybe the crane that would have to erect it,,,,sheesh,,,seems like we're dependent, like it or not.
I do agree with Haffy though, the newer systems are energy efficient and should lower your annual heating cost. I don't have a suggestion either but would like to know what you end up doing as we need to replace or mid 1970's Memco boiler,,,,every time a technician comes to work on it --unfortunately it's becoming more frequent -- they laugh then suggest we get an updated furnace.
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Wood is viable if you cut your own and have the time to do so. If you have to buy the wood, you might as well be buying oil lately.Originally Posted by Haffy
Propane is slightly more efficient and usually less maintenence, but it's going to cost about the same in the long run.
If you want efficient, electric heat is the only 100% efficient heating system. 100% of the energy put into it is turned into heat. And electric heat is near nil maintenence. Of course a lot of oil is used to make electricity. As good as I made this option sound, I wouldn't want it!
I wonder if Bucksport High School still has their electric boiler - I can't imagine what that cost to run. It was huge, a thousand gallons I bet, and had at least ten heating elements.
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I may go with an add-on wood boiler in the future (as some of you might recall I started a thread on add-on wood boilers about a year ago) in an effort to use less oil (plus I have access to a woodlot and am a bit twisted in that I enjoy the work that comes with putting up a few cord of wood), but for now I'm simply looking for a decent oil boiler that will work for one entire year without it conking out once or twice a winter (reliability is the one key feature I'm looking for.)
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"Death is only one of many ways to die."
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Maybe Steve will jump in here, but if memory serves me correctly the new school being built at Mt. View will have a wood chip-fueled boiler and I thought there was some talk about a windmill company doing a study to see if it would be feasible to erect a wind mill at the site as well.
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OK, one positive comment about Buderus . . . any other good/bad experiences?
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the realization that there is something more important than fear."
"Death is only one of many ways to die."
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I've heard decent things about those "system 2000" units too, I'd be cautious about those outdoor woodfired units, there's been quite the fuss lately about those from people that don't like (such as towns passing ordanances to prevent using them because the smoke bothers people...)
my best advice to you though is; you get what you pay for, and the most expensive doesn't always mean the best. (I know, it's a bit contradicting, but make sure you check out the history of the contractor and the unit ya wanna buy)
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