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Re: Beckett Oil to Propane conversion kit: requesting advice / suggestions
@Dog8 , if you are burning that much oil, there is something else amiss. I know oil is expensive — but you are using at least as much, if not more, oil per square foot as the house Cedric powers uses — which is 7,000 square feet usable space, built between 1780 and 1890, with no insulation.
The first thing to do is to see if you have any insulation at all. Next, go find all the air leaks. And fix both problems. Also add storm windows if you don't have them.
Re: Beckett Oil to Propane conversion kit: requesting advice / suggestions
First things first. Are you quite sure that the price of propane, per BTU, is less than that of oil? Enough less to make the switch pencil out. Remember that a gallon of propane has only about two thirds of the BTUs that oil does — so you'd need half again as much propane to keep warm as you do oitl…
Re: Difficulty in Properly Sizing Equipment - 2140 Sq Ft New Construction Spray Foam House
What are your local utility costs? Around me oil is about 3x the operating cost of a heat pump so it makes no sense for a new build.
You area already adding ducting for AC, so your additional cost is only the up charge to a heat pump which will be a fraction of the cost of oil tank, boiler, plumbing and rads.
18/BTU per sqft in zone 4 sound very high for a tight new construction. I would doublecheck the manual J assumption as something is off. It should be closer to 8-12btu/sqft.
Even assuming 39k is correct you could heat the house with a combination of:
https://ashp.neep.org/#!/product/64682/7/25000/95/7500/0///0
and
https://ashp.neep.org/#!/product/64684/7/25000/95/7500/0///0
These are modulating units, if you look at the turndown on cooling it is pretty decent so even though it is oversized for cooling load, it should still turn down enough.
My guess once you get your manual J dialed in, a single 2 or 2.5 ton cold climate heat pump can heat and cool your place without issues.
Bonus of a heat pump is the SEER rating on it is much higher than your typical AC, so your cooling costs will also be significantly less.
Kaos
Re: Equalizer Return
The second part of your statement has been documented and debated here. Not sure that I understand the first part. That pipe that we call the equalizer, is also a drain pipe for the header.
Re: True variable speed pump
The HEC-2 does have a minimum speed (see here http://www.taco-hvac.com/uploads/FileLibrary/100-101.pdf) for the performance curve. You can get to the low speed and achieve that 1-2 gpm you are looking for. 1 to 2 gallons or minute is 20,0000 BTU's on a design day. If your system is about that size, you are right, it will be hard to vary below that speed.
How much baseboard is connected to your system?
Also, are you looking for a variable speed circulator or a high efficient ECM circulator?
Dave H
Dave H_2
Re: Equalizer Return
It carries water, not steam so it can be smaller. Pipe diameter doesn't figure into delivering pressure to the return.
Re: Beckett Oil to Propane conversion kit: requesting advice / suggestions
I have an 1,800 sf home and pay $2,500 — $2,700 per heating season for fuel oil which — to me — is outrageous. Meanwhile, my neighbor — whose home is more than 4,300 s.f. pays between $600 - $800 for propane during the heating season to heat his home.
With an assumed price of $2.80 for propane, your neighbor, by his claim, is using 250 gallons of propane for the entire heating season.
There are only two possibilities:
a) Your neighbor keeps the house at 45 degrees throughout the season.
b) Your neighbor is lying.
You use about 875 gallons of fuel oil per heating season. This is quite typical of an 1800 square foot dwelling that is a bit compromised on air sealing. Work on that and you can reduce the fuel oil to about 700 gallons per heating season. Propane will not affect the outcome in any way. In fact, due to the 65% energy available from propane, it will likely cost you more. LOOK ELSEWHERE!
LRCCBJ
Re: Beckett Oil to Propane conversion kit: requesting advice / suggestions
Beckett makes oil burners and gas burners but as far as I know there is no conversion kit. You can't turn an oil burner into a gas burner.
You might be able to remove the oil burner and put a Carlin or Beckett gas burner in your existing furnace but I wouldn't do that with a 9 year old furnace.
Neither Carlin, Beckett or Carrier would have tested that combination as Gas furnaces are available so you would be in uncharted territory even if you could find someone who would do the switch.
As @Jamie Hall mentioned oil has 140,000BTUs/ gallon.
Propane has 91,500 BTU/gallon of propane
So for example if you burn 500 gallons of fuel oil/year (500 x 140000)=70,000,000btu/year
70,000,000/91,500=765 gallons of propane to do the same job. Efficiency is about the same
Check the fuel price before you do anything. In most areas fuel oil is less expensive.
Re: Sizing a New Steam Boiler
Probably correct. Personally, I have had close to zero success with warranties. Always an excuse. And can never talk to the actual people making the decisions. There are probably people out the who would suggest removing the cyclegard and reinstalling it if a warranty issue came up. Just saying.
Re: Difficulty in Properly Sizing Equipment - 2140 Sq Ft New Construction Spray Foam House
For reference, I just looked at a Suffolk County statement for a Long Island PSE&G residential electricity bill and Delivery and System Charges include "certain transition charges" and other fees that raise it to $0.13/kWh; adding in power supply charges, taxes and other charges brings the total rate to $0.27/kWh.
Can you please link to this? I'm seeing $.0534 - where are you finding the other $.08/kwh?
The All Electric heating would reduce this rate for purchases over 400kWh by about $0.04/kWh; some of the other charges are fixed, so the bill is likely to be about $0.23/kWh at these rates, or $9.34 per gallon equivalent ($3.74 to $4.67 per gallon at a COP of 2 to 2.5 which is reflected in field performance at 30°F outside, but higher priced at lower temperatures).
$/MMBtu delivered is so much easier to understand for me :).
It's interesting how few hours under 30F (well HDD base 65 >= 35F) Long Islands experiences.
