Best Of
Re: Oil Fired combi boiler?
Actually what you have is pretty good — a quality modern oil boiler firing a hydronic system. The downside is keeping the boiler warm for the domestic hot water. You might gain some efficiency by using an indirect hot water heater, such as a SuperStor, heated by the boiler but storing a good deal of hot water, like a regular hot water heater. It works like a separate zone off the existing hot water heat.
What you will NOT find is an oil fired "combi" in the modern usage of the word — which also implies "mod/con" — that is modulating. Those do have slightly higher rated efficiencies, true — but they are only for LP or natural gas, as modulating an oil burner is really remarkably hard and there isn't that much to be gained anyway (oil is naturally more efficient that either LP or gas under otherwise identical conditions).
Re: Boston AC
Hey, Larry. I believe @GW is in Massachusetts. Possibly west Mass? He knows AC. Maybe he knows a guy who knows a guy.
HVACNUT
Re: JB Weld to fill corrosion pitting.
@ChrisJ Good call on the chemistry risk. Permatex Ultra Red is an oxime-cure silicone. Oxime-cure silicones are widely used around elastomeric seals because they are non-corrosive after curing and generally compatible with many rubber compounds. The attached TDS identifies the product as an oxime silicone rubber. Permatex specifically states the product is intended for use with rubber cut gaskets and is "non-corrosive." I intend to use a very thin layer of Permatex and let it cure before assembly with the elastomer seals.
The boiler block is a P-386 (old). The water side is beautiful since I used Rectorseal 8-way and blew down regularly. I will try to document my progress with photos.
JMC3
Re: Dryer vent duct
Don't over-think this. If it's not directly exposed to flame or flue gases, just use regular RTV silicone or polyurethane.
Re: Old water system
that bellows device kind of looks like an early relief valve because I can't really see where an arm and weight to operate the dampers would connect to it.
the well may have been below the basement floor, I have seen a lot of well heads in basement floors with some sort of a wood cover over them. sometimes it is just a hollow and wooden sounding spot in the floor. It also may have been outside and came in through the basement wall. Where does the pipe in to the pump look like it came from? The basement floor likely was originally dirt and probably got covered with concrete sometime around the 50's
mattmia2
Re: Boiler Maintenance and Recommendations
Thank everyone for such positive and informed comments all around.
The Frontier’s low mass thermal purge design means that you’ll have very high efficiency operation from very small to full loads. The boiler is heavily insulated, so it won’t give off nearly as much heat as your current dry base boiler.
I’m sorry I don’t have a good technical answer for you about using a tank after being stagnant for six months. At a minimum, thoroughly flushing out the tank before use makes sense. Possibly others here would have knowledge on a proper, safe, and hygienic procedure.
Please let me know if we can assist further with other technical information or dealers.
Best,
Roger
Roger
Re: Boiler Maintenance and Recommendations
with a hot water boiler there should be very little corrosion or scale. if there is a leak and a lot of fresh water you will get corrosion but the solution to that is to make sure the system isn't leaking.
mattmia2
Re: Boiler Maintenance and Recommendations
the corrosion is mainly due to the air dissolved in the fresh water but some of the dissolved minerals also precipitate out when you heat it so it leaves those behind too.
you can set up a boiler to heat an electric or in your case heat pump tank during the heating season. not sure how that fits in to the ek system, the president of ek hangs out here, i'm sure he'll give you better details than i can at some point. i think it uses a heat exchanger to heat their storage tank so that could heat your existing tank instead.
part of the way the ek system gets efficiency is by putting some of the heat still in the boiler after the cycle ends in to the hot water tank.
mattmia2