Best Of

Re: Burnham Heat Exchange Leak - RV5NSL-L2 Boiler Seal to slow and plan for replacement?

It looks like you will easily make it to spring only another 4-6 weeks.

I would avoid sealer unless the leak gets much worse.

EBEBRATT-Ed

1

Re: Burnham Heat Exchange Leak - RV5NSL-L2 Boiler Seal to slow and plan for replacement?

@New England SteamWorks or @Charlie from wmass

And don't buy another Burnham. There failure rate in MA & Rhode Island is excessive. Especially with a water boiler you should have got more than 20 years out of it.

EBEBRATT-Ed

1

Re: Packing Heat

Perfect is the enemy of good enough. The goal isn't to use zero grid but minimize it since it is expensive. With your costly power, even an oversized zero export setup where you waste some solar has a good ROI. With a bit of home automation, you can set the heat pump to run when you have extra PV and try to coast through peaks.

You can also install an oversized resistance tank with a diversion controller to capture the excess PV. These are very common item overseas but are now some available here as well.

Some car chargers also have the option to monitor load and can throttle back if the sun is not shining.

Kaos

1

Oil Burner Tools

To All the Old timers who worked on oil burners what are some old tools that you have or had that you used specifically for troubleshooting oil burners. I.E: Osv tool or oil line watcher, on watch or even inline gauges. I work on quite a bit of oil burners in commercial space it’s crazy how the old stuff seems to work the best.

Jalen_Jalen2006

2

Radiant Therapy.....

Working summers since age 9, 8 years of tackle football, 5 years of rugby, 40 years of Plumbing & yanking boiler sections up & out of basements takes it toll…Usually don't sleep well or more than a few hours at a clip.

This morning at 3am I plunked down on the mudroom floor with a pillow & blanket with my trusty GSHP Tillman & slept like a baby for 3.5 hours!!

Hot bath without the jacuzzi...Mad Dog

Mad Dog_2

2

Re: Radiant Therapy.....

There are claims that properly grounding the body while you sleep can help with a lot of health issues. I get adds for grounding pads regularly, but haven’t really looked into it.

Maybe there’s something to it?

Ironman

3

Re: Replacing an old/inefficient oil burner with...an oil burner (?) Or...?

Gut feeling: based on your two choices, the Peerless. But I agree with @Ironman about the Buderus over the Peerless. I am looking at the age of the occupants of the home and regardless of the cost to operate the Peerless has all the regular parts that every oil burner repair man can easily make work.

Assumptions:

You need to replace it for a legitimate reason. (not just to get a new more efficient system.)
You want the system to last at least 20 years (you can expect 30+ years)
You need something that is easy to maintain
The age of the occupants precludes DIY service
The price of the system and/or the oil is not an issue

In other circumstances, I would go with System 2000. The lower cost of operation will outshine any cast iron boiler with standard oil burner controls Also I like the Buderus Oil Fired boilers better than the Peerless

As far as a GreenStar, I like them also, however there are parts and systems on the boiler that require special knowledge, parts and training to get the maintenance and some repairs completed properly. The life expectancy may be less than 20 years putting the possibility of a replacement being needed during the time frame of your occupancy. And at a time when you are much older and less able to deal with that situation.