Considerations for water boiler placement question

Couderay

Moving a boiler is not the end of the world but probably more costly. If the location of the existing boiler is okay too you, by all means, leave it there. Again the variables are many,chances are ,going with a mod con your near boiler piping might have to be redone and therefore moving your boiler might be a blessing in disguise.With out looking at your system too hard to make this call.

Susan_12

Water boiler placement

I'm in the process of looking for a replacement gas-fired water boiler. I've had a couple of plumbers review my
current setup already and offer me options. Now I have the
questions.

Our current boiler is using a gas conversion burner
since it's originally an oil burning boiler. The boiler
sits in our basement next to the chimney which is near
center of our house.
We're looking at buying a more efficient gas boiler with
direct venting. Although we have the chimney available,
I've been told by several plumbers and by a representative
from our natural gas company, that direct venting out a
side wall is the safer alternative even though I will have
to consider snow removal away from the vent.

Now the decision comes to system placement. I can
either have the new system placed where the current system
is which means that all the plumbing for the loops will
be right there. I'll just need new piping from this
near-center location to an outside wall -- about 13 feet away.
One plumber has recommended the Weil-McLain GV-6 model
(which I'm getting the impression is much bigger than
I should need for my 2500sf home) and placing it against
the outside wall. This would require adding additional
copper piping from the new boiler location to the points
nearly above where there current boiler sits (13 ft away).
But the thicker piping work to the outside will be shorter
and won't be overhead.

The other plumber is recommending a Weil-McLain Ultra
model which vents using PVC pipe. He'd put this new
boiler in the same location as the current system so there
wouldn't be any new lengths of copper piping added to any
of the 3 zone loops, but I would have PVC pipe going
overhead for that 13 feet.

I don't mind the overhead piping. This is a utility
area. With these more efficient systems, I'm expecting
that the heat they exhaust should be limited so no one
would get burned. (Is this true?)

I'm under the impression (perhaps, falsely), that the
price to place the boiler in a new location which requires
new plumbing is increasing the installation cost more
than if the new boiler was set up in the original location.

I'm hoping someone could explain the reasons why I
should or shouldn't move my boiler location and is it
reasonable to think that the installation costs should be
less if the boiler stays in the original location?

Thanks for your feedback,
Susan

[Deleted User]

boiler location

Has either of your plumbers done a heat loss calculation? If you do not care about the pvc piping running over head i would put it in the same location to avoid moving any of the copper piping. If you go with the ultra make sure that your contractor has experience installing these boilers. It is to easy to install one of these boilers improperly and cause alot of headaches.

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