Which is a better boiler, natural gas or oil burning?

chapchap70_2

There are some residential boilers that work with both oil and natural gas/propane. If venting is installed up to oil equipment codes, it should be sufficient for natural gas and propane as well with minor changes. If the boiler is initially set up for one fuel, it can be changed by having a qualified person switch burners so it burns the other fuel and hooking up to the other fuel source.

As to which fuel is better; It depends. I think there are defenders of both fuels here that may respond. I personally would not choose to have natural gas or propane in my house unless heating oil got prohibitively expensive.

MP70416

Which is a better boiler, natural gas or oil burning?

Can you tell which one is the best overall to have and the reasons why.

Steamhead (in transit)

Here's an example

the Solaia SL375, in two different installations our company has done. The first pic is oil-fired, the second pic is the exact same basic boiler but equipped with a power gas burner. All Solaia boilers have this option available from the factory. The boiler itself is based on a Biasi design. Unfortunately Solaia doesn't market a steam boiler, but Smith does with its 8 series that is available from the factory for oil or gas firing. I don't have any 8 series pics yet.

Another advantage of this type of boiler is its "wet base", which means the flame is almost completely surrounded by cast iron that has water on the other side. The typical gas boiler using atmospheric burners, on the other hand, has the firing area completely below the cast-iron sections. Considerable heat is lost from the base of that type of boiler.

Interestingly enough, the AFUE ratings don't acknowledge the difference- DOE thinks the lost heat is usable within the house, drafty basements notwithstanding. I think any heat leaking out of the boiler that doesn't make it to the radiators is wasted. For this reason, and also the easy changeover capability, we recommend wet-base boilers with power gas burners to our customers who wish to burn gas.

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Brad White_9

It depends

If you are dealing with a low-temperature system (condensing, Mod-Con especially), gas is the only real choice at this time. Yes, there are condensing oil boilers, few and far between and those require lower sulphur fuel than may be available local to you.

Nothing gets the heat out of burning gas like a mod-con.

If you are running a higher temperature system (water temperatures returning above 140 routinely or a steam system), I would go with oil. No sense in wasting the possibly recoverable latent heat of gas when you will be operating above the dewpoint anyway.

As for cost between the two, they fluctuate and tend to settle near each other eventually, with each making a statement now and then.

My $0.02,

Brad

mtfallsmikey

Steamhead: why?

Are there two barometric dampers on the flue of the Banz?

Steamhead (in transit)

That chimney

rises four stories and is powerful enough to pull small children all the way up. We had to get the draft down!

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