1960 hydronic heat system, residential

Earl Roy

Our home was built in 1960. It is a split level with a flat roof design(1-1/2 inch per foot slope) and has two loops. The boiler is a Federal, by Federal Boiler Co., Inc, Midland Park, NJ, model # GFS-12, Ser. # 2681, input-125000btu, output-100000btu, net output-87500btu. The fin tube radiators are properly sized, i.e., there are no hot or cold rooms at 0 deg. F. I installed Honeywell Chronotherm IV Plus thermostats three years ago. I manually adjust the boiler temperature higher as the outside temperature falls, starting at 140 deg for outside temp of 60 deg/40 deg and moving to 180 deg for 20 deg and below. I realize that this a bit hit and miss. My questions :

Does it make sense to change out the boiler, i.e., what is the ROI? I presume that a new boiler would include a boiler reset control(?).

Shawn Woodrow

Earle
If you put an outdoor reset on it you could gain a little more efficency. But replacing it you could probably gain a fair amount of efficency if the new boiler is sized properly or better yet if you have a Mod/Con boiler installed.

jp_2

INsulation

they didn't insulate much in the 60's, I was -2 yrs old then, but I know not much was done in the 70's.

I'd put that $5,000 into insulation first, then work on the boiler with whats left!