Peerless or Burnahm

FJ

I have a gas-fired steam boiler that kicked the bucket. I have a plumber who wants to put in a Burnham IN-5 (358 sq feet of steam) and a plummer who wants to put in a Peerless 63 series (63-05LSPRK-SPN). My house is 1,600 square feet. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks :)

David Nadle

Google "radiator EDR chart." Measure the height of each radiator and count the number of sections, then find the matching radiator type in the EDR chart and determine the square feet of radiation. Sum all the radiators EDRs.

Make sure the boiler you have installed is close to the total EDR. If it's too big you'll be wasting fuel. If it's too small you'll have cold radiators.

If either plumber didn't walk through the house measuring radiators -- keep looking!

Unknown

David's advice is right on the money! If the guy doesn't carefully measure your radiators and make the calculations, he doesn't know what he's doing. Here's an article of Dan's on boiler replacement that might help you.

https://www.heatinghelp.com/newsletter.cfm?Id=130

I'd also get Dan's books(See "A Steamy Deal" at the bottom of this page) They will tell you how to do the calculations yourself. They're easy reading and will give you the information your need to make sure your plumber does a good correct installation. Steam heating is a simple easy system but you have to understand the principles and a lot of people that call themselves "heating pros" don't understand steam. There's a lot more to it than just connecting "A" to "B". Dan's books helped me to straighten out my steam system but I just wish I'd read them before I had the boiler replaced as I would have saved myself a lot of headaches and money.

You mentioned that both plumbers recommended a make/model of boiler. Before you make a decision I'd also read the installation manual for the boiler /model that the installer recommends for myself so you're familiar with what to expect.(You can usually download them from the boiler manufacturer's website.)

rich on heat

the peerless make a whole lot

more steam than the Burnham. The Peerless makes 533 sq ft. I recall reading somewhere that houses built in the steam era used ~50 BTU/hr/sq.ft for a typical heat loss to size the radiation. 1600 sq ft x 50BTU/hr/sq ft = 80,000 BTU/hr. Going by that rule-of-thumb, he Burnham would seem to be the better choice, however I agree with the above posts regarding sizing the boiler only after measuring the EDR.

BTW, some knucklehead put a way-oversized, 210,000 BTU Peerless in my 1500 sq. ft. house (and installed the near-boiler piping poorly), and I'm paying the price for these mistakes with bad performance and higher fuel bills

GW

I dig Peerless

Tnere is a lot of water in those boilers. Compare the water capacity for both.

Ask you plumber to install two risers. Perhaps the specs will already call for it, but you'd be surprised how many plumbers/heating guys can'r read!!

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Mad Dog_2

All the advice is sound

Both boiler's are America's best. For gas/steam, Burnham cannot be beat. Mad Dog

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