What did I do?

JMG

Well my old Capitol oil fired steam (two pipe steam) boiler finally went up in flames (literally). My house is circa 1915 and 4200 square feet. My wife wanted to convert the new boiler to gas ( we have gas to the house for the hot water heater). Got a bunch of quotes , they measured up my radiators which are 811 square feet of radiation. All the quotes were for a 340,000 -350,000 btu boiler, chose a Weil Mclain EGH 85. Well I was down in my basement last nite and heard a weird noise, it was the gas meter spinning like crazy. I never noticed this before is this normal? Is this because of my new boiler? I guess I'm in for a shock of a gas bill.

Mark N

EGH-85

Thats a big boiler.  349,000 btuh input.  Every hour of run time that boiler will use 3.5 therms of gas. 

Mark

Paul Fredricks_3

ah

Isn't it EDR x 240 = BTU's? That would make it just under 200,000 BTU for the boiler size. Is the rest pick up factor? Seems like a lot.

Mark N

EGH-85

The EGH-85 is rated for 875 sq.ft EDR. Don't forget about the difference between input and gross output the boiler is 80% efficient.

alcraig

follow up on gas bill

Just curious Mark...how did you end up on your gas bill as compared to your old oil system? Are you paying more with gas now? My house measures the same and I've been contemplating converting to gas. Your post title makes it sound like it was a mistake.

Unknown

Converting to gas

If you convert to gas I'd take a look at Steamhead's recommendation for gas fired boilers. What he says makes a lot of sense. - Rod

Mark N

Gas Usage

Algraig, I'm not the original poster. I converted from oil to gas on 12/12/2008. I think it was a great choice for me. From 12/12/2008 until 5/8/2009 my total usage was 570.65 therms. My gas usage before converting was on avg 33.5 therms/ month. By my math I used 409 therms for heating from 12/12/2008 until 5/8/2009. It ran me like $610 for heating. The 3 years prior to converting I was using about $1200 worth of oil. It's hard to compare because a new oil boiler would have been much more efficient than my old one. My boiler is 105kbtuh input.



Mark



Mark

jpf321

where to look?

Rod --



I've gotten pretty good at searching the wall and for particular users posts, but where should I look for steadhead's reco's?

Unknown

Gas Boiler Recommendations

Here's the link you need. http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/128707/We-Got-Hot-Water-Heat#p1182282   These are wet based boilers.

(Also -Note the use of copper on the returns as we were discussing earlier) 

- Rod

jpf321

oh pretty ...

thanks for the link Rod .. i'm envious of all the Cu .. but I think the upper pictures the Cu is used for a hot-water loop .. the bottom most (currently) picture I believe has Cu return .. perhaps Steamhead would clarify and perhaps he has more Cu return pics he would share ...

Steamhead

Right

In the upper pic, the G-8 also feeds a hot-water basement loop. That's what the extra piping and aquastat are for.



I think all those pictured boilers use copper wet returns.



And thanks for the kind words!