Home Owner

Bo

I am renovating a new ranch in north west corner of NJ.  I would like to replace the old oil fired boiler with a high efficiency propane gas fired boiler.  Looking to use 9 zones, including one for potable water and radiant flooring heat.

Can someone recommend a boiler?

Jean-David Beyer

I, too, am a homeowner, ...

..., not a contractor, near Red Bank, NJ. While I could tell you what I have (a mod|con that burns natural gas), I have no experience with any other boilers other than the old GE oil burner that was around 55 years old.



But instead of recommending any particular brand, I would suggest making a big effort to finding a qualified heating contractor, and relying on his recommendations. The reason for that is that he is probably the one who will be doing the annual maintenance, as well as any emergencies. And the one he is most familiar with and has gotten the best results with, and the one whose manufacturer and wholesaler provide the best service, is what you probably should have.



As far as high efficiency is concerned, I am all for that, and was willing to pay for it. But if all you are doing is changing the boiler, it might even be that a mod|con is not for you. It is what I picked, but I have radiant heat in the slab downstairs and I had some toy radiators upstairs. I call them toy because they were a metal case with 3 feet of fin-tube baseboard in it. And they never provided enough heat. Based on my heat loss calculation, I had the toy radiators replaced by 14 feet of Slant/Fin in each of the two rooms. With that, I have gone through one winter with the supply temperature into the Slant/Fin never exceeding 135F, and I do not think it ever went that high.



9 zones seems a lot. I have three: one for domestic hot water, one for downstairs, and one for upstairs. Zoning the downstairs for more zones is theoretically possible, but the two largest rooms (kitchen and living room) have no door between them, so they might as well be a single zone. I adjust the bedroom downstairs by closing the valve in the manifold part way; similarly for the room where I have 2 computers, though that one has the valve closed down almost all the way. Upstairs, the baseboard is in series, so I would have to rip up the floors to change the piping if I wanted more zones up there. I was not willing to do that.

Tim McElwain

It depends on

your budget. Are you looking to go High Efficiency 90% (Modulating & Condensitng) or higher? Or are you looking for mid efficiency?