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Electric boilers

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DD_5
DD_5 Member Posts: 36
in THE MAIN WALL
I'm looking at two different brands of electric boilers....Thermolec and Electro Industries. Any opinions/experience out there about electric boilers?

This will replace an oil burning boiler. No existing buffer tank. Zone valves. One circ pump. thermo mixing valve to temper water at infloor low temp zone. Copper baseboard on the high temp side.

The client wants electric. There is no option for natural gas and he doesn't want propane.

There's plenty of room in his panel for the amp draw. This one will require a 60 and a 30 amp breaker...
Double D

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  • SpeyFitter
    SpeyFitter Member Posts: 422
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    Thermolec

    I'm partial to the thermolec just because I've installed a few in the past. You can also get them in stainless steel (heat exchanger) which should contribute to lasting longer. They also have a built in outdoor reset and a pump relay (you only really need one pump due to the low loss heat exchanger). The thing I love about electric boilers is they are about as simple as it gets for controls, plus they cost next to nothing (in the grand scheme of hydronic heating equipment). The cost to run them on the other hand.....
    Class 'A' Gas Fitter - Certified Hydronic Systems Designer - Journeyman Plumber
  • DD_5
    DD_5 Member Posts: 36
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    energy conversions exactly....

    You're pretty much summing up my experience. I've installed a couple and serviced a couple of Thermolecs. I like them and there's good support as well.



    The elephant in the boiler room is energy use. The folks who want electric boilers do it because they want to get off the fossil fuels. Leaving out the question of what the utility supplying the electric power is using to run their turbines...coal...natural gas...hydro etc,  I want to give them some sort of an answer other than 'electric can cost just as much or more'...

    are there software solutions to this energy design issue?
    Double D
  • NRT_Rob
    NRT_Rob Member Posts: 1,013
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    you're looking for

    heat pumps, unless you live in an area with cheap electricity. See: geothermal, air to water, etc.



    at least, until oil doubles in price, that's the deal. In very low load homes in the running cost may not be important either. but for a typical home in a typical heating climate with typical electric rates... no way.
    Rob Brown
    Designer for Rockport Mechanical
    in beautiful Rockport Maine.
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