what brand to buy?

sparkie

I am going to have to purchase a replacement  gas fired boiler for a single family home. What is the best brand of boiler at this time? Baseboard hot water,2100 sq. ft of living space.   All opinions appreciated   thanks

nicholas bonham-carter

best boiler

first narrow your selection to those boilers distributed by a stocking distributor in your area, and next consult with your heating pro as to what make he is most knowledgeable with.

do a heat loss as well, and then select the percentage of efficiency you would like, bearing in mind that the higher efficiency boilers will need more maintenance than more conventional types. also, your situation with baseboards may or may not be ideal for a condensing boiler.--nbc

Eric_32

Tough one..

That answer above is a good one. There are so many great boilers out there today, you really can't say there's one best boiler out there. I'd do, as mentioned above, see what brands are available to you, and start there.

The supplier can probably drop a couple of names of contractors that install that brand if you can't find one.

We've installed the Lochinvar Knight boiler, Crown Bimini boiler and Triangle Tube Prestige boiler, in recent years, all are good brands and have saved the customer on their utility, but there are several more other great brands out there.

Brad White

Regarding baseboard

Thermal retention properties aside, the key is how much potential radiation output you have at a given temperature versus the heat loss. The type does not matter much until you get to the warmer outside temperatures when your water temperatures would be lowest.



I am not saying that "radiation is radiation" as an absolute, but in essence it is true, in simple terms for discussion purposes.



Once you calculate your heat loss you can also measure your radiation and compare potential output at say, 170F average water temperature, a common rating point. You may find that your insulation. air sealing and new windows, etc. have driven your heat loss to 2/3rds of what it was originally which would ostensibly increase your radiation capacity to a 50% surplus. Thus you can heat your home with cooler water day-one.



Systems designed for use with (and which actually need) 180F water can and do work fine with condensing boilers, provided you use an aggressive outdoor reset (ODR) schedule. Even if you *do* need and produce 180F water on the coldest day -and you may in fact do with less- there are sufficient hours where the water temperatures needed will be within the condensing range to make the payback rational.