on demand/indirect/regular hot water heater

jonny88

i am doing an oil to gas conversion.my budget wont allow for a condensind boiler.im going for a atmospheric burnham boiler.i thought it would be a good idea to pair this with an on demand water heater.a member here gave me another option of going with an indirect water heater.any thoughts,im also open to a ao smith high recovery water heater.any more opinions would be greatly apreciated

Tim McElwain

Which Burnham

boiler as an ES2 has the option of a plug and play feature for indirect?

Unknown

electric damper

on fluepipe? I think Field Controls patented their model yrs ago= would lower standby heatloss

jonny88

burnham es2

thanks for replying,i did watch a presentation on that boiler and was really impressed.i have not checked into the cost of it yet but it really looked like a well designed boiler,they even had a feature to plug in a lwco.i was not sure how the unit got vented,i have to do more homework,but do you think this unit is a good choice,electronics scare me

James Day_2

condensing boiler

I would look into a condensing boiler again. If you are going from oil to gas, you will are probably going to have to reline your chimney.  If you have natural gas in your area most utilities are giving rebates on high efficiency equipment.  It might not be as expensive as you think.     James

VictoriaEnergy

Depends on water use

On demand water heaters work OK for houses with few people who typically use a single hot water appliance at a time.  If you have a busy family, you may be frustrated by water temp variations, in that case, an indirect would be a better choice.



You may want to consider the additional savings of higher efficiency equipment often will cover the intrest expense if you finance the difference.  Cost it out carefully both ways, and then decide. 

TonyS

Indirects on a cast iron boiler

Remember, every time your boiler fires to satisfy the indirect and then sits there losing heat until the next call. lbs of water x degrees= btus lost per hour. This can be less than 1 degree an hour through the indirect( MULTIPLY THIS BY HOURS IN A YEAR ) and the heat lost from the water in the boiler and the piping and the heat in the cast iron(about half the specific heat of water per lb.) This is a substantial amount of heat loss.

On the other hand an Tankless unit has no standby loss. When you turn off the hot water the gas turns off and stays off until you turn the hot water back on.

I personally like the Navien A model with a 2 liter storage tank. It does away with cold water sandwiches and having to wait any longer than a tank type to get hot water.