Electric Boilers for hydronic heating

ross moore

Does anyone feel comfortable using electric boilers for hydronic heating?

hot_rod

sure

if that is the best fuel source to use. Most of the major boiler manufacturers offer steel or cast iron electric boilers. Other manufacturers like ElectroMN offer small electric boilers with some control logic built in like an outdoor reset function.



Electric boilers are common in areas with low KWH electric rates. They are used in dual fueled systems to take advantage of low off-peak electric rates.



hr

SpeyFitter

Why not?

Electric boilers definately have a place in hydronics - what I like about them is they are about as simple as it gets to install and only require one pump (unless they are serving as back up for multiple loads or heaitng multiple applications) due to the lower head loss, plus many of them have basic controls, some with outdoor reset and staged elements.

Where I prefer them is in small applications - say 20,000 BTUH's or less. There are some companies that produce some nice boilers in this range, some as small as 3500 BTUHs (1 KW), which might be all someone needs for a few loops of radiant or a panel rad or something.

They also serve well as back up or auxillary heat source for other more efficient equipment such as a geothermal heat pump, or hell, even a mod-con boiler if you're so inclined if you were worried about it going down for some reason.

And of course in areas where natural gas isn't available and propane, oil, and electricity are comparable in price they will be more popular.

One of my pet peeves about electric boilers is,  when I show up and find one rigged up to heat an indirect.  The way I see it, this is kind of a waste - might as well just use an electric hot water tank in this application.

Generally, electric boilers aren't as popular as gas boilers gas being much cheaper, and on top of that, in the larger sizes you won't need to upgrade your house service to run a gas boiler.

ross moore

electric boiler manufacture recommendation

Any recommendations in the 300 - 600 MBH range?

zacmobile

thats a big boiler

that's 175 KW and 730 Amps! I for one am not aware of anyone who makes an electric boiler this big, the largest I have seen from most manufacturers is around  30 KW. You may have to look at staging multiple ones, which would be a better way to go anyway I would think.

Paul Rohrs_14

Lochinvar

That is right up our alley.  See attached PDF.

Let me know if I can help further.

Paul

burky1957

Electro Industries

Electro makes electric boilers from 3,800 BTU (1.1 KW) to 1,023,900 BTU (300 KW).

120 volts to 600 volts. 

Check them out at www.electromn.com