Weil McClain conversion

Nick1696

Hi,

First I am new to the wall and I have not bought any books yet although I intend to after bouncing around and reading a few threads here. So bear with my ignorance/misuse of proper terminology. I have a 3 family home originally built in 1880 in New Jersey. I do not live in the home. I had a Weil McClain boiler put in around 10 years ago with a new tank also. I have be getting slaughtered in heating cost over the past few years and I am looking to convert over to Natural Gas. There is natural gas existing in the mechanical room. The model is an A/B SGO-6(W) I spoke with Carlin a few weeks back and they said they have a burner (correct term?) that will bolt right up to my boiler. I have a plumber who did a conversion for my father last year and I think I am comfortable with him doing the conversion. My questions (to start) are do you guys like Carlin, Riello, or Wayne Home Equipment? Weil McClain said they have no problem with me having another burner installed and told me to contact Wayne for product. I will get some pictures posted also so you can maybe critique the overall installation as well, but it looks pretty tight. I have NO insulation on the pipes currently as all the original asbestos insulation was abated years ago and never replaced...That will be my fall project, getting the pipes insulated which I am sure will help. Also,Due to the age of the house I am sure that at one point coal was used as a heat source. If this was the case, am I probably looking at a chimney liner or no?

crash2009

Hi Nick,

 I don't know much about good burners and bad burners, so I won't be much help there.  I have done a lot of reading around here on the subject of converting from oil to gas.  From what I've read, it appears that even if you get the burner and chimney liner for free, you will be not much (in dollars) ahead.  If you compare $5 of oil to $5 of gas, you get more heat (btu's) from the oil.  It likely depends where you are though. 



There are many other ways to reduce your fuel cost, that cost a lot less.  These other ways will be things you will have to do anyway.  Whether you burn oil or gas, the insulation needs to be done, improve your venting, both in the mains and on the rads, get the pressure right, and clean the boiler water.  These little things will save you the most money.  Pick the lowest hanging fruit first.  If it turns out that these little things are not enough, then throw some big bucks at fuel type if you have to.

Jean-David Beyer

If you compare $5 of oil to $5 of gas, ...

"If you compare $5 of oil to $5 of gas, you get more heat (btu's) from the oil.  It likely depends where you are though. "



I think it must depend a lot on where you are. Where I am in New Jersey, my August gas bill came to $1.2734 per therm, so $5.00 worth of gas would come to 3.92 therms or 392,000 BTU. I do not know current fuel oil prices, but I paid almost $4.00 a gallon three years ago. The last time I bought gasoline, it was over $3.90 a gallon and oil and gasoline prices track pretty well around here, so $5.00 would get me 1.25 gallons or 173,750 BTU if I calculated rignt. So with equal efficiency heating systems, natural gas is way cheaper than oil around here (assuming I guessed somewhere near right on oil prices).