Suggestions on efficiency

mass_biker

After lots of reading on this excellent site we made the decision to switch out an inefficient oil fired system (probably 40+ years old) to a new high efficiency Buderus gas furnace. This new furnace fires a hot water system in our fairly large 100+ year old Victorian. To handle the new furnace, we had to run a new (bigger) gas line from BGE to fire this furnace - when they switched out the old meter and put in a new one our gas usage reading went up - way up. They have switched the meter out once again (I asked them to check to see if it was reading incorrectly - let's assume it is).



In any case, for our home - with 4 people, many zones, and hot water heater, radiators, washer/dryer etc., despite running it fairly cool (thermostat is set or low/mid 60s), daily therm usage is 20+.



Any suggestions on improving efficiency?



Some suggestions I have received so far:



- insulating pipes in the basement

- insulating basement joists etc. where possible [DONE]

- capping chimneys



Anything else?

Gordy

New install efficiency

What efficiency is the new boiler?



Does the new boiler have a higher btu input than the old oil boiler? If it is bigger then why was this choice made by the installer?

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Are you heating your domestic hot water with the boiler?





Obviously your gas bill will go up because now you have added another gas fired appliance to the list of ones you already have.



Your gas line size was increased to handle the full input of all gas appliances firing at the same time hopefully. It could be possible the old gas line was not big enough for what you had before installing the new boiler, and your dryer, water heater, and what ever else was running on gas was not firing to its full input potential, and now they are.



With all that aside 20 therms, or 2,000,000 btus a day is very high. That's 83,000 btus an hour average. Are you sure your reading the meter correctly?



Was this a billed reading? If so was it estimated?



So how many square feet is the house?



New boiler input rating? Not output.



Water heater btu rating, and size?



Dryer rating?



Is there a gas stove, oven if so btu rating?



Has the house been insulated?



Are you keeping the thermostats at a set point, or are you adjusting up, and down.

Was a heat loss done by the boiler installer? If so what was the total heat loss?

SWEI

heat loss

calculation would be the first place to start.  Then look at therms per degree day.  Where are you located?



Pictures of the new boiler and surrounding piping including the flue will help.