Oil-to-gas conversion Portland Maine

KTS_Maine

Greetings! I'm a newbie here (which will soon be obvious). The Dan Holohan books helped give me confidence to buy my 1908 house in Portland two years ago. I have oil-fired one-pipe steam. Love the radiators, some of which I've had sandblasted and repainted. The Boiler is labeled Texaco Fuel Chief, Model FCS6500 with a net IBR rating of 139.100 and is fired by a Carlin Suntec A2VA-7116. The system has been working fine, but oil is expensive and the oil technician dates the boiler to the 1970's.

I'm looking for contractors in the area to convert me from oil to natural gas, I'm already a gas customer. There are three contractors (whom I have contacted or tried to contact) who are listed within 50 miles of Portland, but none in town, which seems funny to me. So my questions are: Anyone else I should call for an estimate? Would it ever make sense or even be possible to retain the boiler but replace the oil-burning gun with a gas one?

Thanks!

SWEI

Start here

http://www.heatinghelp.com/article/236/For-Homeowners/1490/How-to-have-a-boiler-replaced-without-getting-steamed

Rod

Steam Pro near Portland,ME

Hi-   Steam Pros in Maine are hard to find. The closest one I know to you is:

Ken Viger

K&J Heating, Inc

168 Lewiston Rd

Gray, ME

04039

(207) 415-0873

 Other people from the Wall have used him and have been very satisfied.

- Rod

 

vaporvac

Small world!

Wow! Small world. My Dad lives just outside of Gray @Sabbathday Lake! Steamers unite!

I know this isn't helpful to this post, but not too many people live in Gray (or Portland for that matter).

Jamie Hall

Cheer up...

not all that many people even know where Gray is!  I used to have a cabin on Norway Lake, and drove through Gray on my way to get there... and past Sabbathday Lake, for that matter!

SWEI

or Readfield

up on Maranacook, where my grandparents had their summer place (camp, as they called it.)

KTS_Maine

Thanks but...

Thanks Rod for the name in Lewiston.

Thanks SWEI for the starting point. Although a newbie to this site, I've studied the "Lost Art" and "Got Steam Heat" texts in pretty fine detail. I'd certainily recommend those books to anyone in my situation!

If anyone else has answers to my two initial questions, just post 'em!

JeffM

possible, but...

It's possible in theory to replace an oil burner with a gas one on many boilers, but given the age of yours I don't think most would recommend it. I made such a change on my boiler last year, but it's less than ten years old so made sense to continue operating it (and not have to re-pipe for a new boiler). With a boiler over 30 years old that has unknown maintenance history, you're probably best off just starting with a new boiler.

KTS_Maine

Sensible

Thanks JeffM, that makes good sense.

Steamhead

Depending on who actually made that boiler

for Texaco, it could be newer than that. I seem to remember these were re-branded Dunkirk or Utica boilers.



Anyway, if you put a gas burner in and the boiler goes up in a few years, you can probably transfer the burner to a new boiler. We've done that.

KTS_Maine

makers of Texaco-labelled boilers

Thanks Steamhead, I've been told that Burnham and Dunkirk made boilers branded as Texaco Fuel Chief. I'll add Utica to that.

OK, I'm sort of back to the beginning, needing a consultation with an expert or two!