Replacing old oil boiler

JEFF5255

I'm considering replacing my existing oil fired boiler vintage 1956

I'm looking for some help deciding on whether to stick with oil or Change to propane, there is no natural gas available.

I have the opportunity to buy a 3 year old oil fired Buderus for $1,000 (Riello burner)

And currently have a working bock indirect

My other option I was thinking about was going with a Navien NCB COMBI (LP)

Which would raise the upfront cost by at least a couple thousand $$

Can anyone tell me what the true advantage is between a good oil fired boiler (Buderus) an a higher efficiency condensing lp boiler (Navien)

What are the possible projected savings

Any other suggestions would be welcome

Thanks

Jeff

JEFF5255

Switching from Oil to propane

Im currently paying $3.49/gal for oil

Propane is running around $3.79/gal

JStar

Boiler

I would stick with oil. Buderus makes some very nice systems that can get you into the 90%+ efficiency range, that run as clean as natural gas.

SWEI

What are your electric rates like?

http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/heatcalc.xls is worth a few minutes of your time.

icesailor

Short Bus Math:

Some of us rode the short bus to school. Advanced math isn't our strong suit. Some of us have to figure out abstract things by using basic examples. Here is the one I came up a long time ago to help in understanding the quandary.

When you buy fuel, no matter what it is, you buy BTU's. For the simple among us, lets call one BTU a penny ($.01) or one cent. There are 139,000 BTU's in a gallon of #2 heating oil.

There are 91,000 BTU's in a gallon of Liquefied Petroleum Gas or LP Propane.

Lets take two one gallon buckets.

One holds 139,000 pennies that equal the BTU content of a gallon of #2 Fuel Oil.

One holds 91,000 Pennies that equal the BTU content of a gallon of LP Gas.

Which bucket do you want?

(Hint: I never installed a gas replacement boiler.:

RobG

Size?

I understand that you can get the Buderus at a good price however is it the right size (or can it be fired) to match the heat loss of the home?



Rob

icesailor

Obsessions:

I'm always amazed at the obsessions some have over getting the perfectly sized boiler for a structure/home, but drive automobiles with 6+ times more HP then they will ever need.

My 2001 BMW 325XI wagon gets 28 MPG on the highway at 70+ MPH. But is lucky to get 17 MPG in city stop and go traffic. According to the computer, my average speed is 18+ MPH in traffic around the city.

My work van got better mileage when new and before I filled it up with many unnecessary tools. I had two identical vans. One loaded with unnecessary tools, the other I just drove from my house to the airport. Guess which truck got 3 MPG more than the other. Compute that over 100,000 miles and tell me about cost.

Maybe I should shut off my BMW when stopped at stop lights, Fluck the guys behind with their horns and impatience for not leaving the stop light like a top fuel dragster when the tree turns green.

JEFF5255

Converting oil to propane gas

Thank you all for your comments

Appreciate your input

Jeff

icesailor

Saving Gas:

Modern auto engines are designed to get exhaust temperatures up within 5 minutes. The engine doesn't get cold during a two minute stop wait.

Trip computers in modern automobiles calculate MPG's on the time the engine is running and the engine RPM. Its not an easy calculation between MPH and MPG. One is based on the time the engine us running and how fast it is revolving, the other by distance traveled.

If you have a modern car with engine computer control management, reset it all to zero. Drive 60 MPH on a highway for 10 minutes. Note the MPG and average speed traveled since the last re-set. It should be around 60 MPH. Stop the car and leave it idling for ten or minutes. The MPG and the MPH/speed average will go down.

If you take careful note of your gasoline usage, you will discover that there is a significant savings if you keep your fuel tank full and don't let it get below 1/2 than if you run it out and keep it half full. The gasoline in a 1/2 to empty tank evaporates more gasoline than a full tank. The gasoline vapors are pulled into the engine intake where it is mixed with incoming air and burned.

If you drive 100,000 miles and get 20 MPG, you use 5,000 gallons of gasoline. If you can save 1 MPG on the 100,000 miles, it is 21 MPG and you use 4762 gallons of gasoline. You save 238 gallons of gasoline. At $3.75 per gallon, it's almost $900.00. Some people don't make that much bidding on a job where $50.00 too high looses you the job.

Don't leave your engine running when you're in the supply house or in the donut shop getting coffee and donuts.

OBTW, some of those NASCAR drivers, when racing and need to conserve gas, will slip the transmission out of gear and shut off the engine  when decelerating. It must be an effective strategy or they wouldn't do it.