New boiler or status quo

Chester

Hi All: I'm helping a neighbor with a heating system decision. Her situation is:

Small cape in southern Maine
Heat loss is no greater than 30,000 Btu/hr
Current system is 30+ year old single pipe oil-fired steam
200 gal. oil tank in questionable condition with difficult access for getting a new one in the basement
Only used 200 gallons of oil during 14/15 winter
Supplements with stand-alone pellet stove
Stand-alone 40 gal. electric HW
Natural gas being installed on our street this summer

The home's not uncomfortable and it doesn't seem like she'd see any kind of payback based on her current fuel use, but she'd still like to convert to gas if she can (budget-wise). She's been told she can't convert the existing unit to gas and would need to re-pipe and maybe replace radiators whether she sticks with steam (and especially if she goes to hot water). Is there a gas-fired steam option for her relatively small heat load that could use her existing radiators? Or should she just wait until the existing boiler dies of natural causes and keep a close eye on her oil tank?

Also, any suggestions on local contractors in southern Maine that still like steam?

Snowmelt

need pictures, do you have an old tag off old unit, do yo have pic and dementions of rads, then we can give you a better feel of how many Btu's. it would go by rad sizes. I just looked up union steam. 75,000 BTU seem to be the lowest.

Steamhead

That would be 75,000 BTU Input. Net output rating is 196 square feet EDR or about 47,000 BTU, on the smallest Columbia or Weil-McLain gas steam boiler.

Whoever is pushing a complete tear-out and replacement of the steam system would just be taking their money. Let's see the radiation count and the existing boiler and we'll go from there.

Chester

Thanks for the quick responses. I'll coordinate with my neighbor and see where she wants to go with this.

vaporvac

I'll let the pros comment on the burner/boiler issue, but whoever is advising her doesn't know a thing. I've never heard of a rad that needs re-piping due to a change in fuels. The rad doesn't care what's making the steam. Changing all the lines to accommodate HW is just ridiculous and very expensive to boot. Search "Maine" in The Wall. There are a couple of folks that service steam in that area.. .Aaron comes to mind, but I don't recall if he's another HO or a pro. Where exactly in southern Me. I'm going to be there next week at Sabbathday Lake.

Marz

Although it pains me to say it, if done correctly and i stress correctly, a Carlin, Riello, or now Beckett gas burner can be installed on the boiler. If it were me i would leave it oil at 200 gallons a year. Or install a 3 section Peerless or WM if a new boiler is needed.

Chester

Hi all. Photos attached. I was surprised to see she already has a Beckett oil burner. Not sure if that was on the original boiler or done as an earlier retrofit, but I assume that might make it even easier to do a fuel conversion?

Can you form any opinions on the status of her oil tank based on the pictures? Her concern about the tank is one of the drivers for her interest in converting to natgas.

How do you know when a boiler like this has reached the end of its useful life, anyway?

Vaporvac: thanks for pointing me to Aaron. I've met him and really liked him. The home in question is in Falmouth (ME).

How do you know when a boiler like this has reached the end of its useful life, anyway?

Steamhead

That boiler dates to the late 1960s. That's when American-Standard updated the A-3 into the V-3 series. In the early 1970s, A-S sold their boiler line to Burnham, which manufactured the V-3 for a while longer.

These boilers are built like tanks, and tend to last a long time if properly cared for. They're not the most efficient boilers out there, but not nearly the worst either. We've installed gas burners in these and they run well, though not at best efficiency compared to a completely new boiler. But if money's tight, you can convert this one now, and move the burner to a replacement boiler when it's time.

We would want to know how much radiation is connected to this boiler, to determine if the boiler is oversized for the radiation. Then we'll be able to tell you whether conversion or replacement is the way to go.

Chester

Thanks for the quick response!

Good to know that a fuel conversion is a legitimate option.

Assuming that it has been and will continue to be maintained, (and seems to run fine) does replacing it even deserve serious consideration given that it's a solid boiler and that she's only going through approx. 200 gallons of oil per winter? (She supplements with a pellet stove.) Even if she cut her fuel bill in half it seems like it would take a long time to see any payback. And probably more cost-effective to do some insulation and air-sealing?

Fred

If it were me, I'd be inclined to leave both the boiler and the tank alone. I would guess this HO will get several more years out of it. It's impossible to tell when it might leak but those older boiler can and do last a life time. At 200 gallons of oil a season, she's not going to get any huge savings by converting but when the time comes, that the boiler or tank need to be replaced, that's a sunk cost and a decision can be made at that time, although NG is much more convenient. It's good to find both an oil and a gas boiler that will fit the radiation EDR (as Steamhead suggests) so that it can happen relatively quickly.