Wall vented oil boiler

ScottSecor

I have a family friend (Mike) that lives in the most rural section of Sussex County, NJ (yes we have rural areas here). He just built a new 1000 square foot home on his property and did not want the added cost of a chimney. Six months ago he told me he was going to install an oil fired warm air furnace. Yesterday he called asking who makes a oil fired hot water boiler that can be wall vented.

Admittedly, we install very few oil boilers these days as the area has changed over almost exclusively to natural gas the last thirty years. Mike is totally against propane and there will likely never be natural gas on his dead end dirt road street in the middle of nowhere. Mike also has a brand new roughly 400 gallon double wall Roth oil tank ready to go.

I am somewhat familiar with the Weil McLain and Peerless lines. As far as I can tell the W/M is less than ideal for numerous reasons, including they are grossly oversized and not really designed to be vented through the wall. Not that I plan on servicing the unit as he lives 1.5 hours away so reliability is key. I think a small indirect for Mike and his wife is also a good idea for dhw needs.

I have not seen the house plans in over a year, but I'm guessing the heating load is around 25,000 to maybe 30,000 btu for this one story cathedral ceiling with full basement home.

I'm hoping the HH team can come up with a oil boiler that is readily available, easy to service and get parts and can be vented through a basement wall without too much difficulty.

Thank you for your input,
Scott

Steamhead

@ScottSecor , I think the smallest oil-fired boiler you're going to find is the Burnham MPO-IQ84, with a net rating of 64 MBH. You would have to use a sidewall power vent unit to exhaust it. If the design load is that much smaller, a buffer tank or reverse indirect might be needed.

If anyone knows of a smaller one than this, I'm listening.

STEVEusaPA

Practically every newer boiler/furnace, especially those with Riello burners can be direct vented through the wall. The ones that can't can usually work with a power venter.
Proper sizing to the actual heat loss should be the first, main consideration.
Here's an awesome boiler...
https://energykinetics.com/90-resolute_multi-fuel_boiler/

GBart

Aye he said "I have not seen the house plans in over a year, but I'm guessing the heating load is around 25,000 to maybe 30,000 btu for this one story cathedral ceiling with full basement home."

No guessing, try to ensure they size it properly.

http://www.loadcalc.net/

Terry O

Steamhead said:

@ScottSecor , I think the smallest oil-fired boiler you're going to find is the Burnham MPO-IQ84, with a net rating of 64 MBH. You would have to use a sidewall power vent unit to exhaust it. If the design load is that much smaller, a buffer tank or reverse indirect might be needed.

If anyone knows of a smaller one than this, I'm listening.

Steamhead .... FYI.... Biasi offers a direct vent model B10 3 section which has a Net IBR of 53,000 btu - we've sold them for many years... great boilers. Check them out: http://www.qhtinc.com/biasi-products/b-10/

ScottSecor

I'm well versed in performing heat loss calcs and plan on doing a formal calculation to determine the hwbb sizing as necessary.

With a reasonably built one thousand square foot brand new home (built to code) and a design temperature of 7 degrees I believe ANY new oil boiler will be grossly over-sized for the heating needs.

Ideally, the boiler won't short cycle too often if we incorporate a buffer tank or a reverse indirect (we often use Turbomax for this with pretty good results).

I will look at the three models you guys suggested. Any experience with any of these three from Peerless?

https://www.peerlessboilers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/CatLit_WB90_webRev1_1017.pdf

https://www.peerlessboilers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/CatLit_WV-DV_webRev1_1017.pdf

https://www.peerlessboilers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/CatLit_PinnOil_web.pdf

Thank you,
Scott

Robert O'Brien

WDV has been very reliable. Did quite a few Pinnacle Oil also, no problems either. No experience with WB90

lchmb

Just did a Buderus direct vent. Fired with a .50 nozzle. Whisper quiet and very easy set up with a riello..