How to Make a Boiler Operate Quieter?

nitroracer

First off, I've been using this forum a lot to help diagnose problems and learn how to work with the hot water boiler my new house has. Most of the homes I've lived in previously were forced air and it has been a learning experience. Thanks for being a good resource!

My house is setup with a Burnham V73 boiler and a Beckett AFG oil burner that provides both domestic hot water and base board heat. Now that I have my aquastat working correctly (bad cold solder joints) I am thinking about ways to quite down the system in operation. There seem to be two ways to go about this that I have found so far. One on the inlet air side and one on the exhaust side.

Intake:
I have found both sound covers and air boot kits for drawing in fresh air from the outdoors. Currently, my system makes use of neither.

Beckett 51747 - Air Boot Kit
Beckett 5207301U - Sound Cover

Exhaust:
Adding in a muffler or silencer in the exhaust piping from the system. This seems more generic, and I am assuming they need to be located in the piping before going up my exhaust chimney. My current configuration has a short run from the exhaust outlet to the wall, so I would need to do a little re-work here.

My question is, are any of these ideas good ways to lessen the noise of an operating boiler system? Is there something else I should be looking into first?

Jamie Hall

Any moderately to larger size burner -- oil or gas -- is going to make noise. Can't help it. Some of it will be from the blower(s) and some will be from the flame itself.

The air boot kit and sound cover will help with the noise from the burner's blower. On the exhaust, though, you are not dealing with the pulsing noise of an engine -- which a muffler can reduce -- but with random noise from the combustion itself. That is radiating from the metal breaching -- and from the metal of the boiler. There is a lot of acoustic energy there, and most of it is in pretty low frequencies which are hard to attenuate.

The best suggestion I could make would be to enclose the boiler -- and its breaching -- in a sound "proof" room, and bring combustion air in from outside with the air boot kit. Easier said than done.

STEVEusaPA

@Jamie Hall is on the right track.
Just make sure if you enclose the room, the air you bring in is for both combustion and make up air for draft. If you seal the room, bring combustion air directly to the burner, you'll affect draft. In a sealed room situation I'd go with "Fan in the Can" or equivalent.
Your 'exhaust' noise may actually be a phenomenon referred to as 'chimney roar' resonating throughout the house. The only solution to that is a liner and probably insulating around it.

EBEBRATT-Ed

I agree with @STEVEusaPA about the liner. I would try the burner cover first I think that will be a help and you may not need to do anything else....take it in steps.

If you install an air intake boot you should have the burner combustion tested