Furnace vs Boiler, Oil Vs Propane

GW

@captainco

all things being pretty equal (cost of the fuel is not really the point of this thread) , oil tends to be the best bang for buck becasue you can ratchet the o2 low right?

These modern gas appliances seem to have mo-mo o2 numbers, 5,6,7%

If you had a gas boiler would you want a gun burner in order to ratchet down the o2?

No manufacturer talk about this, just the wiz-bang AFUE numbers

Gary

EBEBRATT-Ed

Oil is more efficient than gas..........unless your condensing, then gas wins.

It has to do with the water vapor content in gas. This water vapor passes through as part of the products of combustion and uses some of it's own heat to vaporize the water vapor....if that makes any sense

That being said:

Oil are not small enough for low heat loss buildings nozzles only go down to 70k input or so.
Oil usually requires a little more service
gas can modulate down instead of cycling
gas can condense
etcetc

Leonard

Think you have to pay attention to fuel costs too. Here in NH my cousin heats with propane, said he called around and found place that only charged ~ $3.00/gal . All things with furnace being equal , after adjusting for it's lower energy content ( 99 vs 138 btu/gal) that's equivalent to paying $4.18/gal for #2 oil........I bought # 2 oil last week for $2.65

GW

It’s more of a fuel efficiency question, not a cost per BTU

I probably phrased the question poorly.

Leonard

Your question was good. Just here in NH fuel cost difference REALLY swamps any other savings so can't ignore it. Surprised me how much difference was, but someone has to pay for liquefing it and pressure vessels.

But if you live in a state with fracking, I hear propane is $1/gal.....

GW

Ok so let’s say your stuck with propane for xyz reason. You want the best extraction of heating energy for abc reason. You’re also a mad scientist and an ace heating installer/tech. What do you install?

TAG

Have gone through this more times than I care to think about. But only as a "what is best overall for a property"

Can't help you with the true efficiency -- how much water is going up the flue in oil?

IMO --- Larger loads begin to favor Oil. Oil always loses against NG. I have only done one oil retrofit -- big house w/ boiler. I was afraid of running out of propane. 1500g oil storage .

My last winter weekender had two oil FHA and oil WH --- went all propane as fast as I could.

GW

Sorry TAG it’s not meant to be a basic question, like, what a homeowner would ask. I am very aware of what fuel costs are and BTU per unit of fuel/Kw.