IBR rating vs BTU

danw884

Hi All,
Happy 4th! I currently have an oil fired boiler that is 25 years and time for replacement . It has a Net IBR rating of 104000 but no BTU rating. All the boilers I have been looking at are just rated in BTU's. I want to do a like for like replacement. Just wanted to make sure I'm getting the right one.
Any advice will be appreciated.
Dan

Jamie Hall

The Net IBR rating is in BTUs -- it is the rated BTU output of the boiler under certain conditions.

That said, choosing a new boiler based on simply replacing what's there with the same size doesn't always work. If it's a hot water system, the new boiler must be sized based on the actual heat loss of the building. Slant/Fin, for one, has a nice calculator to figure that out. If it's a steam boiler, then the EDR rating of the boiler -- which is the net BTU corrected for pickup load and expressed as square feet -- must be similar to the actual load of the heating system's radiation, also expressed as square feet. Any other approach may lead to a boiler with is significantly undersized for the job -- or, far more often, significantly oversized. Neither error is good; the former will give you unsatisfactory heat, and the latter will just cost you money.

Don't assume that the previous boiler was right...

danw884

Thank you Jamie

Steamhead

@danw884 , where are you located?

rbeck

Most hot water boilers are 70% - 90% oversized.