A Cautionary Tale for Replacing Boilers on Hot Water Heating Systems

HeatingHelp

In this excerpt from his Classic Hydronics seminar, Dan Holohan tells a story about a mansion that had two Ideal Redflash boilers, each with a rating of 500,000 Btuhs.

Read the full story here

D107

Great story, humorously told. Do you recall what the fuel savings was--maybe 75%? ROI maybe one week?

scott w.

Good story and well told but one missing piece, I wanted to hear about the savings the home owner saw with the fuel bill after the replacement..

DanHolohan

Thanks, guys. That happened 30 years ago. I don't recall the exact amount he saved, but as you suspect, it was a lot.

Thanks for listening! There's more like this on the Heating Help YouTube channel.

MarkMurf

That was a great one Dan . And not to get too defensive about the past and historic family heating oil business, but the old man, being a WW2 submariner vet was a stickler, and ever cognizant of his customer's fuel efficiency . Not to mention , being from Bayonne, where Amer Standard had a foundry , I had my hands on too many Red Flash dry based coal conversion boilers with 1725 rpm Acme oil burners retrofit back in the day . During the 70's we would 'sharpen' these units up by filling in the fire box with vermiculite . Cover that with a few inches of 'Stykrite' refractory cement , cut a hole in the observation door, bolt the flange onto it and mount the Carlin , Sun Ray or Beckett 3450 rpm burner up high on that door . One could usually down fire the burner considerably, cutting the customers fuel consumption considerably . This would somewhat tick-off my fuel sales oriented uncle . But , as the old man would say ,"Better than loosing them altogether to nat gas." Remember that bumper sticker from back then ,"gas makes me nervous." Ha ! A real refinery town, Bayonne . The old man always did heat loss calcs for replacements and counted radiator sizes and sections on the plethora of houses with steam . And on the occasional two boiler systems as such , he would use the old Honeywell 'two stage' thermostats . The counter man at The Bayonne Plumbing Supply once told me that my dad was the only one who used them . Now I realize that was because no one else knew what they were for ! At any rate , out here in Montana, and still doing the family trade , I have landed more larger steam installs by simply counting and sizing up those radiators as instructed by that old submariner . I may be a heating geek , but love yer stuff . Still have my copy of 'The Lost Art' right on my coffee table . Thanks .

DanHolohan

@MarkMurf I love this story. Thanks so much for sharing it with me. You sure brought be back!

MarkMurf

Oil burner King Pin, Heating man extra-ordinair, my dad, Bud Murphy once told me that back in Bayonne, N.J.(The Peninsula of Industry), juxtaposed between N.Y.Harbor, Port Newark, Port Elizabeth, & Port Jersey, that before WW2, American Radiator had a foundry. Standard Sanitary Supply, makers of plumbing fixtures; toilets, tubs, sinks etc.were also in town. We had MOTBY in town, Military Ocean Terminal Bayonne . When the war started they built Liberty Ships and PT boats in town as well. Just, hopefully accurate, I was told that the foundry made bank making 55 gallon drums for the war effort and both companies were key suppliers for that same effort . At one point, they merged to make American Standard Co. So I was told .

jbjb

I’d have been tempted to put in a 125 and a 250 for your 375 demand then you could more closely match the load year-round. Maybe that’s too complicated or maybe controls could do it 🙂