Heating

matt16

I have 3 zone radiant floor heat in concrete. The total area is 3600 sqft and is close loop system. The house has a btu of 77000. I am converting from a old oil to propane and I live in the north east. What is the ideal wall mount heat source for this application

Jamie Hall

There are many brands of gas or LP burning boilers available. The main things isn't so much the brand, as the installer -- pick someone in whom you have confidence, and listen to their advice.

Whatever you do, do NOT even think of a tankless water heater. They are not fit for the purpose.

Also, do your math. Unless your old oil boiler is in some way defective, you will probably discover that first, your heating bills will change very little and may go up (LP, at least, in my area, is a good deal more expensive, per BTU, than oil) and you may also find that you will never recover the capital cost, even if the heating bills went down.

HomerJSmith

There's a lot involved in switching from oil to propane. You heat your house with oil, what do you cook and heat your domestic water with?

You have to pipe to your boiler room for the propane, build a pad for the tank, put a regulator on the house if 2 stage, protect the tank from heavy snows with a shelter, trench the ground for a line from the tank to the house, etc. The new high eff boiler need venting to the outside. You get the picture. It all goes into the cost of switching over. I usually end up replacing parts that are near the end of their life cycle, too.

A 96% high eff boiler is probably only that eff under certified lab conditions. Installed eff in your home can go all over the place.
The real advantage to a high eff boiler is the turn down as far as cost savings go. I, like everyone else, tells the customer what the boiler manufacturer and customers tells me as far as comparable savings go. When I switch from a conventional high mass boiler to a high eff boiler my savings per month in the dead of winter went from $300 to $150 on average, but that's not a savings for every month.

You need to decide what is best for you. Read the literature of different manufacturers, call up the wholesale companies in your area for information on the product they sell and get their input.

What I am saying is the more information that you have, the better decision you can make.

Ironman

With an oil boiler that has to run at 160*+, you must have some form of mixing system to lower the SWT to the floor. Can you post some pics of your current boiler and controls?

If a radiant slab is the only thing connected to the boiler, the current mixing devices and controls may be unnecessary with a mod/con gas boiler since it can take low RWT and regulate the SWT to the floor.