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Oil vs gas

pipers
pipers Member Posts: 21
in THE MAIN WALL
Why are tankless coils usually found in oil and not gas boilers

Comments

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 16,317
    pipers said:

    Why are tankless coils usually found in oil and not gas boilers

    Gas water heaters have always been cheap to buy and operate.

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

    WMno57pipers
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 16,495
    In the old days there were gas boiler with tankless heaters but no longer.
    pipersHVACNUT
  • Big Ed_4
    Big Ed_4 Member Posts: 3,020
    edited February 2022
    I belive Federal code on minimum efficiency on boilers limits gas units using coils . They also need draft damper to bring up eff percentage . I believe Slanfin has a gas boiler that has a hot water coil or a gas Combi .

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

    pipers
  • pipers
    pipers Member Posts: 21
    Guy at work said mentioned something interesting he said that a gas boiler would just have a hot water tank because there is gas for the boiler and can be used but oil boiler would require a gas line to be installed so they would just put coil in an oil fired boiler
  • SuperTech
    SuperTech Member Posts: 2,430
    They make oil direct fired tank water heaters such as those made by Bock, they are common in homes with oil furnaces.  I don't know why an oil boiler would require a gas line to be installed. 
  • bburd
    bburd Member Posts: 1,043
    Direct oil fired water heaters are very expensive compared to an ordinary electric hot water tank or a tankless coil in an oil fired boiler.
    —
    Bburd
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 24,878
    bburd said:

    Direct oil fired water heaters are very expensive compared to an ordinary electric hot water tank or a tankless coil in an oil fired boiler.

    That they are. They also have extremely fast recovery. They also last a good long time -- I have three I care for with a combined age of somewhere around 50 years. Cheap to run, too, compared to electric.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • TAG
    TAG Member Posts: 757
    Has anyone ever figured out what the oil cost to operate? I was told why oil and not gas was a mass factor -- oil boilers had more mass and stayed hotter. My sister had one and that thing was always going on and off. I had a few weekend places in PA with forced oil and oil HW. They were great ... 30g and they would heat from cold in no time.

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 24,878
    What oil costs to operate? Not quite sure what that question is trying to get at -- are you asking about dollars per BTU in oil vs. dollars per BTU in gas? That's a marketing (and to a certain extent regulatory) question, not really a heating question.

    I think one needs to be rather careful about confusing characteristics of fuel types (oil, gas, coal, wood, hydrogen...) and burner types (power, atmospheric, forced draught, induced draught, whatever), heat transfer system type (forced air, gravity air, forced hot water, gravity hot water, steam, high mass emitters, low mass emitters, etc. etc.) and boiler or furnace construction (low mass, high mass, single pass, multipass, whatever).

    People don't. When one fails to, comparisons are useless, if amusing.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • HVACNUT
    HVACNUT Member Posts: 6,338
    Weil McLain still offers (I believe) a gas boiler with a tankless coil. It uses a 3 way valve for priority domestic. 

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