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Energy Kinetics System 2000 - thoughts after 6 months in use

Greening
Greening Member Posts: 37
edited January 2023 in Oil Heating
In June 2022, we installed the Energy Kinetics System 2000 EK1. We wanted to post preliminary thoughts. Overall, we are very happy with the system.
House: Cape-style house with 2 floors
Old boiler: Original 70+ year old American-Standard with a "newer" Beckett burner and a small "on-demand" hot-water tank.
System 2000 improvements:
- Winter oil consumption reduced by ~50%.
- Summer energy saving was much more significant:
1. Summer oil consumption was nearly unperceptable for hot water
2. Basement was much cooler, reducing demand for AC. That significantly reduced electricity consumption. Also, house temperature felt more comfortable in the summer.
** In the spring, we will ask tech for his savings estimate based on degree days.
- Quieter. Particularly in the lower frequencies as house does not rumble anymore. Boiler operation basically is imperceptable outside of the basement.
- House is much less drafty as boiler air intake seems lower. Fresh air intake should further reduce drafts (which should reduce noise & increase efficiency too).
- Unheated/unfinished basement stays stable around 60F year round. On the rare extremely hot or cold day, basement temp might vary +/- 5F. This is great in the summer. We wear sweaters in the basement in the winter, so that is may be a downside for some.
We have a gym, home shop, laundry in the basement so in the summer more comfortable; in the winter, the gym is more comfortable but the home shop and laundry sometimes a bit cool.
Basic specs:
- Display Manager
- Riello oil burner
- Plate heater exchanger
- 40 gallon ss tank
- 4 zone hydronic (there are 4 Schneider zone actuators)
- FYI - we added 2 zones upstairs with Ecobee3 lite thermostats and keep those rooms much cooler, so that accounts for some of the energy savings. Changing the downstairs to smart thermostats will be easy
https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1707147#Comment_1707147

Next steps:
- Finalize fresh air intake (which should reduce noise and boost efficiency a bit too)
- Improve house insulation and sealing
szwedjRogerEdTheHeaterManEzzyTgmcinnesSTEVEusaPAErin Holohan Haskell

Comments

  • Greening
    Greening Member Posts: 37
    edited April 3
    We added the fresh air intake. This was a fantastic upgrade.
    - Reduced noise even further. I'll see if we can find the simple noise measurements we did before to compare.
    - Burner no longer sucks cold outside air into the house or sends conditioned air out the chimney. Consequently, house is much less drafty and more comfortable.

    - No idea if oil consumption dropped further