New boiler with domestic hot water - Burnham Alta or WM GV-90 with indirect HW heater

Steve Garson_2

I need to replace my 30 year old hydronic boiler with indirect HW heater soon. Will do a Manual J. Will the hot water output on the Burnham Alta be satisfactory for shower or bath? There is a big cost savings by not needing an indirect hot water heater. Baseboard was probably designed for 180* water. Living in Denver. If it was your house, what would you install? Natural gas fuel.

Thanks for your insights.

Steve

mattmia2

I'd start with the heat loss and radiation survey to figure out if you can run low enough water temp to run a condensing boiler at condensing temps.

If you cant then the next question is do you have a conventional vent that is in good shape.

If you have a good vent and cant run return water temps below 140 or do then there is no benefit to a condensing boiler and a conventional cast iron boiler makes more sense.

There are limitations to a combi, how you use hot water and your incoming water temp makes all the difference in if that makes sense or not.

Steve Garson_2

No chimney. Present boiler is direct vented through the wall. I am doing the Manual J and will calculate the present baseboard BTU output. Since Denver has lots of sun, daytime requires a lot less energy for heating. Incoming water temp in winter could be 45-50 or so.

JUGHNE

Are you retiring your WM GV-5?
How old is it and did it start to leak?

Steve Garson_2

The present boiler is fine, but 30 years old and a GV series 1.  I’m thinking it might be prudent to replace sooner rather than later.

JUGHNE

There is another posting here about the WM GV 90.

30 year cast iron and still running, I have followed your postings for the old boiler, and you seemed to minimal issues with the GV.

I would lean in that direction again, IIWM.

What do you have for WH now?

Steve Garson_2

Amtrol indirect tank