Propane vs. Oil Boilers

John@Reliable

and to think some ad guys got payed big bucks to come up with it. I don't think most get it.

Harley Soltes

Propane vs. Oil Boilers

I am in the process of replacing an old Vaillant oil boiler.
No natural gas options. What are the pro and cons of switching to propane. Propane costs more. How is the reliablitly and maintance compare. The old oil boiler and burner (Beckett) cost a lot to keep running. I am told
that the Vaillant may have been the problem and not to blame oil. I am looking at Budarus Oil and Propane boilers.

Mark Hunt

Dollar for dollar


oil has more btu's per gallon than LP. So if you stayed with an atmospheric vented boiler I wouldn't recommend LP.

If you were considering an efficiency upgrade, such as a 92% AFUE Munchkin, well then I'd look closely at switching to LP.

Hope this helps!

Mark H

To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"

Big Al and the pipewrenches

Muncgh...L P ?

Since when have the little fella's been available for LP?

I would really like to know, I have several installations

that would benefit from it. They are great.

AB

Mark Hunt

Hi Al!!


Munchies have been available for propane since I started using them about a year ago.

In fact, the first three we installed were LP.

Great little hot water generators!!!!

You set them up a little differently.(Different target for CO with the LP versions)

Mark H

To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"

John@Reliable

Oil or Propane

I would stay with a good oil burner. Alot of reseach has been done on oil and oil burners today are not like the ones of past. You will be hearing more about Clearburn Science.

Dana Zaichkin_2

> I am in the process of replacing an old Vaillant

> oil boiler. No natural gas options. What are the

> pro and cons of switching to propane. Propane

> costs more. How is the reliablitly and maintance

> compare. The old oil boiler and burner (Beckett)

> cost a lot to keep running. I am told that the

> Vaillant may have been the problem and not to

> blame oil. I am looking at Budarus Oil and

> Propane boilers.

Dana Zaichkin_2

Other factors

In the Northwest, underground oil/fuel storage tanks present some longer term environmental liability risk that may make propane a more attractive option - particularly for a new installation. Since you already have a tank, you may have to deal with this regardless of your decision. For us, doing a new install 150' from Puget Sound, the propane decision is pretty clear.

Then again with propane, you have the joy of having a tank sitting in your yard that looks like and, unfortunately, could behave like a small warhead. Our install will include a sismic shut-off as well.

Best Regards

DZ

Mark Hunt

Puget Sound!!


I'd love to be on an install 150' from the sound!!!!

Course if the salmon or steelies were runnin' you wouldn't get much work outta' me!!!!!

I gotta' get back there someday!!!!

Mark H

To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"

Harley Soltes

My tank is above ground, I am 1/2 mile from Puget Sound,so I am ok. I do have a community well on site, and that is an issue for tank placement. It must be at least 100 feet away from well, either oil or propane.
I am leaning towards staying with oil. I hear what you spend on oil burner maintenance you would spend on complicated electronics fixes on the new condensing
gas boilers. True?

Earthfire

circuitboards

Oil burner equipped boilers also have electronics on them, electronic igniters, safety relays, Aquastats, reset controls,etc. Circuit boards in boilers, ac units and programable thermostats are just like the electronics in the rest of the house. If you don't have it ,Have whole house surge supression installed at your main panel and then protect individual appliances with secondary surge suppresion devices where applicable ( Hey , even the fridge microwave and your bedroom clock radio have circuit boards). The second part of circuit protection is grounding. (1) A lot of homes still have the main house ground hooked to the cold water line near the panel, Make sure that you have or add a good earth ground , IT's a ground rod driven into the ground and connected to the ground bar in the panel,( use a copper one they are only a couple of dollars more then steel). (2) make sure that there is a good ground connection at the equipment. Homes built prior to the early 70's have no ground wire or undersized ground wires in the circuits. We DO NOT warranty any equipment we install that does not have a minimum of whole house surge suppression, a ground rod, and a ground conductor that we test for continuity to the ground bar. We have had customers opt out of installing suppression and some have had to pay for that midnight winter call to repair their controls.Better safe then sorry.

Harley Soltes

As a matter of fact we have an old home with questionable grounding and no surge protection. I have replaced the Honeywell control several times in 12 years, but I believe that is because we run system on honda generator during
our frequent power outages. What can I do to insure
that generator power is clean?

Herb

propane

systems can offer you some other benefits besides a fuel source for your boiler. You can run your hot water with a stand alone water heater that requires no power, ranges that operate without power, space heaters or fireplaces that also require no power source. Power outages that truly need a generator to endure would have me prepared with a much simpler system. My own house has an 80 year old steam (one-pipe)system fired with and easily maintained weil-mc with
a 50 gal water heater, gas range and direct-vent self generating gas space heater in the family room. Ten years ago, during an ice storm, we did without power for a week quite comfortably with temps in the 20s.

heatboy

Where I live..........

propane was not much of a viable fuel, until..... the Viessmann Vitodens finally hit the streets. Now it is my first option for almost every application. Even hydro-air systems where the heat exchanger can run 145°F water. With all of the benefits of this boiler, I am even taking the oil fired boiler out of my house and switching to propane simply because of the Vitodens.

The Munchkin running on propane is a very good boiler when applied to system where you can just let it run, i.e., snow melt, concrete slab radiant with little or no zoning, etc.

Warm Regards,

heatboy

climatecadvanced.com

To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"

Paul Pollets

You

You fanatic you!!!

Love, Paul

To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"

Mark J Strawcutter

Yea, but

I don't think I'd like wearing those plastic suits like in the commercial :-)

Mark

Dana Zaichkin

Puget Sound

I keep trying to figure out how to run a geothermal loop out into Case Inlet, but it would have to be a LONG loop for when the tide is out...and the Corps of Engineers might frown on this. As Herb noted below, another propane consideration was to have a multi-purpose energy source for power outages. Of course, we will still need to power up to run the controls and circs periodically.

Best Regards

DZ

Tim R

LP or OIL Tankless or Boioler

I posted a question along this line of thinking. I like oil because of the 144k btu/gal versus 94k for LP.I like tankless LP units because of ther efficiencies but do they have limits? Buderus oil boilers are a solid unit with a hinged door that makes cleaning an easy chore. Oil is cheaper where I live also.