Hot water maker and boiler question

chuck_6

About a year and a half ago we replaced our main boiler with a 300,000 Btu Weil McLean. It works fine, but our hot water maker (40-gallon Amytrol) is tied into a smaller, 50,000 Btu boiler. The smaller boiler heats an addition to the house (21' x 14' room) in addition to the hot water. The addition was poorly constructed and has copper fin baseboard heat. Even with the temperature turned way down it still runs quite a bit. One heating guy said the smaller boiler needs to be bigger - about 70,000 Btus and the hot water maker needs a new thermostat. That's fine but our utility needs to increase our Btu capacity. Another heating guy came in and put the hot water maker and smaller boiler on a priority system. It works better now, but every once in a while we run out of hot water. Is a priority system worth it? Would a 70,000 Btu boiler solve the problem?

Gary Fereday

? Guessing ?

do your self a favor and get the heat loss calc, (click on the left on heat loss calc) and do the math. It is obvious that you need more heat, but find out how much! With paper and pencil. There is just no need to guess.

bigugh

hot_rod

Second guessing first impressions

bigugh gives good advise. Define the loads first, then spec the equipment. How much home are you heating with that kind of BTU equipment. Could you switch thr indirect to the larger boiler to spread the loads? 300K would produce some serious DHW

Hard to give you a good answer without more info. Certainly there are knowledgable "second opinion" contractors in your area to advise you.

hot rod