Lots of advise needed

Bart Maclean

Hello,

I recently purchased a house in the Toronto area - it is around 80 years old, 2-storey, detached, around 1300 sq.ft.
It has a gravity fed hot-water system with a very old and large Arco boiler and a Riello Mectron 5M oil burner and a new oil tank. As well, I have a electric hot-water tank (DHW).

First question is what is the ballpark efficiency I am currently getting (just a guess)?

Secondly, what about system improvements? Should I convert to a closed system? Should I replace the boiler? and burner? What about conversion to natural gas? Is it true I can upgrade the boiler and just change the burner later if I decide to switch to natural gas? Is this just a feature of some boiler models? What about the electric DHW tank? Should I switch to an oil one? What about the boilers I see that I can also attach a DHW tank to?

What would each of these improvements get me in terms of efficiency?

Thanks for all your help,

Bart Maclean

Uni R

Worry about the building's shell first

Bart,

You are probably getting somewhere around 60% in efficiency. Get someone in to clean the boiler and adjust the burner if it hasn't been done yet this year.

I'd live in the house a year or two before thinking about changing the heating system. You could convert the burner to natural gas but you'd have to pay to pipe it and that could be $1000 depending on where your meter would be located and where your boiler is. You would also have to pay to get rid of your new oil tank. Oil is around 45¢/l in the Toronto area and natural gas with all costs in is 42¢/m3. If you convert them to $/btu it's a wash right now with gas going up far faster than oil and also being less stable pricewise.

As far as your DHW, are the tops and sides of the tank warm to the touch? If they are put a cheap blanket on it and make sure it has heat traps (U-bends are nice and non-mechanical). I would stick with electric until you have lived with your boiler for a year. Who knows, maybe you'll move in less than a year or maybe you'll want to extend the living space? As far as heating water with electricity is concerened it won't be expensive until the provincial cap on electrical prices comes off in 2006 (although this isn't cast in stone). At less than 8¢/KWH and getting 90% efficiency it isn't far off a standalone gas or oil heater operating at 50 - 60% efficiency. Down the line, if and when you decide to replace your boiler, then I'd look at adding an indirect to the boiler.

Before touching a working heating system, I'd first concentrate on the buidling shell. Get someone to do a blower test on it. Check the insulation, weatherstripping, windows and doors. Once the shell is completely up to snuff, it will help you better size any replacement heating systems when doing your heat loss calculations.
Good luck and congratulations.