Updating an old water heating system

Bill_19

WE have hot water baseboard heat using the original American Standard 60k btu system. We'd like to update it with something more energy efficent. Any ideas? We live in northern Ohio and our heating bills continue to climb year after year. On the coldest days it's almost like the system can't keep up with heating the house. It's a split level and the first floor has catheral ceiling in the living and dining room. These rooms never really get warm. Under that area is a crawl space where the plumbing runs for the unit. Should I insulate the plumbing or leave it like it is to heat that are up some as well? I just found this site and appreciate the info so far as I'm learning how this thing works. Any help or advise is appreciated. Any web site with further info would be great.

George_10

An area you should look at is

the cleaning and treatment of the water in this system. Any new components you add will do far better in a clean and treated system. This is particularly true if there is scale and corrosion present in your existing system. You can go to our web site and read in great detail why this is necessary in these new hi-tech boilers and hydronic systems.

the site is www.rhomarwater.com

Hope this adds to your knowledge base.

George@rhomarwater.com

Dale

Boiler vs insullation

With only a 60k input boiler how much can you save? I would get a competent energy audit, and a professional blower door test and seal first and then insulate as much as you can. If that crawl space isn't insulated just like upstairs in other words DO NOT vent it, insulate it and put a vapor barrier down and insulate the pipe in it. Once you have done all you can do with insulation, caulk and spray foam have the boiler serviced, the effeciency checked and compare the fuel savings. You may need a new boiler to save money but it should be the last thing you do.