dual heating system

jvista

hi: i currently have an oil fired fhw system. my local gas company is offering a free gas boiler (material only).
assuming i can get a plumber to set up a switch-over system for the heating supply pipes could i set up my system so that i can run it on the oil burner when i want and on the gas burner when i want--dependent on the best fuel prices?
other than the method to switch the fhw supply i don't see why this can't be done--except for having a gas boiler and oil boiler exhausting into the same chimney, but even that should not be a problem because many two family homes have gas for one unit and oil for the other and they both use the same chimney. am i thinking correctly? all input appreciated. thanks.

lchmb

better check

A couple thing's you will need to check is to make sure your chimney is lined for one. Another thing is even though you won't be using your gas some time's the supplier may hit you with a delivery charge, which they have started doing in my area to some people and are hitting them $50 a month. Look at it this way, they are not going to give you something for free without a thought of making the money back somewhere!! Also another consideration, will they be installing the meter, do they have to dig a line and who has to pay for it all?

ed wallace

dual fuel system

no it cant be done unless you have both oil and gas boilers piped together if you are in the boston area you will pay thru the nose for gas as the saying goes there is no such thing as a free lunch i recently got an offer for a free heating system from gas co. in small print it stated it would cost up to $4,000.00 for labor to install it

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Weezbo

This is not a very good idea....

Forget the free part for now..... you ever hear of , if its too good to be true,it probably is...? It Probably is.

clammy

dual fuel unit

At where i work we have a custemer with one in 8 years i,ve never seen it run on gas it's always been set for fuel oil and my belief is that a combination gun has to be maintained moer then a regular oil burner and it is not a flick of a switch crossover another thing is you will be using combination oil and gas fireye controls and they are a bit more money then a cad cell relay stick with ione or the other combo guns on residental jobs are something that most oil guys don't want to play with and they don,t set up as clean as a seperate oil burner just my thoughts good luck peace

Boilerpro_3

I don't know the economics, but

it is very easy to set up the system to use 2 boilers, with either one providing heat. Keep your current oil boiler and then just add the gas boiler to the system. The simpliest method, I believe, is to pipe both boilers in parellel to the system with each boiler having its own pump and with a flow control valve. When the oil boiler is used its pump will operate, its flow control valve will open, and the gas fired boiler's flow control will prevent flow into the gas boiler and direct it to the system. When the gas boiler is used the same thing will happen.

Definitely look into potential venting issues. Maybe use a wall vented boiler for the gas to avoid any problems.

I have a couple of potential projects this summer where the current boiler is functional, but not as efficient as necessary. The existing boiler will remain in the system as backup, with a new high efficiency boiler piped in parallel (like it was a separate heating zone). With this set up, you have backup boiler and backup pumps always at the ready!

Boilerpro

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

i have separate

oil and gas fired boilers that serve the same heating system in my house. i run the oil now, but i can switch back to gas if the price of oil increased greatly. you are also covered if something ever happened to either fuel supply, or if one boiler breaks down when it's 15 below zero. a lot of people have a spare car- why not a spare boiler? bob

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GaryDidier

Dual systems

Boilerpro,
Could you provide a schematic or piping diagram of a parellel set up for two boilers. Thanx, Gary from Granville

jvista

MikeB34

What boiler

Are they offering? is it a no name? viessman? check out what you are getting. also do they stipulate a contract for X amount of gas? must be done by their contractor ONLY (no self installs), gas line to the house? meter? in house piping? who pays for all that?

does the old boiler HAVE to be removed? (this alone may kill the desire of a "freebie")(they get the scrap value)

Look long and hard at the offer and do the MATH

your 2 system idea is not problem, but you may save money buying a good boiler yourself and having it installed.

MHO

Mike

hr

Watch the piping

you want to make sure you never circulate water through the unfired (cooling tower) boiler A primary secondary will work well for this. And watch the return temperature if this is a high mass radiant system.

hot rod

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jvista

imgonnadoit!

what a great site!
thanks to all for taking the time to share your knowledge
i've seen enough to know i am going to do it. if you would like to know how it gets done and what the results are, please send an email with iwannadoittoo on the subject line and i'll get back to you with results when done. (footnote here: i'm going on a trip to iran in a couple of weeks---if you don't hear back from me, you can probably assume something went "wrong" and i won't be back!!)