Oil and Degree Days

Weezbo

the ten below and radiant sounds so good it almost seems like he place to stop by for a cup of coffee:) my winter will be nifty too i have a .30 80 nozzel i am thinking of trying out :)and i have half my 5/8ths radiant slab in:) no the entire slab is 5/8thss:) on top of an insulated sog. with 5/16ths and 10mm:) three loops:) one zone.i am going for the coolest water flow i can come up with...constant circ i series zone:)

Ex Maine Doug

Plotting oil usage and degree days

I went to the NOAA site and got monthly degree days to plot against annual oil usage. Here is the graph. The oil Co. has annual in their computer but I am looking in the shoeboxes for the truck tickets. Also I would like to add the dates we went from steam to HW and from Becketts to Reillos.

Weezbo

Steam to HW...

Hmmm...same emmitters? where is the control ? when you went to HW did you go with strickly light weight gypcrete? if so the control stradgey has WWSD?do you now have a HotWATER Maker? if so you may need to calculate in a bit of electrical savings in that area also...did you use a BF riello? did you use a different pump pressure on the oil side?did the occupancy levels change? stuff can influence eficentcy,zoning?DPO? a new vanee or life breath? i had some guy explaining how much % this and that he was "Saving" and ehemm...when the number goes over 100% something just dont add up:)) Seen changes like nearly 60 percent from one "system" to a boiler spun in kinda sweet.the other side is the "Fred Flinstonesyndrome" as i like to call it....Freds wife,Wilma and Barneys wife,Betty ,used to go "Save" Fred and Barney HUGE sums of money every payday:))) so there is something to be said for the life of the system and the comfort provided...so,the thing i am getting at is that some of it may not jump off the page as having costs yet be in the equasion.

doug_16

Lots of things changed.

Which is why I thought I would look at some of the variables and see what relates. Not the same emitters Weezbo. Steam rads were only on the main floor. Replaced with panel rads. New basement floor poured with 1/2 in. pex on constant cirs with VSI, run by Tekmar. Twin Vega's (Biasi) direct vent. Ergomax for domestic HW instead of coil in the steamer.
Some other variables- now heating two floors and living in the building. Last 2 years since shop was opened has front and back doors with customers coming & going. Running classes at night now so heating longer. Replaced windows with thermal as ice would form on single panes (pretty but messy). Original single pane commercial front door, new back door. No added insulation in ceiling. Installed 2 in. blueboard on exterior foundation walls which vary from 12 to 30 inches thick (mortored granite that sits on bedrock).

So did the reduced oil consumption come from modern equipment and controls or from the new windows etc.? Since we heating two floors now and the shop is running and we live in the building, I would say that our heating requirements have increased. But our oil consumption has gone down so in my opinion, the savings are from new boilers, new burners and controls. However I wanted to see oil used against what we thought were 2 colder winters so voila the graph. Now we need to put some of the other events on the graph and see what it looks like.

Weezbo

i like collecting info:)

when some thing presents itself that is complete type change and there are records..whata deal! like coal steamer to oil fired boilers wih convector(baseboard)....new windows and insulation in the lid .in a huge log cabin:) same sorta deal:)with all the stone...exterior curtain walls insulated with foam would give your home some solid thermal mass to hang on to the heat:) big logs 18 tapered to 28s as purty as they are on the outside id opt to lay them inside insulated curtain walls because they make multiple stratifications,look Great!,and have plenty therma mass...not only that it astonishes people who come in and look around:) they think that it is the fancy type interior finish....:) from the sounds of your project you have a chance to record lots of info and be able to ajudicate remodels of that size and configuration in the future:)

\"Maine\" doug

Info collecting opportunities

Collecting info is fun. I wish I had known about the data loggers awhile back. Can you imagine following outdoor temps, indoor temps, loop temps and run times? And then plotting performance too! With twin boilers on P/S, we could have watched different burners side by side. Oh well.
I will be adding 2 panel rads in a sun room that is about 23 feet high from the basement floor to the top on the side of the building. There is so much to do still and so little time, well maybe this fall it could be buttoned up. You are very right about comfort- the warm floor is the best. When it is -10 and snowing like mad, T-shirt and shorts and bare feet for Sunday morning coffee and newspaper with the cats upside down acting as heat absorbers. Here are the 3 enjoying natural radiant.