Replacing burners on old gravity feed boiler

bernie_3

Is it possible to upgrade the burners in an old boiler to high efficiency burners, and if so where is the best place to get them?

Matt Undy

How the burner is installed has more to do with efficency of the system than the burner itself. Is it oil or gas? There are a lot more ways a modern oil burner can be more efficient than a gas burner. Gas burners are pretty simple as far as efficient burning. Shape of the gas burner and its flame cound effect efficiency greatly.

The most improtant thing is that coal furnaces were designed to absorb heat from a burning pile of coal. When you put a gas or oil flame inside its ability to absorb that heat is compromised. Where the burner is located in the chamber, how it is drafted, if/what sort of firepot has been built inside when it was converted all effect efficiency of the system as well as other issues other here would know better than I. If efficiency is really bad then replacement with a modern bioler might be the most cost effective option.

If you do have osmone tweak the burner you need to find somone who really knows how conversions work. If they don't know about the issues i'm referiing to about heat transfer then they won't be able to help the efficiency of your current system.

Matt

J.C.A._3

Hey Bernie,

Any pictures possible? We like pictures. Most of the time they can spur FAR more than a thousand words.

Matts right, there is more than 1 way to get some numbers up, but sometimes it's a losing battle. Chris