Propane vs. oil boiler?

Mark Wolff_2

Munchkin may be appropriate for your situation. The boiler is extremely light, small, efficient and inexpensive. It can be converted from LP to nat. gas with the twist of one screw.

With the rise in oil prices, the gap between btu cost for LP and oil has shrunk quite substantially. Oil is still slightly cheaper on a btu basis, all things being equal; however with the system efficiency effect of a mod/con system you could potentially save more by going LP mod/con, depending on your design day heating calculations.

Other brands are available also, but you asked about any specific ones that could be recommended. From your description, it may work well for you.

David MacDonald

Propane vs. oil boiler?

We live in an old farmhouse in Maine and are researching replacements for our old oil boiler. We need something for hot water and baseboard heat. We supplement heavily with woodstove, and plan to add solar panels to bring our hot water up to a higher temp. We lean toward LP gas as it is cleaner for the environment. Is there a propane boiler anyone recommends that will mesh well with our baseboard heat as well as our plans for solar warmed hot water? Or is a more efficient oil boiler a better fit for our system? Any advice on overall approach or specific products appreciated. Thanks.

Maine Ken

The mod/cons with twin coil indirect tanks would be the way to go if you are certain you want propane. Or you could use a standard indirect and add a second one later for solar "pre-heating" in the future. You can use the same approach with an oil boiler, also with fantastic results.

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Steve_35

The idea propane is cleaner or better for the environment

is a product of great advertising. Any fuel can be either clean or not.

There are 92,000btu/gal of propane and 138,000btu/gal of oil. You can get equipment that will give you roughly 10% more efficiency with propane than oil. The likelihood is that equipment will not last as long as oil.

Any unit should be properly serviced annually. Most likely the cost to service the oil unit will be slightly higher.

If you're going oil I'd recommend a Buderus boiler with a Riello burner. We have many of these units out with very few problems.

Steve_35

Have you noticed a lot of crud in Munchkins?

We only have a few (2 or 3) out and they're all on propane, but we have several Trinitys out on propane and they're the same Hx. The Trinitys look pretty clean when we service them but we've even gotten a no heat call on a Munchkin after a little more than a year in service because the Hx was full of crud. Perhaps their propane is of extremely poor quality?

Ken_40

We have seen those \"crumbs\" inside

as well; but not just on Munchkins.

So far, we've see these "conditions" on ALL mod-cons!

It appears "junk" in the air: leaf "dust/debris" flying around in fall, grass cutttings/clippings, insects near the air intake, or, if a non-concentric vent install, conditioned basement air if lint and basement air/dust (like the HO using a table saw for hobbies in a basement which is the source of ) pet dander and hair, and related natural air pollutants, are the basis of yet other forms of "contaminants.

It seems these small particulates can and do get consumed by combustion, but leave behind a small "micro-turd" of carbon.

We tell all our customers regardless of brand, to be sure to have the mod-con boiler opened up and the HX cleaned to remove any foreign material, and assure a long life and highest performance possible.

For rather obvious reasons, it is impractical to "filter" combustion make-up air.