Boiler, should I replace??

Brad White_36

Legionella issues aside (as if one could simply brush the little critters aside), the mass of a kickspace heater will only work well if you have fin-tube baseboard heating the remainder of your house. When the rest of your house is cast iron it will pulse heat to your bones while you are standing in the kitchen in bunny slippers and two pair of socks. Can you in any way restore the radiator to it's rightful place in the kitchen?

And as Joe Brix well stated, tighten up the envelope first! Wish I has said that... :)

Keith_14

Boiler, should I replace??

I have a 1984 Burnham boiler, model 405. I have NO problems w/ this boiler, it heats my 1800 square foot house and all its radiators perfect. I have bills that are awfully high, $400./mth.Dec. Is a new boiler going to be that much more efficient or is the technology relatively the same? Will I see an actual payback or would it take a lifetime? I like the boiler, it's easy to work on. I cleaned the pigtail when the pressure cut off didn't work, flushed the system out, etc. I just don't like $400/mth. Any input would be appreciated

Brad White_9

Steam for Steam swap-out?

Unless your boiler is on it's last legs, or if it is grossly over-sized, I would stick with steam.

Yes, your bills are high (we paid similarly or more for hot water, 1800 SF near Boston but with a 200% size boiler.

Staying with steam means you should take advantage of all common means and methods recommended on this site such as

1. Insulating all piping (1.5" to 2" fiberglass on supply, 1" on return is a recommended minimum).

2. Use a vapor-stat versus a pressure stat to control your steam pressure at a lower level.

3. Add TRV vent valves to your radiators which tend to overheat (if any)

4. Check all vents for full venting and balance. (You did say it worked perfectly).

5. Check boiler and controls for cleanliness (again, it works perfectly you say; this is sort of a standing comment to check normal operational and safety controls.)

I would also perform a heat loss on your house and tally up your radiator EDR (square footage) if I were you. This way you can assess your actual load versus your radiator potential. You may have improved the envelope over the years, time to capture that.

Once all the above is done (and more details others may suggest) she will be as good as it gets.

In order for you to save any appreciable energy money:

A. The existing boiler would have to be grossly over-sized relative to the heat loss and the radiation would have to be up there too. (Steam boilers always match the radiation regardless of heat loss. Key is to get them all in proportion.

What will you save? I dunno.. 10%? 25%? Probably not more than 30%... Steam boilers only get so efficient and kind of level off. Hard to improve on making 212F water into a 213F gas...

If you do not replace it with another steam boiler then,

B. The entire system would have to be replaced and converted to hot water with outdoor reset and probably a condensing boiler. (We are talking total make-over here including a gender change.)

Joe Brix

Agreed

If you have money to burn in your pocket, spend it in insulation, new windows, etc. You can tune up your steam system, but you can't get a steam system much beyond 80% efficency.

Keith_14

Thank you VERY much for your information. I was thinking of replacing pressure-stat because nomatter how low I set it it just doesn't seem to get low enough. My biggest mistake was re-doing the kitchen and not leaving room for a radiator in the design. Now I have a kickspace working off my residential hot water and it doesn't stay on long enough or remain hot enough to heat kitchen, frustrating! Can that be wired seperately to heat residential just for kitchen and if it could would it send my heat bill really soaring? Thanks again for your help. - Dave

Dave DeFord_3

If I'm reading you right...

I think you have a bigger problem than your heat bill. From what I read you are running a baseboard off of your domestic hot water heater and using the same water for the house. If I'm not mistaken this is not a safe practice as it can lead to legionella in the domestic hot water among other problems. Ask some of the pros on this site, but I'm pretty sure this issue has been discussed before. I think that it is entirely possible to run a hot water loop off of a steam boiler. You would probably have to control it separately with it's own thermostat in the kitchen but from what I have read here it is a fairly common set-up. You might want to look as ask a pro on this site and find someone in your area to take a look at your set-up.

Dvanderbilt

I have a hot water heater for drinking, seperate from res. on boiler. res. loop just for kickspace heater in kitchen. The rest of house is cast iron. If I put a seperate therm. on kickspace will it make boiler run all the time, probably, I don't know. My wife left NO room for radiator with all here "wonderful" cabinets.

Brad White_36

See if the wonderful cabinets

can keep her as warm as a cast iron radiator.

I feel for you, man.

mike jones

efficiency of old steam boiler

we were told that old steam boilers like 1970 old american standard was so inefficient that 35% of combustion would go up the chimney. if piping is right, are new steam boilers built that different inside?

Jerry_15

Are you saying that the hot water heater is running DHW through the kickspace?