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What is a good K Factor number?

Long Beach Ed
Long Beach Ed Member Posts: 1,755
in THE MAIN WALL
For those who don't know what a K_Factor is, it's like a "miles per gallon" rating for your house. Here's a link to a good article that explains what it is and how it's determined:

http://www.projo.com/business/content/projo_20030303_oil03.86082.html

Here on Long Island, we heat a bunch of big old 1915-era two-family houses by the beach. Our K-Factors vary from 3.04 - 4.26 depending, probably on how hard the wind's blowing.

The article I've linked says newer homes can see 6 or 8.

We watch our K-Factors closely. The last five calculations are printed on every oil ticket. They warn us when one of the Beckett burners blow a hole through its blast tube or the firebox falls apart.

Comments

  • radioconnection_4
    radioconnection_4 Member Posts: 12
    What is a good K Factor number?

    I'm just curious what folks are running for K Factors in the northeast--north central Connecticut info would be great.

    I've gone from the high 6s, low 7s to a K factor of 10 since adding a new Biasi with a Tekmar 260. That includes oil used since changing over from electric to an indirect DHW tank with the new boiler. I'd really like to see what are archiving for K factors.

    pete
  • Uni R_2
    Uni R_2 Member Posts: 589
    BTU/HDD/SF

    Depending on your square footage, your BTU/HDD/SF would be about 12/1000 sf using 6720 HDD and 578 gallons (last 3 fills). So at 2000 sf, you would be at 6 BTU/HDD/SF - that's ok not great. At 3000, you'd have a pretty good rating of 4. Few homes are below 4, although homes can be under half of that with Geoff involved.

    (578gals x 139,000)/6720HDD/SF
  • radioconnection_4
    radioconnection_4 Member Posts: 12


    Older ranch, 2000 sq. ft. My oil company isn't much help in determining where my usage should be at, or what range K factors run for similar sized homes in the area. It makes it kind of hard to figure where I am at, but so far 10 seems to be a real good figure.

    Pete
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