Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.

Gas fired boiler instalation location

ricking
ricking Member Posts: 34
Have any of you experts installed a boiler outside of the house? It would be out of the weather under the soffits in a dry area but not enclosed. Any comments? Thanks in advance.

Comments

  • delta T
    delta T Member Posts: 884
    I have seen boilers installed outside a few times......usually when I'm removing them and installing a new boiler inside.

    I wouldn't do it, there are too many issues that it can cause between humidity affecting controls and wind affecting the combustion, and I am positive that it would void most manufacturer's warranties unless they specifically say they can be installed outside. Why not build a little room around where you are planning to install it outside and keep the boiler protected.

    Be sure to have it well insulated, and have some kind of backup heat (electric baseboard run off a generator is usually fine) to keep the room above freezing when the power goes out or there is a problem with the boiler on a frigid day.

    They do make boilers that are designed to be installed outside but they don't typically have the best warranties and usually are made for pool heaters rather than as space heating plants.
  • ricking
    ricking Member Posts: 34
    I was thinking the same thing. I was just thinking of the noise level from the boiler.
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,170
    I am not an expert except maybe in a few areas -- and one of them is electrics. None. Repeat, NONE of the electrics furnished with and attached to a boiler are qualified to be installed outside. Nor is the burner, whatever fuel you are contemplating. "Out of the weather under the soffits" does not qualify.

    Everything electrical would have to be within a NEMA 4X enclosure -- all your controls, all the electrics associated with the burner... no. Don't even think of going there.

    Your only solution, if noise is an issue (and I would be surprised if anything but a pretty large boiler was noisy enough to really be an issue, except possibly in a recording studio) is to either install it in the structure, in a sound isolated space (this isn't really that hard to do) with it's own outside air intake, or to install it in a weathertight building outside. The building outside would have to be provided with auxiliary heat, as @delta T said. The lines -- whether for hot water or steam -- would also have to be heavily insulated.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    delta TDZoro
  • delta T
    delta T Member Posts: 884
    ricking said:

    I was just thinking of the noise level from the boiler.

    A properly installed hydronic system should be virtually silent unless you are standing next to it, even then, it should be whisper quiet.

    DZoro
  • ricking
    ricking Member Posts: 34
    Thank you all for your comments. Much appreciated.
  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,561
    Outside boilers were the rage in the '90's. Teledyne and Raypack still make outdoor models.
    Between the heat loss, service issues and general beatings they took, they are not very popular any more.
    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein