Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Reasons to replace a furnace

We just bought a house and the furnace (oil) is about 30 years old.
Furnace photo here (http://theaterweb.com/online%20images/furnace%20photo.jpg)
It runs fine, but we are concerned about the efficiency of a 30 year old furnace. When I asked the oil company about that I was told that the furnaces today are the same as from 30 years ago and that there was no advantage to replacing it. He suggested that inefficiency exists in the rest of the system, being old cast iron radiators on hot water. Now I have trouble believing any of that (can't believe that furnace technology hasn't gotten more efficient for oil as it has for gas, and my experience with old cast iron is that they heat a room better than slant fins) and I'm looking for some other opinions.

Thanks,

Anthony

The dealer was right about oil wise. Yes, there are 90% oil out there, but $$$$$$$. Also reqires alot of upkeep to keep them going..

You're best to make sure you get a good guy who done nothing but oil, and knows how to fine tune so the fire burns clean. A good oil guy would have all the equipement to test the smoke, draft, and temp of the fire.

As for noise, not knowing how long ago the the last cleaning/tuneing was done, it may need it.

If you got walls stud in the room, full the space with instulation, and finish the wall off w/ sheetrock.

What kind of shape are the windows? Attic? doors?? if they are not in good shape, be best to update that to help save money on heating.

The cast iron are great for keeping a room warm longer.. but takes longer to recover.. best to leave the t-stat and forget it. make sure the air has been purged from each one of these radatior.

Please keep everything in one posting.

There are quite a number of modern oil fired boilers which reach efficiencies in the upper 80 percent range. Among them are Crown's CT series & Buderus' G-115 & G-215. My Crown CT-3 runs very close to 88%. I clean it about every three years but it doesn't need it.

About the cast iron radiators: They are probably the second best heat emitters you can get (behind in/under floor radiant).

In addition to the attention to insulation & windows Jay mentioned, there are controls available which will modulate the temperature of the boiler based on outdoor temperature.

Thanks for the replies. We have some work to do to tighten things up. The attic is very well insulated, but there are many broken windows (broken sash cords, so the windows probably came crashing down and...). We'll be fixing those; there are also fairly modern looking storms on all the windows and the doors have pretty good weather seals. Once we get the windows fixed we'll call someone in to do an energy audit. The boiler has been anually maintained by the oil company. I don't know how good a job they do, having very little experience with oil burners. What would be a good source for a second opinion? Is it a plumber's thing?

Thanks,

Anthony

Some plumbers do oil burner service, some do not. You might want to try an indepenent service company. Whom ever you contact make sure they are well versed in oil fired BOILER service & can perform a complete combustion analysis.

And a few months go by, oil prices shoot up, and we return to the questions of improving efficiency in our heating system. First, the furnace is a Burnham America model V-15. The burner is a Marathon Electric Sun Ray Bantham Burner, Model HPN48S34S54D. Just want to make sure that doesn't make anyone scream in horror.

Second, we had a plumber in looking at some stuff last week and he said that the system was an old gravity system, which accounts for the huge pipes running around the basement. He said that because of the nature of the system, all of the radiators loop to the basement, so it would be relatively easy to put multiple zones in the house. It seems to me this might be a wothwhile investment as it would allow us to have better control of what's getting heated. Opinions?

This is from an online article I read: "Flame retention head burners do a much better job of mixing the air and fuel than old cast-iron head burners. They are now almost standard on new furnaces and can also be added to most older furnaces. Replacing the burner can increase the seasonal efficiency of an old oil-fired furnace by about 15%. Use of a new high-static burner can give even greater savings and better performance. The nozzle should be reduced at least one size or even more, and a ceramic fiber combustion chamber liner should be used. (An experienced contractor should check the system's chimney or flue whenever any change is made to the system.)"
Elsewhere I read that it doesn't make sense to put a higher efficiency burner on an old furnace. :wall:

Finally, above mentioned plumber suggested a holding tank for the hot water to supplement the coil. He said that the coil is the least energy efficient way to produce hot water. Seems like a good idea. Is it?

Thanks for any and all advice.

Anthony

Looks to me like what you have should still work ok. You can go to http://www.warmair.net and compare fuel cost for where you live . Have put in smaller nozzles on units and kicked up the pump psi. Works real good. I do see from that picture that the barometic damper on the flue is not level. It should be. Any good oil tech with a good test kit can bring your burner up to about 80% or should . yes for sure pumps on boiler with zones would help.


ED :thinker:

The Sun Ray is (I think) a flame retention burner. Some parts can be very hard to come by. Several years ago, I retro-fitted a Riello burner to a boiler just like yours & it works VERY well. Your plumber is right about the inefficiency of a domestic coil. An indirect is your best bet but they are pricey & would require another zone. Zoning is an excellent way to cut your heating bills if it can be done fairly easily.

Thanks for the replies - it gives me direction on what to pursue. Grady - what type of Riello burner? I assume they make different ones.

Thanks!

The burner would be a "40 Series". They designate them as F-3, F-5, & F-10, depending on firing rate. F-3 goes between 0.50 & 0.95 gph, F-5 is 0.75-1.50, & F-10 is 1.45-3.20 gph.

Literally cannot get a plumber to return a call. At least not one who has been reccommended. Is adding zones something that an advanced homeowner could do? I've worked on gas boilers (replaced the thermocouple and the pilot line as well as installed new slant fins into the system. All of that's pretty basic, but I don't know how complicated what I need to do is) but not oil. I've been trying to find some instructions about how it is done - what parts are needed, etc. - but have had no luck. I'd like to do as much of the work myself as possible and then have someone check the work before bringing it online. Can anyone direct me to a good resource for what I'm trying to do. I want to be able to add in an indirect hot water heater, baseboard radiators in the basement and two different radiant floors. This in addition to eventually separating the 1st and second floors.

Thanks for any advice.

From what I can see of your system, it's layout may lend itself to zoning but all of the piping is steel. This involves cutting & threading pipe or at least cutting the pipe, screwing it out & converting to copper. A job like this is beyond the average DIYer. If you want to study piping for boilers, I think there are some books on the subject available for sale here: http://www.heatinghelp.com.

Cutting and threading steel pipe isn't a problem - I have more experience doing that than sweating copper. I imagine that for the radiant floors and the baseboards I'll want to go out with copper, anyway, and I have the pipe cutter and can borrow the threaders. Thanks for the link - I'm on my way there to shop!

Did I miss something? If you are going to install radiant, I suggest PEX for that.

Haven't gotten that far in the thinking yet. I assumed it would be copper from the boiler and then tie into the PEX under the floor, but I suppose it could be PEX all the way. That will be a whole new set of questions when I get there.

Thanks,