I own a oil fed Burnham boiler. It is used for our hot water and some household heating. Is there a way I can further insulate the unit, ala an electric HW heate Blanket? I want to minimize the heat loss to the ambient air, thu reduce our oil ($$) consumption.
I don't know about insulating the boiler but the pipes should of course be insulated.
Possibly of more importance is your attic.
It depends . . . Your aim is to warm the air inside your house (at minimal cost.) Radiation from the boiler warms the (basement) air inside your house. Only its local geography can tell you whether insulating the boiler will reduce unit heating costs (for net house heating benefit.) E.g. we do not know whether you seek to heat all rooms.
I use that boiler, as our only source for HW. I have a pellet stove insert (should have mentioned that in my original post) that provides a significant "portion" of our household heating. Typically, our boiler only provides heat, on the coldest days.
In the winter I do not heat, to a comfort level, our rarely used bedrooms.
The setup you have is a very common system used in millions of homes. To summarize its efficiency, it sucks. The blanket is going to be minimal help. Used to bother me on a hot summer night to hear the burner run to heat up water that would not be used for hours. Very wasteful.
What you should consider is setting up in indirect fired hot water tank. The setup I have will hold water at temperature for days and not need the boiler to run unless water is being used.
A few years ago I got rid of my 30 year old boiler and upgraded to a System 2000 and my oil use dropped 39.2% based on degree days.
The one I have is from
Maybe. If the zone is not operating there is little to no loss. If the zone is operating and you want to heat the area, the heat is not lost.
I want the heat from those pipes to heat my utility area. There is no other heat source. It works out as a good balance. Any heat "loss" in that area goes into heated living space.
+1
Depending on his cost of electricity, an electric WH might be an option too. I assume nat gas is not available.
It is really about efficiency. #2 oil is cheaper per Btu, but the waste is very high with the exiting setup for hot water. In winter, if that loss is into an area you are trying to heat, the loss is small, but in summer, it is incredibly high. An electric water heater would make sense.
Indeed nat gas is not available. With the operating cost of the current oil boiler, I chose to add the pellet insert. That insert provides nearly all of the house heat. The oil boiler, $$ to operate, is mainly hot water.
So Ed,
Looking at the System2000 I cannot find any purchase cost online. Can you provide an approximate purchase/install cost as I will need to replace my boiler in the next few years???
Price will depends on the local seller/installer. I paid about $7000 for mine Delivered one day, a guy came to do the unit setup the next day, then two guys came the third day and took out the old, put in the new. Heat was off for only a few hours.
That included a new copper oil line from the tank, a PVC fresh air intake, two zones for heating plus one for hot water, all plumbing and electrical work. They used existing thermostats.
I've been tracking my oil use and in a typical year I'd buy over 850 gallons. It dropped to 450 to 500 or so. The actual use I calculated using degree days from
Check for rebates from both stte and energy start, etc. I saved about $1500 on that alone.
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