A friend of mine has a vacation house in upstate NY that he uses maybe
3 days out of every 2 or 3 weeks. It currently has an oil fired boiler that needs to be replaced that supplies hot water heat and also serves as the water heater. Nat gas is not available. So, here are the options:1 - Replace with another boiler that will do both, lowest install cost
2 - Replace with a boiler and seperate oil fired hot water heater, highest install cost3 - Replace with a boiler and seperate electric water heater
Question is, which of these do you think is the best option?
The biggest apparent disadvantage with #1 is that during the warm months, when the boiler is not generating heat, this type of water heater is supposed to be the least efficient. However, with his limited usage model, this may not make that much difference. Also, he could turn the boiler off when he leaves in warm weather, turn it on again when he arrives, thereby keeping it from running to maintain hot water during 2 week periods when no one is there.
With either option 2 or 3, he could turn off the water heater when he leaves and then turn it on again when he arrives all year long. But if he did that, it would most likely mean that he would have to go with option 2, because otherwise it will take quite a while to get hot water.