Hello
Embarassing question likely, but I thought I would ask. My knowledge of all things heating-related is nil, so please don't laugh too loudly :)
I bought my house 16 months ago. It is 27 years old. The house came with two boilers for hot water baseboards - a traditional New Yorker style oil boiler, and a wood stove boiler. They are hooked up in SERIES together as the previous owner burned wood. Not being comfortable with wood burning yet, I have stayed away from it in the past winter [east coast of Canada].
Just recently, it was suggested to me that I should check to see if the pipes going into the wood boiler were open, because if they were, this could be a loss of energy to my system since I would be heating the water in the wood boiler as the oil system works. Basically, I would be using the wood boiler as a local radiator in the boiler room, with little other benefit. Sure enough, all the pipes going into the wood boiler were hot, and the thermostat on it read the same as the oil thermostat. There does not seem to be a bypass to get around it, so I would have to have one installed. I may like to use the wood boiler at some point if oil prices demand it.
My question - is this a significant loss of heat to my system?
Thanks,
Dave