New Boiler Needed

[openhand]

Hi All- I can't believe that I have outlived my Energy Kinetics System 2000 installed in 1986, but it's beginning to leak and I'm due for a replacement. The oil tank has been in my very clean, dry basement for these 36 years but I'm assuming it should be replaced as well? I've been satisfied with this system and the oil company estimator is coming soon to discuss replacement options. I'm currently using a heat pump water heater and am satisfied with that, so I don't need a system with DHW. The 2000 has been a great system mostly, very quiet and I think economical. I want to keep the existing hydronic heat runs for distribution but I'm thinking a lot has changed since this system was installed and I wonder if I could get educated on this forum about what to replace my system with: Should I stay with heating oil or would propane make sense? I've been with the same company all these years and they've done a good job, but I wonder if I'll end up paying a lot more since I'm a captive audience if I don't invite comptitive bids. Can someone walk me through what they would do if they were in my shoes? Thanks much!

 

[FishScreener]

Get a Mechanical Engineer to do a real calculation of what you need.

I replaced an old early 60s boiler with a fancy new high efficiency, propane unit.

It is too smart for anyone to ge tit to actually heat the building. The old boiler was set to keep the water at 185 to 190-F. and it heated the building.

New boiler monitors the outgoing water temp and compares it to the return temperature. Since when the system was built in 1962, they rule of thumb designed the hydronic base board heat, they only put the finned tube under the windows. So, even though we have base board with tubing in it all around the building, Only the parts under windows have any fins.

So, the temprature drop through the loops is lower than whatever span is programmed into the controls for the new boiler, and it keeps throttling back, until the discharge temp is only 125F, which doesn’t hea the building. So, everyone has space heaters in their offices.

 

[openhand]

That's a good argument in favor of replacing with an oil burner, maybe the new one they replaced the system 2000 with - the 2000 Frontier. Has anyone had this unit installed and do you know the price?