Hi!
I live in New York State in the Catskills mountains (5B hardiness zone). My 50+ year-old oil boiler has sprung a leak and will need to be replaced soon. I live in a 100-year-old home with some insulation and am working on air sealing and updating insulation as my budget allows.
For months I have been trying to figure out the best solution for the oil boiler replacement. With oil prices so high where we live $5-6 a gallon, it just seems like a terrible idea to purchase another oil boiler. We already have cast iron baseboard hydronic throughout the house so another boiler-type appliance seems like the best option.
I have thought about:
– Air to Water Heat Pump
– Pellet Boiler
– Electric Boiler
– some combination of above
Any thoughts on what would be the best way forward with a solid ROI and not an insane installation cost? We are on a modest income, but of course, also need heat 🙂
Replies
I have forced air, not a boiler, but had a similar issue a couple years ago. Our furnace was 30 years old and the oil tank was condemned. We replaced it with a high efficiency propane furnace. Considering the efficiency, it's much cheaper than oil, but the gas bill can still punch a hole in my wallet in the depths of winter.
It sucks that we are still on fossil fuels but the cost (in time and money) of upgrading to something greener was just not in the cards.
Your best bet is to look for local places who will do the install, talk to them, and get a couple quotes.
Pellets seem a good idea, if you are into hauling stuff and moving bags.
I would advise starting with an energy assessment, if you can get one. utilities might be able to hook you up, and NY state likes to provide incentives for such services.
You might find that it may pay for some extra sealing and insulation now, to reduce the size of the heat source you need, and also pay in operating savings.
Thanks for the responses!
The one problem I'm having is finding local folks who deal with boiler alternatives. Up here it's either oil or propane and basically nothing else. I'm going to keep searching though because some honest answers about my options would be a huge help.
When my boiler, nicknamed “The Dragon”, was dying 6-7 years ago I went through the same “what to replace it with?” dilemma. In my case, we primarily heat with wood (Vermont), so it wasn’t as important to have the most efficient new system since it would only be used as backup supplementary heat. I opened a wholesale account with a heating company in Georgia and bought (and installed myself) an LP gas condensing boiler, a 96% efficient wall-mounted unit with DHW. It hooked right into the existing baseboard. We changed the location of the new unit, so we had to run new copper to connect into the existing loops, and run a new gas line through the basement (all easily done by me). In researching a new system we considered a pellet boiler, but decided against it because we didn’t want the added expense of the necessary big pellet hopper and auger (or storage for the tons of 40# bags if we didn’t go the hopper route). We also seriously considered a mini-split system (air, not air to water exchanger) which we’ll probably do when I’m too old to manage firewood. We’ll use the mini-split as the primary heat source with the boiler as supplementary. Our personal decision came down to the expense of a pellet or mini-split system that we’d only use for backup. The gas switch was economical. I personally wouldn’t consider an electric boiler at all. I don’t know exactly how efficient the air to water heat exchange heat pumps are, they must lose some efficiency in the exchange, but for a primary system I’d start there. If you have a separate DHW heater or a place to install one, I would consider the air to air mini splits as a cheaper, more efficient option and ignore or remove the baseboard and radiators. My 1 1/2 cents.