Re: Hot water heat

Posted by Hal/ Eastern WA on July 21, 2014 at 16:59:21 from (97.115.158.247):

In Reply to: Hot water heat posted by Case e on July 19, 2014 at 21:17:50:

Our church has hot water heat, and I think when we needed to replace the boiler because the old cast iron one cracked and started leaking badly, it cost almost $30K. The church was built in 1958 and the fairly large boiler was originally oil fired, but had been converted to natural gas in the 70"s or early 80"s.

I think that original boiler was pretty oversized, as when the church was built, fairly little insulation had been used. The church could be warmed up fairly quickly, even when it was very cold outside. Over the years, various improvements were made to the church, including adding much insulation, so it was less expensive to keep it heated. The old boiler worked well, and it was repaired a number of times, but when it cracked the last time, we were told that it was too corroded and thin to be repaired again.

The replacement boiler was designed for natural gas and has mostly stainless steel construction. It is supposed to be a much higher percentage of efficiency, as it is supposed to be a condensing type and required a condensate drain line. The new boiler occupies about a third of the volume the old one did. It was somewhat of a pain to remove the old unit, but we got it done by breaking up the cast iron with sledge hammers. Most of the old piping was reused, but we added several new pumps for new zones for a little more efficiency. None of the radiators were changed a bit.

The year following the replacement, we closely monitored the costs of heating the church. We were a little disappointed when we only ended up saving a couple of hundred dollars worth of gas, which was WAY less than we had been told we would save. But maybe the weather was colder, and maybe the old boiler was working a lot more efficiently than they had estimated. At least we are pretty sure the new boiler will work for a long time, hopefully without the tinkering that the old one required the last 20 years of its service life.

Before I bought a house with a boiler of unknown condition, I would check to see how much it might cost to replace it if it failed. The cost might be shocking! I also would be careful about examining the piping, as iron pipe has a limited lifetime. It might be a nightmare to have to tear out all the old system and replace it with new and also be very expensive.

On the other hand, a hot water heating system gives wonderful comfortable heat. I would guess that an old hot water heating system would detract from the sales price of a house as compared with a hot air system where the components can be replaced for lots less money if or when they fail. When you are negotiating the price, you might keep that in mind. Good luck!

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