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How to convert oil boiler to electric (house water heating system)

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How to convert oil boiler to electric (house water heating system) neilsanner 01-27-2008
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Posted by neilsanner on January 27, 2008, 11:43 am
Hi,

My house is heated by an oil boiler (furnace). The boiler heats water
and then a circulator pump circulates the water all over the house to
the baseboards.

Is there a way to / Do you know anyone who did something similar to
this before:
-Make a hole in the boiler
-Insert an electric element
-Connect the element to an aquastat
-The boiler would now be electricity heated!!!

Another way to do this I thought of:
-Buy a small (tank) water heater
-Put it next to the existing oil boiler
-Take the input and output pipes of the oil boiler and connect it to
the input and output of the water heater.

This system would work like that:
-The water heater would keep the water hot
-The circulator would start when the thermostat says so
-The circulator would bring the hot water all over the house until
the heat goes up in the rooms and the thermostat shuts off the
circulator.

Any ideas?
NeilSanner

Posted by RBM on January 27, 2008, 12:09 pm
I've never seen it done, but I suppose if the boiler has a plate where a
domestic coil would go, an element could be fitted into it. It would have to
be pretty high KW to equal the oil burner BTU output, and of course
controlled by a contactor attached to the aquastat, but it could work. You
could also do it with a heat exchanger as you describe, but it's a bit more
complicated.





> Hi,
>
> My house is heated by an oil boiler (furnace). The boiler heats water
> and then a circulator pump circulates the water all over the house to
> the baseboards.
>
> Is there a way to / Do you know anyone who did something similar to
> this before:
> -Make a hole in the boiler
> -Insert an electric element
> -Connect the element to an aquastat
> -The boiler would now be electricity heated!!!
>
> Another way to do this I thought of:
> -Buy a small (tank) water heater
> -Put it next to the existing oil boiler
> -Take the input and output pipes of the oil boiler and connect it to
> the input and output of the water heater.
>
> This system would work like that:
> -The water heater would keep the water hot
> -The circulator would start when the thermostat says so
> -The circulator would bring the hot water all over the house until
> the heat goes up in the rooms and the thermostat shuts off the
> circulator.
>
> Any ideas?
> NeilSanner



Posted by Dr. Hardcrab on January 27, 2008, 12:29 pm

> Hi,
>
> My house is heated by an oil boiler (furnace). The boiler heats water
> and then a circulator pump circulates the water all over the house to
> the baseboards.
>
> Is there a way to / Do you know anyone who did something similar to
> this before:
> -Make a hole in the boiler
> -Insert an electric element
> -Connect the element to an aquastat
> -The boiler would now be electricity heated!!!
>
> Another way to do this I thought of:
> -Buy a small (tank) water heater
> -Put it next to the existing oil boiler
> -Take the input and output pipes of the oil boiler and connect it to
> the input and output of the water heater.
>
> This system would work like that:
> -The water heater would keep the water hot
> -The circulator would start when the thermostat says so
> -The circulator would bring the hot water all over the house until
> the heat goes up in the rooms and the thermostat shuts off the
> circulator.
>
> Any ideas?

Yeah. Don't do it.

There is no way you will get the recovery rate of oil-fired with an
electrical element.

A lot of people are getting ideas like that because the price of oil is so
high. If you want to go electric, you'd be better off putting electric
basboard heaters in all of your rooms (providing you have enough amperage in
your panel, which you probably do not). That would be cheaper than trying to
heat the water in the boiler fast enough to make a hot water baseboard
system keep up with the demand.

If you want to save a little on your oil bill, try a more efficient boiler
OR have a plumber install an electric water heater and tie the lines into
the boiler's domestic lines (isolated with gate or ball valves) . Then in
the summertime (or non-heating season) you can get your domestic hot water
from the electric unit and turn your oil-fired boiler off completely.




Posted by RBM on January 27, 2008, 12:29 pm
Just loosely calculating what I'd need for the equivalent electric BTU
output of my 156500 BTU boiler and it comes to 191 amps @ 240 volt. I don't
know if you'd actually need the full BTU capacity though





> Hi,
>
> My house is heated by an oil boiler (furnace). The boiler heats water
> and then a circulator pump circulates the water all over the house to
> the baseboards.
>
> Is there a way to / Do you know anyone who did something similar to
> this before:
> -Make a hole in the boiler
> -Insert an electric element
> -Connect the element to an aquastat
> -The boiler would now be electricity heated!!!
>
> Another way to do this I thought of:
> -Buy a small (tank) water heater
> -Put it next to the existing oil boiler
> -Take the input and output pipes of the oil boiler and connect it to
> the input and output of the water heater.
>
> This system would work like that:
> -The water heater would keep the water hot
> -The circulator would start when the thermostat says so
> -The circulator would bring the hot water all over the house until
> the heat goes up in the rooms and the thermostat shuts off the
> circulator.
>
> Any ideas?
> NeilSanner



Posted by Boden on January 28, 2008, 5:49 pm
RBM wrote:
> Just loosely calculating what I'd need for the equivalent electric BTU
> output of my 156500 BTU boiler and it comes to 191 amps @ 240 volt. I don't
> know if you'd actually need the full BTU capacity though
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>My house is heated by an oil boiler (furnace). The boiler heats water
>>and then a circulator pump circulates the water all over the house to
>>the baseboards.
>>
>>Is there a way to / Do you know anyone who did something similar to
>>this before:
>>-Make a hole in the boiler
>>-Insert an electric element
>>-Connect the element to an aquastat
>>-The boiler would now be electricity heated!!!
>>
>>Another way to do this I thought of:
>>-Buy a small (tank) water heater
>>-Put it next to the existing oil boiler
>>-Take the input and output pipes of the oil boiler and connect it to
>>the input and output of the water heater.
>>
>>This system would work like that:
>>-The water heater would keep the water hot
>>-The circulator would start when the thermostat says so
>>-The circulator would bring the hot water all over the house until
>>the heat goes up in the rooms and the thermostat shuts off the
>>circulator.
>>
>>Any ideas?
>>NeilSanner
>
>
>
Your 156500 BTU/hr furnace is probably only delivering only 80% in terms
of indoor heat so 150 amps may be a better limit. Do it and watch the
pole transformer smoke.

It's getting close to the point where electric heat will make sense.
Here, at 15 cents per kw-hr its only 58% more than #2 oil. And, I get
almost 100 sq ft back into my shop if I take out the oil tank.

Boden

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