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Posted by Edwin Pawlowski on May 18, 2008, 11:00 pm
> Like to hear from those who had/have steam heat and what you did when your
> oil furnace needed replacement.
>
> My steam furnace's preheater for our hot water is leaking so my best guess
> is to replace the whole furnace since it is about 30+ years old. Lots of
> rust and I was thinking of replacing it last year.
>
> Our current oil fired system has two massive radiators, one in the kitchen
> and one in the living room and another smaller one in the den. They all
> have one pipe to each. I do have gas heat in one bedroom. We use about 500
> gal of oil per season.
>
> I do like steam heat but is it worthwhile to shift to baseboard? My guess
> is it will nearly double the cost of just replacing the boiler.
>
> Should I go with gas (propane)or oil for the replacement?
>
> Any experience with specific models/manufacturers?
>
> Help greatly appreciated
>
> GA
>
Start with the basics. You don't have a furnace. Furnaces heat air,
boilers heat water. You have a seam boiler.
To swap out those massive radiators you need to add considerable baseboard.
Can be done, but probably higher cost. You can measure the radiators and
there is a web site that does the conversion to how much baseboard you need
for equal heat. While costly, you may get better heat distribution. You
also have wall space issues in some cases so do a layout first to see what
problems you may encounter.
Gas boilers are generally less maintenance cost than oil but propane adds to
the cost tool
Check prices locally to figure which is best for you.
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