I'm the first to admit I know very little about home heating systems. But it occurred to me today while reading crunchy chicken's "freeze yer buns wrap up" (which I completely missed, yet fully participated in by sheer frugality anyway) that with the money I spent on fuel oil this winter, I could have made a huge dent in paying for a new system thats more efficient & less scary.
What I currently have: a Well-McLain "gold" oil powered boiler from at least 1998 - currently rated at 83% efficient, which I doubt. My house has what is called "hydronic" heat - no separate hot water tank. What I would like to do is somehow incorporate a propane tankless hot water heater into this system, or just rip out the furnace, boiler & oil tank and convert to a propane boiler system.
Oh, oil heat, how do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways...
It's dirty, it's smelly, in my particular case it's unreliable, and it's recently very costly. I've spent a lot of time cleaning up sites contaminated with the very substance I have sitting in a 275-gallon tank in my basement. Seems wise, right, to let that stay? AND, my particular system has proved to be anything but reliable. I have anxiety attacks while on vacation over it - to the point where I don't really want to travel anymore (the system shut itself down once, in the winter, while I was gone, and the pipes froze in my bedroom, and burst... no major damage, but a giant PITA).
So if anyone knows of any good books regarding oil hydronic systems and how to incorporate a whole house instant hot water heater into the mix, by all means, comment away.
In the mean time, the hubby and I are headed to a geothermal heating and cooling seminar in preparation for the next house...
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