New boiler producing a lot of heat in basement (how much, hot water heater, insulating)

[madisonfriday]

Is it normal for a boiler to warm up the room its in? I had an old oil boiler that we recently replaced with a gas boiler. My basement before was always freezing and now it's warmer then the rest of the house. Just checking to see if this is normal since our older boiler did nothing to heat the basement up. It's a cement basement - no insulation, so I am surprise it stays warm. I'm sure my dogs love it during the day when they are down there though.

[btuhack]

My chief concern would be that the flue gases aren't the source of heat.

[nybbler]

Probably; an oil boiler has an enclosed combustion chamber and a gas one doesn't, right?

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by madisonfriday

Is it normal for a boiler to warm up the room its in?

Yes. The question is about how much.
And that should be about the lineal feet of pipe and insulation.

I had an old oil boiler that we recently replaced with a gas boiler.
My basement before was always freezing and now it's warmer then the rest of the house.

This is VERY odd.

[thecoalman]

There is always going to be some residual heat from a boiler whether it's the boiler itself, the flue pipe or even the pipes.

That warm is not normal unless there is no insulating jacket on it which is the only thing I can think of that would make it that warm. You should not have that much heat in the basement for normal operation.

[madisonfriday]

I know nothing about the system so pardon me - the sheet pipe going into the chimney line is whats really warm I can feel the heat coming off that and the pipes going up through the house are warm too. Its not awfully hot. It just is a lot warmer then it was before with the old boiler. I open the basement door and I feel warm air. Our house is really old so our kitchen is normally on the colder side (where the basement door is) so it's probably just a noticeable difference that way.

One thing that is different from the old system - not sure if it had a liner so we put a new one in - could that make a difference? Also, the old system had an extension coming from that exit pipe into the chimney with a little vent/flap (guess its called a damper?)that was exposed to our basement - no idea what that did maybe pulled air in and thats why it was colder?? I'm sure I have nothing to be worried about, a reputable company set the whole thing up.

This is our new set-up,

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by madisonfriday

Also, the old system had an extension coming from that exit pipe into the chimney with a little vent/flap (guess its called a damper?)

It's called a barometric damper, when you have strong draft like if it's windy out it that will allow air to be pulled from the room instead of through the boiler. It's better for 60 or 70 degree air to be getting sucked up the chimney than a lot of heat from the boiler.

A potential source of the heat is the flue setup, gases will seek the easiest egress and if that is backwards through the hot water heater that is where they are going to go. When the boiler comes on put your hand on the hot water flue pipe, see if it heats up.

Do you have CO detector? Get one with a readout and check it, it should be 0.

[kevink1955]

You also have a motorized vent damper that the old oil boiler did not have. When the boiler turns off after a heating cycle the damper closes and spills the waste heat that would have gone up the chimney into the basement.

That alone will add some heat to the basement as well as it closing the chimney so it does not suck heat out of the basement on boiler off cycles.