Boiler heat - Radiator heat

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

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More or less, the only things that go wrong with a boiler are the thermocouple which prevents gas from flowing if the pilot light goes out; and the circulator pumps where older ones need to be lubricated occasionally. If you lose heat, 99.9% of the time, you open it up and replace the thermocouple. I always keep a few spares. Like I said, with copper pipes, you want to flush it periodically and keep an eye on the pH. The antifreeze must be made of unobtainium or something. It's wildly expensive. I see $100+ in "parts" cost when my system gets serviced and it's a cheap thermocouple and the world's most expensive antifreeze.

We have not had a thermocouple go out, but lots of problems with the computer controller. After replacing the controller twice, they discovered it was simply programmed wrong (the manufacturer sent a special representative out because of the endless problems.). The blower went out once too. The blower is not for moving air through ducts but has something to do with combustion, I suspect it simply brings in oxygen to fuel the flames. Ours is pretty large 210,000 BTU.

I wish we had set it up for hot tap water, but I was not aware that could be done.. We have a tankless water heater - could have saved several thousand dollars by using the heating boiler for showers. IT works the same way, why have two? The only downside is during the first several years when the boiler kept going out in the coldest part of winter (because of the programming error) we would have had not hot showers as well as no heat for the house. That would have been doubly miserable.

WE got a really fancy expensive boiler that has outdoor sensors as well as indoor for whatever reason. It is supposed to be super efficient. I woudl recommend if you have a choice, get a very very simple boiler instead. You will have fewer problems if it has no electronic parts. For ours, the efficiency was not worth the cost, not even close.

[littlelou]

WOW!!! thanks for the info!! I am relieved that it won't be a nightmare - I anticipated issues, but I think I can handle this. After living where humidity was an issue year round (coastal georgia) the thought of a house that isn't damp and sticky sounds great. I can deal with a humidifier in the bedroom to prevent a dry nose.

It sounds like I can expect a warm house too, I just don't understand why people think Heat Pumps are so fantastic. They don't cool or warm the house to comfortable levels in my opinion.

keep giving me advice on this - the more I know the better prepared I am.

thanks all!