jek
New Member
Hello All,
I am a homeowner with no experience at all with home heating/plumbing so please ask if more detail is needed.
I have a Kerr Comet 145 boiler with a tankless coil for DHW. One year ago I had minisplits installed to try and reduce our heating costs, but after one year the savings were negligible. I am not sure why, but I am thinking it is because my DHW is still being provided by the tankless coil which is extremely inefficient based on what I've read (especially when not being used in combination for home heating which is the case in my situation now). My oil costs did decrease (about 30%), but I still spent around $1500 in oil ($2300 the previous year) at around $1/LITRE (we're in Canada)...that was on hot water, the cost to keep the boiler running year round, and the minimal hot water baseboard used to keep the basement at around 10-12 degrees celcius during the winter. To me $1500 seems really high, but maybe I am way off base...in my mind the majority of that is hot water. Is there any real way to estimate what the breakdown would be? We are an average family of 3.
If you agree that it seems high and is most likely due to DHW then I am looking for recommendations about what to do to try and begin seeing savings if at all possible. My initial thought was to install an electric hot water tank and shut the boiler off except during extremely cold nights in the winter when the minisplits can't keep up and install electric baseboard heat in the basement to keep it at 10 degrees, but I'm reading that this poses problems because I shouldn't "cold start" my boiler (leaks, shortening life span etc).
Alternatively, I'd have to leave the boiler running all year round (again, is this a huge expense? is there a way to decrease the cost) like I do now and install an electric hot water heater (or some other storage device)?
Or is there a totally different solution that I am not seeing? I don't want to spend a lot more money to swap boilers etc, but after hearing glorious things about saving money by installing minisplits I am a little disappointed to say the least.
I am really confused and any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
jek
I am a homeowner with no experience at all with home heating/plumbing so please ask if more detail is needed.
I have a Kerr Comet 145 boiler with a tankless coil for DHW. One year ago I had minisplits installed to try and reduce our heating costs, but after one year the savings were negligible. I am not sure why, but I am thinking it is because my DHW is still being provided by the tankless coil which is extremely inefficient based on what I've read (especially when not being used in combination for home heating which is the case in my situation now). My oil costs did decrease (about 30%), but I still spent around $1500 in oil ($2300 the previous year) at around $1/LITRE (we're in Canada)...that was on hot water, the cost to keep the boiler running year round, and the minimal hot water baseboard used to keep the basement at around 10-12 degrees celcius during the winter. To me $1500 seems really high, but maybe I am way off base...in my mind the majority of that is hot water. Is there any real way to estimate what the breakdown would be? We are an average family of 3.
If you agree that it seems high and is most likely due to DHW then I am looking for recommendations about what to do to try and begin seeing savings if at all possible. My initial thought was to install an electric hot water tank and shut the boiler off except during extremely cold nights in the winter when the minisplits can't keep up and install electric baseboard heat in the basement to keep it at 10 degrees, but I'm reading that this poses problems because I shouldn't "cold start" my boiler (leaks, shortening life span etc).
Alternatively, I'd have to leave the boiler running all year round (again, is this a huge expense? is there a way to decrease the cost) like I do now and install an electric hot water heater (or some other storage device)?
Or is there a totally different solution that I am not seeing? I don't want to spend a lot more money to swap boilers etc, but after hearing glorious things about saving money by installing minisplits I am a little disappointed to say the least.
I am really confused and any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
jek
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