Dan Westerfield
New Member
I have a 1914 home with the original coal fired boiler that was converted to gas at some point. There are 4 floors in total. Basement, 1st (ground), 2nd, and a finished attic. My current (original) system supplies the 1st and second floor radiators with hot water through a gravity system. I have 11 radiators in total now, and the house is about 4500 sqft. The exterior walls are solid brick, 2 brick thick with plaster on the inside. Interior walls are plaster and lathe. R-30 insulation has been installed in the attic. I do have storm windows on all windows, and doors except for 2 set of French doors that lead out to my side porch. The heat in the basement comes from the wildly inefficient boiler and pipes. The attic heat currently comes from a stand alone ventless gas heater. On the first floor, there is a pantry (over a small crawl space, and back room (on a slab) that we converted to our laundry room that were unheated. I added a small wall mount ventless gas heater to the newly converted laundry room.
What I would like to do is replace my old boiler with a properly sized, ultra high efficiency boiler, with a recirc pump, and add radiators to my attic, pantry, laundry room, and basement. I would like to make the first floor and basement one Zone, and the second and attic a second zone. It would be an added bonus for my boiler to also provide DHW for my home.
I have read about installing 2 smaller boilers, that way the majority of the time I’m only running one small one, and not firing up the big one everytime, and only kicking on both when it gets really cold. Pros - Cons? Or should I go with 2 small boilers and put 2 floors on each boiler instead of doing zones on a bigger boiler?
Any help would be appreciated. I want to make sure I get this done right, so it will be comfortable, dependable, balanced, and efficient.
What I would like to do is replace my old boiler with a properly sized, ultra high efficiency boiler, with a recirc pump, and add radiators to my attic, pantry, laundry room, and basement. I would like to make the first floor and basement one Zone, and the second and attic a second zone. It would be an added bonus for my boiler to also provide DHW for my home.
I have read about installing 2 smaller boilers, that way the majority of the time I’m only running one small one, and not firing up the big one everytime, and only kicking on both when it gets really cold. Pros - Cons? Or should I go with 2 small boilers and put 2 floors on each boiler instead of doing zones on a bigger boiler?
Any help would be appreciated. I want to make sure I get this done right, so it will be comfortable, dependable, balanced, and efficient.