DHW Solution with Older Boiler

[John Molyneux]

My son just bought a house in Maine that came with a 1990's vintage oil-fired Burnham boiler, which currently provides DHW via an internal coil.

I know it's a terribly inefficient way to make DHW, but on the other hand we're only talking about 1 shower a day and some dishes (no dishwasher).

I had a trusted pro look at the boiler and he thinks there's some life left in it. There's no natgas on the street so when and if we need to replace it we're probably looking another oil unit anyway. The house probably isn't a good candidate for a modcon or tankless application.

My question is whether he should continue to use the boiler for DHW or get a stand-alone tank.

I hate the idea of keeping the boiler hot year-round to meet such a small DHW load but it's not exactly going to break the bank in fuel use. I also wonder if it might be better just to leave well-enough alone due to the age of the boiler.

Or, should we shut 'er down for the summer and get him a 40 gallon electric?

 

[Jadnashua]

I'd seriously consider running the outlet of the boiler's coil to a new electric (or maybe a heat pump unit if there are any rebates and it makes some economical sense) and turn the boiler off for the summer. The electric tank would not need to do much work in the winter when the boiler was on since it would primarily just be maintaining, already hot water. Electric tanks these days have pretty good insulation, so standby losses are fairly small.