Power Draft is More Consumption?

[BrokenGrate]

I have an oil boiler going into a Power Draft instead of a chimney. So my boiler guy said that natural draft is better and to get a chimney inspection on a block and lined chimney. I did and the man said it’s junk and needs a liner.

Not surprising.

But he said by going to natural draft versus power vent, I will consume far less oil. I don’t understand that part. I would think a 40 ft chimney would almost draft more than a power vent. And “ suck the heat out of the boiler”.

I am pretty dumb and don’t know tiny house boilers very well but do have my high pressure steam license and know a bit about bigger boilers. I cannot see where natural draft or power vents would be a huge difference.

[nepacoal]

If the power vent only runs while the boiler is running, and the draft over fire has been set to -.02, I would not expect there to be much difference at all. The power vent may even be a little better since it's not constantly drafting through the boiler while it's not running.

[waytomany?s]

The guy that said it's junk will install the liner? No way!

[BigBarney]

The real advantage of the power vent is the steady draft and the

ability of closing the draft off completely when off.Only the minimum

amount of air goes through the fire so better combustion.. Need a

safety device to prevent firing until the flue is completely open...

BigBarney

[BrokenGrate]

The guy that said it's junk will install the liner? No way!

I know, Right? Not really surprising.

I think the bigger issue is Return on Investment or life expectancy of either method of exhaust extraction.

With a liner in the chimney, it is $4500 and would last 20 years, but with the power vent, they quoted me a price of $3500 and said it would last ten years. I do know the power vent needs to be replaced as it is literally wired together with baling wire, but I see I can buy one myself for $1100 and put the thing in myself. For the same price as a chimney I could put (4) in and get 40 years out of them.

In digging around this site, it seems a stainless steel liner is NOT conducive to having a coal boiler attached, so either method would negate having a coal boiler in the basement. The wife is not really okay with the coal boiler being in the basement either.

[Retro_Origin]

In digging around this site, it seems a stainless steel liner is NOT conducive to having a coal boiler attached, so either method would negate having a coal boiler in the basement. The wife is not really okay with the coal boiler being in the basement either.

You could probably lay up a chimney that will last decades for that price! Why is your wife NOT ok with boiler in the basement? if that's a deal breaker, build a shed outside with a masonry chimney, put the boiler in it and pipe underground.

[waytomany?s]

Where does your wife prefer said boiler?

[BrokenGrate]

Where does your wife prefer said boiler?

We have a barn with a woodworking shop over it. I thought of taking our coal boiler and making a spot for it there, I could then plumb the lines to go to the main house, and use latent heat from around the coal boiler to help heat the woodworking shop above. It would make coal storage convenient by being at ground level, with less fire risk (we live in an old Victorian home)

I tried to use home heating calculator on this site to see what heating with coal would save per year to see if doing that would be worth the cost of installing my coal boiler (I already have it), but could not seem to get an idea of what I would save per year. I was not sure it would be that much.

[BrokenGrate]

Where does your wife prefer said boiler?

She is okay with coal. We were both previously married and her and her ex-husband heated with coal which is not super common in Maine. Her biggest thing was loading the coal bin with coal that hurt her back, so easy coal storage and loading is huge with her.

But she is all about spending less money. We both are VERY frugal people.

[waytomany?s]

We have a barn with a woodworking shop over it. I thought of taking our coal boiler and making a spot for it there, I could then plumb the lines to go to the main house, and use latent heat from around the coal boiler to help heat the woodworking shop above. It would make coal storage convenient by being at ground level, with less fire risk (we live in an old Victorian home)

I tried to use home heating calculator on this site to see what heating with coal would save per year to see if doing that would be worth the cost of installing my coal boiler (I already have it), but could not seem to get an idea of what I would save per year. I was not sure it would be that much.

What did your numbers look like?

[BrokenGrate]

They got back to me with the estimate to do a couple of improvements and so we went ahead with two of the three.

They are going to add in some higher BTU baseboard in the Foyer and Dining Room as there is little wall space and it gets cold in there. In the back bedroom we are putting in a Renai. We could have put in baseboard, but there was a propane line already there, so it just made sense to go with a small non-nonsense propane heater. I am not convinced of the chimney liner though, so we are not going to do that.

Our thoughts are, if the back bedroom has heat, and the front rooms have more heat, then the heat should not be migrating to cold as it was happening this past winter. If that does not work, a small Renai heater in the front rooms would help.

In previous years I would have just done the work myself, but as I get older I guess I am getting soft. I have put in Renai heaters before and they are easy, but I don't know... now at my elevated age... yep... I am getting soft.

[BrokenGrate]

What did your numbers look like?

Its not that bad with oil. We go through between 150-200 gallons of oil a month at $3.94 a gallon. So it kind of ranges between $600-850 a month depending on the severity of the cold.

If a ton of coal equates to roughly 100 gallons of oil, that would put is in the 10 ton a year range. I am not sure what Maine''s coal prices are which is the biggest variable, but there is also the cost of hooking up the coal boiler. Chimney, making a room for it, plumbing it in... Off the top of my head I do not see a huge savings from switching from oil to coal.

[xackley1]

Lookup Maine mini split. If you can drill and wrench and run some 10 gauge wire you can heat your home for an initial investment of about $2000. Senville Aura heats down to -22f. Maine and the feds will help pay with rebate and tax credit.
According to the calculator I save $600 for the heating season over burning coal at $400 a ton. My electric bill for this winter verifies that the calculator works to give a good ball park.

https://www.maine.gov/mpuc/regulated-utilities/el ... very-rates should give you a number to plug in the cost of electricity. looks like most of Maine pays a lot more for electricity than I do, so your mileage will vary.

I have a coal stove and oil furnace, I used neither this winter.

Hundreds of Youtube videos on how to install and reviews.
Don

[BrokenGrate]

We already got Mini splits here but only use them for cooling. They work great for that but not so well for heating.