Hi All,
First post over here in the boiler room. I've done some forum searching but haven't really come up with what I'm looking for.
First of all, I'm a total boiler novice. I understand that wood makes fire, fire heats water, water heats house. That's about it.
Here's the reason I'm posting. I have a vintage 1960's propane boiler in my house feeding radiant baseboard panels. Boiler is in working order, panels work, no leaks, etc. It is very capable of overheating the house (previous older couple living here kept the stat on 78*) so I have no concerns with sizing. HVAC friend says I should have no issue with them going "bad".
I don't think I need to go into detail about how expensive the propane boiler is to operate. I'm offsetting it considerably with a wood stove. Due to the layout of our house, heating with a stove is less than ideal in terms of heat distribution (long ranch house, closed floor plan).
Now I'm starting to think if I'm going to do all the work of heating with wood, I might as well have an even heat and a boiler would be a good option.
Ideally I would:
1.) Keep the old boiler for backup heat just in case we are out of town, boiler fails, whatever.
2.) Tie in the new outdoor boiler to the existing radiant heat system
3.) Tie in the new outdoor boiler to DHW and keep the current propane water heater for non-burning months
4.) Heat my shop with a ductless forced air setup
I have room for storage inside.
I guess my questions are:
1.) House + semi-finished basement = 3,400 sq ft. Shop is poorly insulated and ~1000sq ft...plan to insulated sometime....only would heat 2 days a week at most. What size boiler would I need?
2.) What is the best way to tie into the existing forced hot water system?
3.) How much storage would I need?
4.) I would like to do as much of the installation myself as possible. I'm sure it's harder than an oil change and easier than rocket surgery. I have plumbing and carpentry skills but am not much for electrical. How hard would this be to put in myself.
5.) What am I NOT thinking about?
First post over here in the boiler room. I've done some forum searching but haven't really come up with what I'm looking for.
First of all, I'm a total boiler novice. I understand that wood makes fire, fire heats water, water heats house. That's about it.
Here's the reason I'm posting. I have a vintage 1960's propane boiler in my house feeding radiant baseboard panels. Boiler is in working order, panels work, no leaks, etc. It is very capable of overheating the house (previous older couple living here kept the stat on 78*) so I have no concerns with sizing. HVAC friend says I should have no issue with them going "bad".
I don't think I need to go into detail about how expensive the propane boiler is to operate. I'm offsetting it considerably with a wood stove. Due to the layout of our house, heating with a stove is less than ideal in terms of heat distribution (long ranch house, closed floor plan).
Now I'm starting to think if I'm going to do all the work of heating with wood, I might as well have an even heat and a boiler would be a good option.
Ideally I would:
1.) Keep the old boiler for backup heat just in case we are out of town, boiler fails, whatever.
2.) Tie in the new outdoor boiler to the existing radiant heat system
3.) Tie in the new outdoor boiler to DHW and keep the current propane water heater for non-burning months
4.) Heat my shop with a ductless forced air setup
I have room for storage inside.
I guess my questions are:
1.) House + semi-finished basement = 3,400 sq ft. Shop is poorly insulated and ~1000sq ft...plan to insulated sometime....only would heat 2 days a week at most. What size boiler would I need?
2.) What is the best way to tie into the existing forced hot water system?
3.) How much storage would I need?
4.) I would like to do as much of the installation myself as possible. I'm sure it's harder than an oil change and easier than rocket surgery. I have plumbing and carpentry skills but am not much for electrical. How hard would this be to put in myself.
5.) What am I NOT thinking about?