Efficiency Article
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Crap, I can't get it to work. Try this site and go to the pub "Efficiency is in the Eye of the Beholder"
www.omni-test.com/Publications.htm
www.omni-test.com/Publications.htm
There is no standardized test to measure efficiency! This article should put the efficiency debate to rest. Best thing to do is test yourself in your own home and see what works best for you.
I know all about efficiency...
My house has an 1940's era coal furnace that was retofit to burn oil. It distrubutes the heat via gravity feed hot water, and it is located in my basement.
Each time I have it serviced, the technition tells me that the efficiency is somewhere around 78% - 79%. But that's horse apples.
The measurements are all done AT THE FURNACE!.
I don't care how effiecient my furnace is at heating up - I am heating my house, not the furnace!
with a gravity feed Hot water set up, you have to have everything just right, or the hot water doesn't go where you want it to. Apparantly, the previous owner added on two rooms & tied their radiators into the hot water in such a way that the heat flow is now very uneven - some radiators get hot, and some don't.
Also, gravity feed systems are slow, so you loose heat along the way to the radiator. Some of it is dumped into the basement (unused), and more bleeds off in the walls
so the actual efficiensy is probably on the order of 50%.
My house has an 1940's era coal furnace that was retofit to burn oil. It distrubutes the heat via gravity feed hot water, and it is located in my basement.
Each time I have it serviced, the technition tells me that the efficiency is somewhere around 78% - 79%. But that's horse apples.
The measurements are all done AT THE FURNACE!.
I don't care how effiecient my furnace is at heating up - I am heating my house, not the furnace!
with a gravity feed Hot water set up, you have to have everything just right, or the hot water doesn't go where you want it to. Apparantly, the previous owner added on two rooms & tied their radiators into the hot water in such a way that the heat flow is now very uneven - some radiators get hot, and some don't.
Also, gravity feed systems are slow, so you loose heat along the way to the radiator. Some of it is dumped into the basement (unused), and more bleeds off in the walls
so the actual efficiensy is probably on the order of 50%.
Spelling police -- Please spell -Article- correctly. It will make it easier for future searches to have the correct spelling.
No problem. Thanks for fixing. I sometimes go back a few months later looking for a thread. This is a good article and one worth returning to.
BTW, it's now about 3d from last on the page. A new article has been posted on fireplaces that's pretty interesting too.
BTW, it's now about 3d from last on the page. A new article has been posted on fireplaces that's pretty interesting too.
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