Replacing back up electric boiler with inline propane heater

[Juniperlou]

Hi all, I'm hoping to get some guidance with a problem we've been having with the back up electric boiler for our outdoor furnace. I'm not sure if this is the right place, since my questions are more about the back up system, not the wood system. Location is PEI, Canada.

We moved into a house with an outdoor woodburning furnace in 2019. Furnace heats the house via in-floor heating (water) and also heats the hot water tank. When we moved in, the previous owners had switched to the electric back up (Slant/Fin EH-24M2, 82,000 BTU, 24KW single phase five element electric boiler), which they did regularly as they traveled often. We switched over to the wood furnace with no trouble. Since then, we have occasionally switched over to electric for a short period of time, and then the electric boiler started failing. We've had a couple of electricians out to look at it and they replaced parts and worked on it, but the boiler always ends up failing again and now the electricians are saying they don't know what else to try to get it to work. Now I'm wondering what my options are. In a previous home, we had an inline natural gas water heater installed, and it was great. We don't have natural gas here, but propane looks like a good option. My main concern is having something that will provide hot water during the summer (we rent out on Airbnb and we don't want to have to stop by once a day or more to fill the woodstove).

Unfortunately, we haven't found any kind of blueprint or explanation for the way our system was set up. So before I buy an inline propane heater and find someone to install it, I'm wondering how do I find out what kind of heater is compatible with the system? We're in a small province and it can be difficult to find technicians who have experience with more niche set ups or products -- does this sound like the kind of job that anyone who has installed an inline propane water heater should be able to figure out, or should we look for someone who has experience with systems for an outdoor furnace? And are there other options that I'm just not aware of? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[hobbyheater]

Hi all, I'm hoping to get some guidance with a problem we've been having with the back up electric boiler for our outdoor furnace. I'm not sure if this is the right place, since my questions are more about the back up system, not the wood system. Location is PEI, Canada.

We moved into a house with an outdoor woodburning furnace in 2019. Furnace heats the house via in-floor heating (water) and also heats the hot water tank. When we moved in, the previous owners had switched to the electric back up (Slant/Fin EH-24M2, 82,000 BTU, 24KW single phase five element electric boiler), which they did regularly as they traveled often. We switched over to the wood furnace with no trouble. Since then, we have occasionally switched over to electric for a short period of time, and then the electric boiler started failing. We've had a couple of electricians out to look at it and they replaced parts and worked on it, but the boiler always ends up failing again and now the electricians are saying they don't know what else to try to get it to work. Now I'm wondering what my options are. In a previous home, we had an inline natural gas water heater installed, and it was great. We don't have natural gas here, but propane looks like a good option. My main concern is having something that will provide hot water during the summer (we rent out on Airbnb and we don't want to have to stop by once a day or more to fill the woodstove).

Unfortunately, we haven't found any kind of blueprint or explanation for the way our system was set up. So before I buy an inline propane heater and find someone to install it, I'm wondering how do I find out what kind of heater is compatible with the system? We're in a small province and it can be difficult to find technicians who have experience with more niche set ups or products -- does this sound like the kind of job that anyone who has installed an inline propane water heater should be able to figure out, or should we look for someone who has experience with systems for an outdoor furnace? And are there other options that I'm just not aware of? Any advice is appreciated.

Some pictures would help as I run a similar system .
Visited PEI last summer a beautiful Island !

 

[Juniperlou]

I've taken a few pictures, unfortunately I can't get far enough away at a good angle to get a picture straight on. Let me know if a different angle or a closer look at anything would help. Thanks!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Ok. This will be a complicated job full of many small, uncomplicated steps.

Before you start, find out how large of a system you actually need. Calculate the heat loss on your structure and size the system correctly. Don’t assume your current system is sized correctly. Too large of a system short cycles and breaks parts. This is what happened to my old boiler. It was breaking parts every year because it was way too big. As a home is updated, insulation added, windows and doors replaced, etc, the size of the heater needed goes down.

Using the system to heat your water will not be an issue. Some boilers have dedicated hot water hookups, some do not. Mine does not, but I put an indirect water tank on the side and run it off a zone.

Lastly, figure out if you want to keep the boiler in the same place. If you want to move it, now’s the time. Consider where the new exhaust and intakes will be located and their proximity to doors, windows and other things that may be in the way. Consider how the propane line will need to be run and any new electrical.

Are your zones set up correctly? Are the linear feet of emitters (slant fin radiators) balanced to the water temperature that you plan to use and the diameter of your feed pipes? Too small of a zone will cause short cycling and breaks parts.

So, this job could be as simple as slapping a new similar sized boiler in place of the old one and going with that. But that might not solve the issue of parts breaking. I encourage you to do some homework on your system and the needs of your home. You may come to the conclusion that the person that set up your prior system didn’t make the best choices and now is the time to fix the system.