Heating Help

Looking into....

a Steamer swap out. The JOT boiler w/ a tankless cracked and is done.
 Customer is interested in Going to Nat Gas... Since it is just about impossible to have a conventional gas steamer w/o and tankless and the customer wants to save some energy w/ a Tankless  water heater I am now curious to what to recommend for a ignition for the Boiler Spark or Pilot... ? The boiler sitting all summer w/o any heat  and possibly condensing or gas savings w/o the spark/ HSI... thoughts?

Why not

a wet-base power-burner unit with an indirect? That would get around the summer-shutdown issue and be more efficient than an atmospheric, or any boiler with a coil. 

Here's one such installation we did:

http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/132567/One-of-the-worst-maintained-oil-fired-boilers-weve-seen

good steamer conversion combo

Kevin, I agree with Steamhead on this one. We have been very successful with a Weil SGO fired with a Riello gas burner and an indirect.....great combo and OK with Weil...saves a lot of energy and keeps that boiler warm all summer. Highly recommended swap out set up.

Sounds great.....

but I am concerned about pricing the job out of the competitive range. The home has only one bathroom. Between the indirect ( the price on these things is way up.) and a bronze 3 pc circ that is a lot more than a good quality tankless.

Then

order the boiler with a coil and add a storage tank ("Aquabooster"). This way you can use a wet-rotor (but still bronze or stainless) circ, and the boiler won't have to stay hot unless the tank calls. The downside is that it won't deliver as much hot water as an indirect, but that might not be a problem with only one bathroom. You might want to use a delay-on-break relay for the circ, to scavenge more heat from the boiler that might otherwise go up the chimney.

And you avoid the reliability problems we've seen on some tankless setups.

"Icesailor"  has had success with this setup, but I'm not sure how big the houses are where he's used it. Maybe he'll chime in?

Weil Mc Lain SGO

I did not know it was OK with Weil Mc Lain to use a gas burner with an SGO. That is great news, since HB Smith is not readily available in my area. How is the noise level?

steamer conversion

Weil has no issue with warrantee on the boiler if properly installed and piped...that goes for the burner as well....sound level with Riello in the SGO is extremely quiet....have a couple dozen installed over the last few years and NO issues.
Great combo in my book.