Heating Help

Steam Boiler Changeout- Estimating Fuel Cost Savings

A residential customer in Seattle asked me how much would he save by changing his oil-fired steam boiler (c.1980) to a new nat. gas steam boiler. The current boiler is firing at 1gpm into an uninsulated chimney. There are 9 radiators on a 1 pipe system.Basement mains are missing 90% of insulation.
Current prices for fuel oil are $4.20/gal and nat. gas is $1.06/therm. I couldn't find any software that was anywhere near accurate for comparisons.What would you say?

How many gallons?

How many gallons of oil do they burn? Take the gallons and multiply by 1.35 and you will get the equivalent therms. 

How many gallons?

How many gallons of oil do they burn? Take the gallons and multiply by 1.35 and you will get the equivalent therms. 

oil to gas savings

1 gallon of oil contains 140,000 btu, so cost of 100,000 btu will be $4,20/1.4=$3.00 per 100,000 btu
100,000 btu is 1 term. so cost of heating will go down 3/1.09 = 2.83 times

Paul contact

me by e-mail at gastc@cox.net and give me a fax number and I will send you a little chart that will do the trick.

% Efficiency

You also need to factor in the efficiency of the Boiler.This is easy to do with the attached sheet. The insulation number will require a bit of a SWAG.
Gennady is absolutely correct assuming the new boiler is no more efficient and you do not insulate.

Might want to look at

a conversion burner. What make and model is the boiler? 

Existing boiler

The existing boiler is not in good shape.
The actual oil usage averages 566 gallons per year at $4.09 gal. based on 2 years worth of bills.
I'd have recommended a conversion burner if the appliance was in better shape.

566 gallons

That's approx 780 therms.

566 gallons

That's approx 780 therms.

When you replace the boiler

stay with a wet base/power burner type, for best efficiency. We use Smith 8 (the red one) and Slant/Fin Intrepid (blue one) series boilers with either Carlin EZ-Gas or Midco EC burners. Both EZ-Gas burners pictured have acoustic covers.

$1.06 a therm ?

Is that with all costs included ?  I just bought 200 gallons of oil at $2.91 , but that price difference makes it a no brainer .

Is that with all costs included ?

My latest gas bill, due July 12, 2012, is

4.22 Therms Gas        $2.47
4.22 Therms Delivery $2.18
Customer Charge       $8.25

Total $12.90.

Per therm:
$3.0569 all in.
$0.5853 for just the gas
$1.1019 for gas and delivery

This is in Monmouth County, NJ.Only use is for domestic hot water indirect from my mod-con boiler. It is going up to 100F outside, so none is for heating the house. ;-)

Gas Price

The price I paid for natural gas on my last bill was $.97 a therm plus $5.99 service charge. The service charge is the same whether I buy 1 therm or a 100 therms.

out here in the West

Things are a bit different http://www.nmgco.com/Current_Natural_Gas_Rates.aspx

Hi Paul,

I go with Steamhead, i wont put in a log burner for gas, only wet based oil blocks with the carlin E-Z gas, avg about 84% eff compared to 79 to 80

And if you really want to increase efficiency

Insulate the pipes and fittings, and upgrade the venting.