Mass Save whole house energy audit

regular, Riello burner.. just runs great...

 

We use CFL's. They did a great job of reducing our electric bill. The greenies that have forced incandescent bulbs out only to be replaced by CFL's don't want you to know their dirty little secret. CFL's have mercury in them. They need to be disposed of accordingly. Sending them to landfills will only result in mercury in water sources overtime.

Now we at least have the option of LEDs.

 

I'll take the LED's over CFL's all day long. The new LED's are really good light. I have them in all my lights that will accommodate them. Be sure to get the dimmable ones if you intend on being able to do that. I have found several good deals on them at HD and now have enough spares to replace all my lights should I need to. Only ones that seem to burn out are the ones outside and mounted bulb up vs bulb down. The bulbs facing down seems to last forever.

 

When they came to do my house the guy had never seen a blue boiler before, nor one with a outside air kit.
I don't have the logosol but it still tunes to 90.5%
I don't have stairs going into the attic on my house just a hatch so they wouldn't even peek. I got cfl light bulbs. Still have them. And a programmable thermostat. Still have that too. I've got just about all my lights replaced with LED. Never really liked cfl. Especially curly-Qs.

They did the whole 9 yards on my mom's house. They couldn't find all the air leaks and they must have fudged the door test to make it pass. The extra attic insulation got contracted to an outfit out of Fall River and they pulled a fast one. I don't think they got paid because they were supposed to come back as their job didn't pass inspection but nothing ever happened. Mom's blue boiler has the logosol outdoor thermometer monitor and reset unit on top. The guy hadn't seen one of those either. I went around on a cold day with a thermal gun looking for leaks and found quite a few that way. Then I tore her ceiling down and figured out why her kitchen was always so cold. Between all the leaks found, a new ceiling and then me replacing her wood stove with something she could handle she now uses less oil than me and her house is twice the size of mine.

 

Have you guys looked at the Buderus condensing boilers at all? They stopped making the oil fired one but they are still available but pricey. The one that I'm interested in is a 109k BTU boiler and it's selling for $5k. Has the logmatic and burner internal to the unit. Anyway, it's the GB 125 BE series. Anyone have any thoughts on those? My Burnham is 27 years old and due for a replacement at some point. Don't think we have similar programs in NH.

 

Also, not sure what temp you run your hot water tanks at, but the outdoor reset controller will need to ensure that the water in the boiler is somewhat warmer than your desired temp in the Super Stor. 120 degrees may work to heat your house to 70 degrees on a 50 degree day but it won't heat your hot water to the desired temp. Not sure how the logic on those works.

 

One thing that I learned recently is that when you screw in a light bulb, you should have the fixture on and stop turning when the light bulb turns on. On the bottom of every bulb, there is a spot of solder. If you screw the bulb in too far, it compresses the tab that the solder contacts so when screwing in the next bulb, the solder may not bottom out which results in arcing causing the solder to melt and the bulb to "burn out" early. To reset the tab, one needs to shut off electricity to the fixture and pull it up a bit. Anyway, that was a little thing I learned for the first time a few weeks ago.

Light Bulbs - Ask the Builder

 

Also the return temp has to be a certain minimum temp to prevent condensation on cast iron exchangers.

 

I believe you can accomplish that one of two ways. Not sure if there are any more.

1. Run your boiler at a higher temp to ensure the return water is hot.
2. Install a tempering valve that pre-heats return water with boiler output water to get the proper temp.

 

There is a boost function to raise the boiler temp for heating water zone call.


You know, it's not like it's impossible to go online and download the pdf of the instruction manual to read how the dammed thing works.

 

We have the buderus with the longomatic box. It has the blue flame burner on it. It is highly efficient.
Last year the company I was using stopped servicing the blue flame burners. I had a very hard time finding someone to work on it. They cited propriatary equipment and special training as the reason. Something to think about. Some suggested to switch out the gun with a riello.

 

Any advantage to using 1 circulator and zone valves for multiple heat zones versus 1 circulator for each heat zone?

 

Thanks Ray. Good info.