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Help with all of
your plumbing and heating needs |
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You had a new
boiler installed, but you are not getting
any additional heat, Why? |
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Common Furnace and Boiler Misconceptions
You just had your furnace replaced; it
should put out more heat, right? Not
necessarily. This is a common misconception.
Even if you replace your furnace with one
with a higher BTU output, your home may not
be noticeably warmer despite the upgrade.
Why? If you just spent thousands of dollars
on a new furnace or boiler, isn’t it
reasonable to expect a warmer environment as
a result? It’s a common misconception that a
new or bigger furnace or boiler will result
in a hotter home. While a new furnace or
boiler can certainly be more energy
efficient, it won’t necessarily address the
shortcomings of the rest of the heating
system. For example, if your living room is
drafty and feels cold all the time because
of the drafts, a new furnace won’t make the
living room any warmer than before because
the drafts haven’t been sealed.
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Let’s take a look at a typical heating
system consisting of a boiler, radiators,
and baseboard pipes. The boiler is typically
set at a temperature of 180 degrees
Fahrenheit. This is a standard temperature
that most plumbers agree is optimal. Note
that setting the temperature higher than 210
degrees is NOT recommended. The boiler heats
the water to its set temperature and then
pumps it throughout the building where the
radiators and baseboard pipes radiate the
heat and warm the house. However, each
radiator and pipe has its own specific BTU
output capacity. This capacity is calculated
using the 180 degree setting.
For example, one foot of Slant Finn Number
15 baseboard pipe averages 590 BTUs at 180
degrees. This means that if you have ten
feet of that same pipe, it would output 5900
BTUs. The more piping a room has, the higher
the BTU capacity. Whether you have a new
furnace or an old one, the water will be
heated to the pre-set level of 180 degrees
and the amount of heat radiating into the
room will depend on the radiator and
baseboard pipe’s BTU capacity. A radiator
with a higher BTU capacity will output more
heat at 180 degrees than one with a lower
BTU.
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If one of the rooms of your house never
quite warms up or never reaches the
thermostat’s settings, it’s not necessarily
due to a malfunctioning or inefficient
boiler or furnace. Rather, the room may lack
sufficient baseboard pipe or radiators to
adequately heat the room. In this case,
replacing the furnace or boiler won’t make
the room warmer. To solve the problem, you
may need to replace the room’s windows, add
insulation, increase the amount of baseboard
pipes, or replace existing baseboard pipes
with pipes with a higher BTU output.
Remember when we said that most plumbers set
the boiler’s heat to 180 degrees? If you’ve
replaced a boiler that was set at a higher
temperature, you may notice decreased BTU
output due to the lower temperature setting
of your newly installed boiler. In addition,
if your old boiler had a defective aquastat,
it could have been heating the water to
temperatures well in excess of 180 degrees
which would lead to a noticeable difference
in output. Your new heater isn’t defective
or inefficient in these cases; it is simply
set to heat the water to the appropriate
temperature.
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There is one instance where installing a new
boiler may lead to legitimate concerns about
the home’s heat: when the boiler installed
is too small for the home. When a boiler is
too small for the house, it can’t heat the
water fast enough to circulate it throughout
the home at the required temperature. This
could happen if the plumber is inexperienced
or trying to keep your cost low. If your
boiler runs continuously, if the burner
never goes off, or if all of the boilers
cycle off and on all day when it’s cold out
but the burner remains on, then the boiler
is likely too small for the home. It’s
absolutely critical to select a new furnace
or boiler that is the right size for your
home.
So, if a new furnace or boiler won’t
necessarily make the home warmer, why
replace the old one? People rarely replace
furnaces or boilers with the intention of
improving the amount of heat distributed
throughout the house. In fact, that’s more
of an unstated assumption on the homeowner’s
part. Most people replace furnaces and
boilers for reasons other than heat output
such as: improved energy efficiency (lower
heating bills) or because the original
furnace is too expensive to repair. That
they think a new furnace or boiler will have
the added benefit of improved heat
distribution is a misconception on their
part. A new furnace or boiler can improve
energy efficiency, but it won’t necessarily
address all of the other factors affecting
how warm each room of the house feels. |
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