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So, you want to replace your 80% efficient hot water heating system? Looking for a High Efficient Hot water system?
There are a few key items you will want to look for in your house prior to starting your investigation.
1- Venting the New Hot Water Heating system
How will I vent the new system? Your old heating system was probably vented into your chimney or it might have been vented into a steel B vent double wall chimney that runs up through your house.
Venting is usually the big item to figure out as well this can drastically increase the installation cost. On many houses getting outside can be very complicated. This is also a more personal decision for the homeowner as well. Many homeowners don’t want to see the billowing white plum of exhaust smoke form the heating unit that is created in the cold weather.
If there are no other gas appliances being vented into the chimney, we can use the chimney as a chase to navigate our new venting material up and through the chimney and out. This is the best way if the homeowner would rather not see the exhausting heating equipment.
If this is not an option, we can look for a way to get out towards the back of the house so as to not see the system exhaust as it runs. This can also be a problem for the homeowner if let’s say their kitchen sink faces the back of the house and as they look out to the yard while doing dishes and it’s covered in a white smoke machine type of white wash.
2- It’s all about Piping Vent
Another item you have to take in to account is that the new piece of heating equipment has to have another piping vent with it. It’s the combustion make up air for the heating system. These units are sealed combustion so they don’t use the air in the space that they are located to burn the gas they pull fresh make up air into the sealed burner chamber while they run. I have had to on a number of Heating system installs run the vent through the chimney and the make up air out a side wall of the house or if the space is large enough we have placed a filter container on the top the heating appliance and pulled the air form the space.
3- How Comfortable is your House today?
The next item you will want to address will be how the old system was working for you while you have inhabited this space? It’s funny the homeowners think that by replacing the heating boiler that this will take care of any other issue’s they believe to be having with the heating of their home. You will know if you have found a good heating contractor or not if he is asking these most important questions? Are you comfortable in your house? If you could change anything about the system what would it be? Are there cold rooms? Hot rooms? The boiler is a very important part of the hot water heating system although the system heating side plays a much bigger roll in how comfortable you are in the house.
4- Don’t Forget to Maintain your New System
The next area of focus would be on maintenance and up keep as well as serviceability? The homeowner should know that these new systems are like putting a Ferrari in your basement as opposed to the Ford Pinto which you are having replaced. The manufactures of all of theses new heating systems recommend having them looked at once a year? This is very different from your last heating system which sat in a dark room and no one ever visited unless they had to grab the window screens which were stored there over the winter! You would think this would be a given but make sure your installing contractor will also be there for you when it is time to have the system serviced. As a service contractor I find that the rule of thumb for almost all of theses systems is every third heating season.
My Dear Watson Plumbing, Heating and Cooling is here to help you with your new heating system install.
