Boiler Service for South Jersey
Boilers are a type of hydronic heating system that uses water to heat your home. Boilers heat water to provide hot water or steam for heating, which is distributed through a series of pipes.
- They have an efficiency rating of around 50-90% depending on the system’s age.
- Boilers can be run on natural gas, propane, heating oil, biodiesel, or electricity, although natural gas, propane, and heating oil are most popular.
- One main advantage of boiler systems is that you can create heating zones, allowing you to only heat the rooms that are in use.
- The downside is that boiler systems tend to be more expensive to install and require some energy to be used in order to prevent pipes from freezing. And since boilers only provide heating, you will need a separate distribution system for your air conditioning system.
When using radiators to distribute the heat, you will need to periodically “bleed” trapped air from the hot water radiators to facilitate the flow of hot water through the system.
Gas Boiler
Gas boilers can be fueled with natural gas or propane. It is fairly easy to convert a boiler to either natural gas or propane fuel types. While propane tends to be more expensive, it is widely available and may be a better choice if your area pays higher prices for natural gas.
Retrofit options for gas furnaces and boilers include:
- Vent (or Flue) Dampers
- Intermittent Ignition Devices
- Derating (or Down-Firing) Gas Burners
- Modulating Aquastats (Only Hot Water Boilers)
- Time Delay Relay (Only Hot Water Boilers)
It’s best to schedule boiler retrofits early on. While many retrofit options are available, speak with a professional HVAC company to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of simply replacing your system.
Oil Boiler
When natural gas is expensive or hard to access, oil-fired boilers are a popular option. Some companies offer heating oil blended with biodiesel in order to reduce the carbon footprints of our customers, and our dependence on foreign oil.
Oil boilers normally contain a double-wall or spill container underneath the oil furnace to catch any oil that spills.
There are plenty of retrofits available for oil-fired boilers and furnaces to improve energy efficiency and reduce your utility bills and carbon footprint:
- Vent (or Flue) Dampers
- Barometric Flue Damper
- Derating (or Down-Firing) and Replacing Oil Burners
- Modulating Aquastats (Only Hot Water Boilers)
- Time-Delay Relay (Only Hot Water Boilers)
AFUE Rating
No matter which heating system you choose for your home, you want to pay close attention to the Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE) rating. Like SEER ratings for air conditioners, the higher the AFUE number, the more energy efficient the heating system.
The AFUE number is a percentage, usually between 70-99%. The number tells you how much percentage of the fuel is used for heating versus how much is lost in the combustion process. For instance, if you have a 94% AFUE boiler, 94% of the fuel is used for heating and 6% of the fuel is lost through the combustion process, normally vented out of the home.
While boilers tend to have lower AFUE ratings than traditional furnaces, they allow you to create heating zones which could potentially offset the higher heating costs.
Contact Heating Specialties today at (866) 923-2653 for your expert boiler maintenance, repair, or replacement services. Fixed Right, Guaranteed!