Water droplets on fallen leaves.
The boiler heats water for the house's central heating system. The current one is twenty-three years old. It's working but we don't know for how much longer. It gets annual maintenance, but the parts are wearing out. The old pump unit needs CPR every now and then, and the control panel is shot. We have to turn the heat on and off manually; there is no thermostat in the house. All of that will change, supposedly, with the new unit.
We thought it would be better to replace the boiler now rather than wait for it to break down in the middle of a cold winter. The new unit will have a remote-controlled programmable thermostat unit inside the house. No more going down into the utility room to turn the heat on every morning, then having to remember to turn it off before the house gets too hot. The new boiler will also come with a new pump. It should use significantly less fuel oil than the old one (let's hope Volkswagen wasn't in charge of the fuel usage stats). It's a condensing unit, meaning that the heat going up the chimney is captured and transformed into heat for the house. And, for all that, current law lets us get a nice percentage of the boiler's cost back in the form of a tax rebate next year (that law expires in December). We also get a free year on our maintenance and emergency service contract.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all goes smoothly with the installation and that the thing works as promised. I'll keep you posted, of course.
Sounds like you are going to be warm and toasty this winter.
ReplyDeleteThe huge reduction 'promised' on our Tax bill never materialised! But, even so, a new kit after 23yrs isn't bad.
ReplyDeleteHeat is a good thing. The droplet shot is terrific. Those colors really compliment each other.
ReplyDeleteA boiler is so alien to Australia, but I did have a good look at a boiler when we were last in England and it was not a monstrous piece of a big tank in the basement, a furnace, and lots of piping as I imagined it to be. In fact not so different to our own instantaneous hot water systems that have wide spread usage here. Just bigger and it does two things, heat the home and hot water. That was for a two up and two down home. Your house is bigger, so I expect your boiler needs to be bigger but still it would be similar, I think. As I said, we here know little of boilers and hydronic heating and make do with with gas fired flame and blowing central heating, expensive, and more recently air conditioning heating, as in heat pump.
ReplyDeleteThose programable thermostats are the cat's meow!
ReplyDeleteWow, that sounds like really smart thinking, and an exciting new change for your heating system :) woo hoo! Photos upon installation?
ReplyDeletegood luck
ReplyDeleteI am still asking santa claus for that pony.
ellen, let's hope so!
ReplyDeletepotty, I wonder why? We got one in 2006 when we installed a new wood burner.
stuart, heat is definitely not underrated.
andrew, our new boiler will be smaller than the current one. And it's only for heat; our domestic hot water is heated with electricity.
evelyn, we had one in SF. It was great.
judy, I'm sure there will be photos!
michael, thanks. Good luck with the pony. ;)