Posted by Harold Kestenholz - Hydronic Network on January 10, 2000 at 14:52:44:
In Reply to: Re: BOILER OVERSIZED? posted by RANDY on January 10, 2000 at 13:18:31:
Your present situation is limited to the boiler. You've made the house as efficient as possible. There may be some future uses for this large boiler; a heat exchanger can take care of a pool for extending the swimming season and a hot tub for year-round use. I don't know if you are making hot water with this boiler, but a large boiler-fired heat-exchanger tank would make copious amounts of hot water. Having a large input is not a problem if you have a large, highly insulated storage tank that would act as a heat source for the system(s). Weil-McLain (Trianco) and several companies have a 120-gallon foam insulated exchanger storage tank.
The addition of an indoor-outdoor controller would prevent boiler waste through prevention of continuous overlapping demand from the 5 zones creating standby loss. I would install this instead of eliminating zone control.
Changing to oil would cut the fuel cost in half and pay for the boiler replacement in a couple years. You could have a smaller boiler at that time.