Posted by Neil MacCormick on September 26, 2001 at 19:58:17:
In Reply to: Multi-fuel steam/gas back-up posted by jtown on September 17, 2001 at 13:44:48:
: There is not much available for steam, nevermind fancy new stuff. I doubt there is a small HW boiler that can run both. You can put a $400 conversion gas burner into the same hole that a oil gun goes into. You don't see them as OEM though. You don't say what you do have. If I had oil and was on a gas main, I'd install a gas fireplace that does not need electric to run. I'd get back-up heat for electric outages, I could pick up a lot of the load with gas if the layout works and I'd add the full cost of the fireplace to the value of my house according to realtor surveys (especially doing it myself).
Thanks for your views. Since querying, have spoken with our gas utility and they will convert our steam boiler to gas burner for $1100 or a monthly rent. We have rather ancient furnace but baulked at our original plan to buy new steam boiler because of concern for gas supplies in these days.