OK.
This thread is getting beyond the scope of what I originally intended. This is not a bad thing. Since I have discovered a valid, safe and air sealed method of providing air to an atmospheric boiler under conditions which it was not intended to operate (such as a well sealed house) any further speculation is in strict modder Territory.
Can one convert an atmospheric boiler to be a sealed combustion boiler? This is the question we are raising here. Aside from simply creating a sealed box around the unit there are certainly many, many, MANY more issues to take into consideration. If people are interested, let's hash them out.
Piwoslaw:
It is my personal opinion that your concerns about freezing are unwarranted due to the fact that there is a lot of heat present at all times. Either active or residual heat from the boiler itself or from the surrounding environment that will nullify this. Now if you keep you mechanicals in an unconditioned space (and if so you have better things to worry about than upgrading your functional boiler to a sealed combustion boiler) freezing might be an issue. From my point of view it is next to impossible to remove an entire basement from the thermal envelope of a house. It's more expensive, but, one should include it. You gain conditioned space and saves money on utilities.
Next:
Is it actually possible? Are the burners different in some way? I’m assuming the 97% efficient burners aren’t the same as the 80% efficient ones in a different box.
I know someone who. For the first decade of the operation of Buderus in the US was their troubleshooter. He did all of the Buderus training in the early 90’s. They flew him all over the place to troubleshoot new installations. He very well may be the most competent Buderus tech in North America. I’ll contact him ASAP about these issues.
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