Question for those with oil boilers for heat

strider3700 · 04-26-12, 06:40 PM

I'm seriously thinking about moving. One of the places I'm looking at has a "newish" oil boiler and baseboard radiators for heat. For those of you with boilers I'm wondering if you've though of hybrid systems like using solar to heat the water or something else? This place is a very old farmhouse that appears to have been last updated sometime close to ww2 so insulation and air sealing is non existent. It does have close to 100 acres of woods included so I was thinking of adding an outdoor wood boiler to begin with, and eventually get solar water heating as well.

My thought was to have the boiler, the wood boiler and the solar all work on preheating a collecting tank of water that would then be pushed through the rads at first, pex tubing added to the floor eventually. The control system would be interesting but I think it's doable. My goal would be to have solar carry the majority of the heating during the shoulder seasons, the wood boiler after that for most of the winter and the oil as backup for when we're not there to feed the wood and the solar can't keep up.

Has anyone done or seen anything like this? thoughts?

04-26-12, 06:40 PM	#1
strider3700 Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 745 Thanks: 23 Thanked 37 Times in 30 Posts	Question for those with oil boilers for heat I'm seriously thinking about moving. One of the places I'm looking at has a "newish" oil boiler and baseboard radiators for heat. For those of you with boilers I'm wondering if you've though of hybrid systems like using solar to heat the water or something else? This place is a very old farmhouse that appears to have been last updated sometime close to ww2 so insulation and air sealing is non existent. It does have close to 100 acres of woods included so I was thinking of adding an outdoor wood boiler to begin with, and eventually get solar water heating as well. My thought was to have the boiler, the wood boiler and the solar all work on preheating a collecting tank of water that would then be pushed through the rads at first, pex tubing added to the floor eventually. The control system would be interesting but I think it's doable. My goal would be to have solar carry the majority of the heating during the shoulder seasons, the wood boiler after that for most of the winter and the oil as backup for when we're not there to feed the wood and the solar can't keep up. Has anyone done or seen anything like this? thoughts?