converting coal boiler

teresa17603 · 10-23-2006, 04:16 AM

we just bought a house with an outdated coal boiler heating system. we live in central pa where coal is still around but we would love to convert to either oil or gas and switch from radiators to baseboards. if anyone could point us in the right direction as far as which conversion would be easiest, complexity and pricing we would appreciate it.

747 · 10-23-2006, 06:27 AM

I will give it a shot. First do you have a natural gas source? If so go natural gas. If not. Your choices are oil or propane. Up in pa oil is expensive i would check to see if propane is cheaper. Now the new furnance. The cheapest solution for you would be go with a high efficency boiler furance and continue to use the radiators. Your second and more expensive option would be to get rid of radiatiors and go with copper fin baseboard. This will be more expensive because copper pipe or pex will need to be ran to those new baseboards. Numbers I'm not sure but just replace furnance stay with radiators go with oil or propane 5,000 dollars that might be low. The other replace radiators with copper baseboard i think at least 10,000 maybe more. I could be way off with my numbers. Between 5,000 and 15,000 should cover either option. High being going with copper baseboard. MD is in Pa i think he could give better ball park numbers if he reads this. Good luck.

teresa17603 · 10-24-2006, 12:41 AM

well we would like to convert to gas, as we feel that would add the most value to the house and go to baseboard heating. i am for just covering the radiators and being done with it but he is dead set on them going even if it is more expensive. i just hope we can technically handle this. if anyone knows of a good how-to book please let me know.

mdshunk · 10-24-2006, 05:55 AM

Permit me to understand this a little more. I'm going to list off what I think you're saying, and you can clear this up.
-you have a coal furnace
-you want to keep the coal furnace, but convert the firebox to gas or oil
-you presently have steam radiators, but want to switch to hot water baseboard

That's a lot of changes at once. And you're thinking of doing this as a DIY? Holy moly. That's not exactly a DIY project. If it was me, I'd put the gas or oil burner on the coal furnace, or change the whole furnace out to a new gas or oil burner, and leave the rest of the system alone for now. You can always change out the radiators to hot water baseboard down the road.

It might be helpful for you to know that a steam boiler can be changed around into a hot water system pretty easily later on.

I would impress upon you all very highly that this is not a DIY project. Seemingly insignificant engineering details can make the difference between a successful upgrade and a disasterous waste of cash. Best if you get a few local contractors to stop by and look the place over.

With regard to pricing, whether you go with gas or oil, your install costs will be pretty much the same. You'll have to consult your crystal ball as to which fuel will be cheaper to heat with in the future. Right now, they're pretty close, with natural gas having the advantage at the moment. You have yearly PM that MUST be done on an oil burner. A gas system can go many more years between scheduled PM's.

747 · 10-24-2006, 06:27 AM

Let me clarify like MD says this isn't a Diyer job. I was talking about getting a heating guy to come in. I was also talking about replacing the whole furnance. Do not try to tackle this your self. Example say like i lived by MD in Pa. And said MD i want to install new hot water boiler and install copper base board thereby getting rid of the steam furnace and the radiators. MD would be looking at me like THATS A HELL OF A LOT OF WORK as in bust your but job.

teresa17603 · 10-24-2006, 06:49 PM

thank you for your advice. we are going to switch out the whole furnace to gas and i will be getting estimates this week. we shall take it from there as far as switching out the radiators. it would probably be cheaper, safer and less frustrating to get a pro to do it and then try and tackle as much of the other work as we can ourselves. the whole house needs various updates and rehab but we got it for a steal and were able to pay cash so we really want to get the most out of the investment. i appreciate all the input and hope for more as we face the likelihood of many more problems along the way this being our first time and all.

747 · 10-25-2006, 01:46 AM

Good choice look in yellow pages for a plumber. Get about 4 bids. Most plumbers also do heating work especially hotwater or steam.