[joe pro]

Need advice? Putting in a new boiler energy efficient. Any suggestions? Trinity nti ti series, lochinvar or peerless purefire.

[hvac1000]

You better stop and think about what you are doing.

No matter which brand of turn down condensing boiler you buy they all have there problems. Most of the time the radiation in the house (baseboard, fan coil, radiators) need high temperatures to keep the house comfortable in cold weather. Usually around 175 to 195 degrees water temperature is needed to do the job. The new style boilers will not condense OR save you money running those kinds of temperatures since they want to see a max of 125 to 130 degree return water OR THEY WILL NOT CONDENSE or save you money on your heat bill.

Now if you want to tear out your entire system and run all new radiation sized for the lower output temperatures you need to get the new boiler into condensing territory then it will work BUT there is another problem right around the corner.

To install these correctly you better be a real heating professional with years of boiler experience and have attended the factory training class for which ever boiler you choose. They all work a bit different and the controls need a real pro with the proper knowledge and tools to do the job.

Speaking of tools plan on spending about 3000.00 minimum for the tools to do all of this setup and check out then you will also have to take the course to learn how to operate the tools/meters correctly. There units are NOT plug and play. They do not come out of the box from the factory ready to run and the install manual will tell you so. Then there is the annual service that takes about 2 and 1/2 hours to do if you know what you are doing. If you do not do or have the service done it WILL BREAK DOWN or you will loose your efficiency.

The reason I am telling you all of this is to prevent you from making a possible mistake. In this area I have ran service for 4 different condensing boiler manufactures and the problems were as mentioned above. Usually an improper install along with poor setup and no annual service. Many of these people have spent more money than they could save in 20 years just because there system is not designed to use these styles of boilers.

As mentioned before they are great if you plan to start from scratch and design the entire system around the condensing boiler but for replacement bad news unless changes to the original system are made to work to provide the lower return water temperature.

I teach a HVAC class at the local university and I am no spring chicken so I have been around boilers for years and attended or given many classes on the new style condensing units. While they work great under the proper conditions they are still a service problem and very expensive to maintain. A manufacturer gave me a brand new condensing boiler to play with in my own home. That was 3 years ago and I never installed it since I do not want the headaches that go along with that type of unit. Do a good search around the net and you will hear many complaints on these style units. The manufactures have done a good job building them BUT many dealers have installed them that have no idea what they are doing. There are some good installers but they are hard to find. Service is even worse.


Pick a good 80 to 82% unit and call it a day. You will save money in the long run.
I am not into breaking bubbles just telling the truth. Good luck with your selection.