Posted by Harold Kestenholz - Hydronic Network on January 10, 2000 at 12:54:01:
In Reply to: Re: BOILER OVERSIZED? posted by RANDY LEISER on January 10, 2000 at 12:01:32:
53,000 btuh heat loss for a 3300 square-foot house is to be expected. This is quite good (16 btuh/sqft.) Many contractors still mistakenly use 40 btu/sqft (which was accurate for homes built 25 years ago, when they learned how to estimate) as the rule of thumb which would be 132,000 btuh, which is why your boiler is that large. They even insist on computer estimation programs that reenforce the oversize habit.
(11 gallons times 92000 btu/gal times 1.25 for efficiency losses divided by 24 hours)
You are paying the high cost of fuel. Natural gas or oil at the present rate would be 1/2 the cost.
My home at 1/3 the size of yours burning natural gas uses about 1/3 the fuel at $117 this last month.