They called me because they thought they would like to install enough tankless water heaters to provide them with hot water. The problem with that idea is that they would need a 3 inch gas pipe! Tankless may not run when you don’t need them, but they do use a ton of gas when they are running. Plus how would you vent all of them?

What we did was install a Buderus GB142 96% AFUE boiler. It’s only function is to make domestic hot water. And the only thing it’s hooked up to is a T44 Turbomax.

That’s right, only 44 gallons: 44 gallons and we took out 200 gallons of hot water heaters!!!!! And they have plenty of hot water.

The Turbomax has an incredible 99% heat transfer efficiency, and it loves to have a lot of BTUs put into it.  It transfers those dollars right into that hot water, instead of up a chimney like a hot water heater. And because we are able to run the Buderus modulating condensing boiler at 120 to 140 degrees, it’s condensing all the time, producing hot water from over 90% of the heating dollars that go into it. I can’t wait until they get their next bill.

Besides all that, the Turbomax has a 10 year warranty, even in a commercial installation. That’s the best warranty you’ll get. The only reason we don’t install them in homes is that it’s hard to beat Superstore’s lifetime warranty. And Superstore is a great product.

If you need a commercial water heater replaced, or it’s getting old and you know it’s going to go soon, call us!!

Hey, it’s blowing my own horn a bit, but I recieved a nice testimonial from a customer I’ve had for 30 or so years and I wanted to share it.

This is from Rona from Cambridge:

“Dennis Foley has helped me renovate a small Queen Anne house in North Cambridge over the past thirty years.  He has installed garbage disposals and dishwashers; he has gutted and rebuilt the kitchen, two bathrooms, and assorted other rooms; he has replaced hot water tanks and toilet stacks, installed a wood-burning stove, and reclaimed a front porch – so I guess you can say that he has done it all – even including the kitchen sink!

Dennis is particularly creative in solving problems encountered in old houses – somehow, he has always been able to find relatively simple solutions to what seem to be insoluble problems.  He understands budgeting constraints and he has always been willing to think through alternative approaches and to identify trade-offs that can help lower costs.  I have long relied on his judgment about where the money needs to be spent on any given project.

The quality of Dennis’s work has never varied – the plumbing doesn’t leak, the windows don’t leak, the chimney doesn’t leak.  Those are strong statements since some of the work is now twenty to thirty years old.  He has always been honest and straightforward and accountable and most importantly, accessible in an emergency.  I wouldn’t trust my home to anyone else.”

This is the reason for my tag line, “A Name You Can Trust!”. I may not always be perfect, and I have been wrong a few times, but you can trust we always have YOUR best interests at heart.

G125BE Low-NOx Residential Oil Boiler

I just spent 8 hours learning the ins and outs of Buderus’ new oil-fired hot water boiler. It has a new kind of burner that uses a special set up, hence the 8 hours.

This boiler is amazing. They offer it in 2 configurations, a non condensing version that is rated at 89% Annual Fuel Utilization Efficiency (AFUE), and a condensing version that is rated at 94% AFUE. This is good news for those of you that don’t have gas available, as we have been installing 95% AFUE gas fired hot water boilers for a few years. Now they are availble for oil fired applications.

It’s not just the AFUE that makes these systems so energy efficient. Yes, they do convert over 90% of the potential energy in the fuels into heat energy, but they also utilize outdoor reset controls that modulate the temperature of the water in the system based on the outdoor temperature. This ALONE will save a minimum of 10% of your fuel bill, even on an old boiler. With a boiler that can handle low temperatures, you are able to save even more! This is because the lower the temperature you can run, the more money you save.

By the way,  Buderus will only sell this boiler to someone who has taken the class, and we are the only ones trained in its repair.  It is state of the art technology, backed by one of the best boiler and cast iron makers in the world.