Retrofitting a furnace for more fuel efficiency

Tom,
Could you discuss the various ways an oil fired hot water boiler type furnace/system could be retrofitted to make it more fuel efficient? Such as replace the burner, add an automatic stack damper, add an outdoor reset control (I'm very interested in knowing makes and models that would work well in a single family house), changing the oil spray nozzle, keeping the heat exchange area clean, etc. Also insulating all the heating pipes from the furnace to the baseboards , keeping the plates in the baseboards vacuumed, having an oil tank that has the outflow pipe to the burner coming off the true bottom of the tank to prevent sludge build up, may be having a surge protector in the line to the furnace to protect its electronic controls from harm.

Also making sure all air in the pipes is either bleed out automatically or manually each year. May be discuss checking expansion tanks, backflow preventers, and safety valves too. Plus programmable thermostats with wireless override controllers. I have an Energy Kinetics EK-1 that does real well heating my house, my hot water, and pool, but I want to get as much heat as possible out of each $4.00 gallon burned. Love your TV and radio shows. Glad you and Dick will have the new column in the Bangor Daily!!
Bill Cunningham, Pittsfield, ME


Hi Bill,
In 25 words or less? You just covered 2 years worth of questions here!
The number one retrofit you can do to your specific system, is to install an outdoor reset thermostat. It will modulate the heating system temperature based on outdoor temps and should save you at least 15-30%
on heating.
There are several manufacturers of these devices, Tekmar and Honeywell are two that come to mind. If you are a little handy, you can do most of the installation yourself, leaving the tie-in to the boiler to your service
person.
Your boiler has a newer burner, so there is no benefit to an upgrade there. A damper is built into many newer burners, so I would forego the idea of a stack damper, since it adds more complexity.
Annual cleanings must be done. It is foolish to not clean the boiler or furnace at least once a year! Your oil burner tech can address any flame/nozzle changes with you.

Baseboards MUST be cleaned at least once a year. The covers pop off and they need a good vacuuming. They must also be able to move air in the bottom and out the top. Don't block them!

I would suggest oil tank additives to help keep sludge from causing problems.

Once a system is sealed, air should not have to be vented on a regular basis, unless there is a leak somewhere. In fact, I like to shut off the automatic feed on boiler systems, so I can determine if any leaks
are occurring.

Lastly, setback thermostats make a lot of sense, especially if you are away from home all day. The longer and deeper the setback, the better the energy savings! You can do this manually since I find many
folks struggle with hi tech devices that are difficult to program.
Tom