[Greenbuilding] Fresh air to boiler questions

[Benjamin Pratt]

I have been sealing up and insulating the unfinished portion of my
basement, but am concerned it is a waste of time and money: There is a 6"
fresh air duct to provide proper combustion for the boiler. Also, there is
no damper on the water heater or boiler. Therefore, a lot of cold air is
continually dumped into the basement, and a lot of hot air escapes up the
chimney.
   I suppose the solution to this would be to install a new boiler, and to
install a direct vent kit on the water heater. The boiler is around 15
years old, and is 84 percent efficient. If I buy a more efficient boiler,
that is direct vented, any guess as to how much energy I will save? I
suppose its more then just the amount of natural gas I will save with a
more efficient boiler, since I would also be eliminating a huge source of
air infiltration. I would like to be able to calculate the ROI, so my wife
agrees to the purchase.
I'd appreciate any help you can provide.
Thanks,
Ben



b e n j a m i n p r a t t

professor art+design
the university of wisconsin stout

On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 3:46 PM, Sacie Lambertson <
sacie.lambertson at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm looking for an architect in Seattle who understands energy efficient
> good building and does contemporary design work.  Welcome suggestions.
> Best to send these off the forum, to me directly. Sacie
>
> _______________________________________________
> Greenbuilding mailing list
> to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
> Greenbuilding at bioenergylists.org
>
> to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
>
> http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/greenbuilding_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20150113/eb5d7b32/attachment.html>