Indirect Hot Water Tank? Worth it?

[heatted]

Hi all!
I've just descovered this indirect hot water tank's existence! I'm toying with the idea of installing one. I live alone, the question is NOT volumes of hot water....rather the idea of my boiler runnung in the summer time to produce hot water, and of course wasting $2.00 +++++ a gallon of oil! I live in MAss, I have an OLD Utica (30+ years, is in good shape) furnace, with a 5+ years old Becket burner. Just what is the cost of installing one of these systems? IS it worth it? Who makes a good indirect tank???

Many thanks, HeatTed

[johnsp]

I guess you have a tankless coil now. Problem is to get savings, you have to set up the boiler to cold start so it only comes on when the indirect needs to be re-heated.
I would not allow an old cast iron boiler to cool off that much durring the summer if there's no call from the indirect the entire day. It will take a while to heat back up and the extreme cooling and heating could soot up, cause leaks in the boiler and create condensation that will slowly rot it out. Once you have an indirect you could lower the min on the aquastat of the boiler down to 140° or so durring the summer, saving you some fuel. This will keep the boiler warm and be hot enough to recover the indirect. A stainless steel indirect would have about a 2o year lifespan: double that of a regular glass lined gas water heater, but it also costs twice as much. If you had nat gas, it might be better to keep the boiler just for heating season and just get an instant hot water heater for your domestic hot water.

[casturbo]

What johnsp said is correct.

An indirect HWH is for satisfying demands of hot water capacity, and any boiler efficiency gain by adding the tank is pure bonus.

[jdenyer]

Being alone and not needing much hot water volume, you may want to consider an on demand water heater. You can now get them in gas fired, kerosene fired, and #2 fuel oil fired. My mother who also lives alone and has one of these use about 150 gallons of fuel for hot water every 2.5 years! These units are usually limited to about 3 gallons of hot water per minute, but being just one person and by using low flow faucets and shower heads there shouldn't be any issues. Just might be another option for you:D

[johnsp]

Good Point. A toyotomi oil fired instant hot water heater might be an easy way to put DHW production on it's own small efficent system. Leave the old boiler just for heating.