Our old boiler came with the house and was a vintage late 1950's boiler.  "Ha Rumpf," it said, each time we called for heat.

And  heat, it would blast in!  In a few seconds, I'd be complaining about how hot it had become in my home office and I'd start pulling off sweaters. An hour later, I'd be putting the sweaters back on and staring at the thermostat again.

And so we replaced it.  The installation process was an all day event. Soundview HVAC installed a Buderas 142 with an annual fuel use efficiency (AFUE) rating of 95% compared to what our old boiler that it was around the 70% range, a best guess. AFUE is a measure of how energy efficient the appliance is over the course of a typical year. An AFUE of 95% means that 95% of the energy in the fuel becomes heat for the home and the other 5% escapes up the chimney. And according to Buderas, there's less air emisions as well because we're burning less gas to keep the house warm.

One of the first things I learned about the boiler was that it didn't exhaust into the chimney because the air emission wasn't hot enough and it would ruin the chimney, and so we now exhaust through PVC pipes out the back. The white steam rising out of the pipes concerned me, until I compared it to sooty school bus and car emissions.

Prior to purchasing the Buderas 142, we thought to purchase a less expensive model, which was in the low 80-85 % efficiency. Yet with the National Grid Residential Energy Efficiency Program (check to see if you have such a program), anticipate a $1000 rebate on boiler and $25 rebate on thermostat. The deadline is December 31, 2009. So if you qualify, and need a new boiler, keep this in mind. And there is also the Federal Tax Credit on Energy Efficient Devices. It's a tax credit up to $1500, which is directly deducted from the taxes you owe.

Some additional boiler features include a place to connect to for hot water needs. All you need is a storage tank and you can use the boiler to heat water for hot showers.  And there is also an outside thermometer. When it's very cold outside, the boiler will increase the temperature of the water in your radiator pipes, in effect blasting the heat when you really need it. This means the heat is modulated and less energy is used when it's warmer outside.

With these recent rebate incentives, a better packaging of the Buderas options, and our personal goals of being green, we went for the space age boiler for the next generation.

A special thanks goes to Quality Parks Ranger, Ray Corwin, for contributing the old boiler photographs.