Experience with electric boilers?
hightempconvectors
| Posted in General Questions on
I’m looking to install an electric resistance boiler. I know heat pumps are massively more efficient – just take my word for it that I have my reasons, and I can almost entirely offset the use with solar.
An installer recommended Electro Industries from Minnesota, which seems reasonable with a good warranty. http://www.electromn.com/pdf/BL006.pdf Does anyone have experience with them or another manufacturer of electric boilers for residential? I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!
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Replies
I know your post is really old, but I'm wondering if you're still out there. We have recently installed solar for a 40-year old house, and months of research have shown us that replacing our fossil fuel boiler with heat pumps is a very complicated and expensive option. We would like to go with an electric boiler, but info from users is hard to find. Did you get an Electro? Are you satisfied with it? Thank you.
If your main concern is overall emissions and "greeness", note that in most cases an eletric resistance boiler is actually likely to result in MORE emissions than one fired by natural gas. If you have natural gas available, that is likely to be your lowest-emission option overall, assuming you pick an efficient unit. Grid tied solar doesn't actually offset emissions from something like this the way you'd think, because of the way the power grid operates and where the system losses are.
Another issue you may have with an electric resistance boiler is a need for a significant (expensive) upgrade to your electric service. There are threads on here discussing pros and cons of tankless hot water heaters which have the same issues as boilers do in terms of energy use, overall emissions, and installation costs. You can probably get more information by looking at those past discussions as they are related to what you are looking to do.
Bill
I am fully aware of all the posts over the years recommending against electric boilers. I was really just hoping for a reply from the OP.
Unfortunately, we often see no replies once the OP resolves an issue. I wish everyone would post back with their experiences, good or bad, with new things so that we could all learn from their experiences.
Bill