How to Choose a New Boiler for Your Home

If your Maryland or Pennsylvania home uses a boiler to stay warm during the cold winter months, you may be thinking about updating that boiler in the near future. Doing so can provide you with benefits in terms of efficiency and performance, but you need to know what you are looking for in order to make the right selection. So how do you pick the right boiler for the needs of your home? We have provided some answers below.

Think About Size First

The size of the boiler you select needs to be a good match for your home. This isn’t a case of just buying the biggest gas boiler you can afford, as you might not actually need a big boiler in order to warm your home effectively. When you shop for a boiler, you will find that their capacity is measured in BTUs. For a home in a cold climate, aiming for 50 BTUs per square foot is a good starting point. You can do some simple math from there to give you a range for your next boiler. For example, if your home is 1,500 square feet, you would want a boiler with a capacity around 75,000 BTUs.

How Does It Vent?

All boilers need to be vented, but they do not all vent in the same manner. Some will vent straight up through a chimney, while others use fans to move their exhaust to another location and out of the home. The right one for you is the one which will fit with the design of your home. Ask for help on this point when shopping for a new boiler to make sure you wind up with a model that is going to function properly in your house.

Look for Efficiency

It should go without saying that you will want to find a highly-efficient boiler. After all, improved efficiency is likely one of your main motivations for purchasing a new boiler in the first place. There is good news on this front, however, which makes this point a pretty easy one to check off your list – almost all new boilers on the market run at an efficient level. The AFUE rating is what you will want to look for in terms of an efficiency measurement, and most come in between 80 – 90% (for an oil furnace) or between 89 – 98% (for gas). Do your best to optimize your efficiency rating while remaining within your budget, but know that any new boiler is almost certain to be an efficiency improvement over an old unit.

To stay warm and cozy in your home all winter long, you want to have a quality boiler on your side. Not only should the new boiler do a great job of keeping your home warm, it should also do so in an efficient manner – saving you money and preserving natural resources at the same time. We hope the advice above will help as you search for the perfect boiler to place in your home.