We woke to the sound of the wind building up in the park and then rolling across the house. It rattled the windows so hard that Lilibet jumped into our bed all wide eyed and startled. It pulled the storm windows open on the casements. It took small branches down. It turned small fingers pink with chill when we were out walking. It caught at the hood of her coat and turned ears pink.
I know I wrote about banishing the winter blahs, but it's good to have a little more winter. The 70 degree February has been uncomfortably comfortable. What joy is Spring springing if it hasn't been rightly cold?
Of course, with the new chill, we find the boiler is on strike again. Why does the boiler fritz more often on cold windy nights? Seriously. We're all cozy and warm under blankets... no one is suffering for the loss of heat for one night. But as I sit here all cozy in blankets, which I guess could be romantic for Valentine's Day, I'm preparing a barrage of possible questions for the boiler guy.
{Start Homeowner Geek Out} The boiler is young, by boiler standards - only 5 years old. Just in the last two years, it has a new ignition thingy and gas thingy and some new wiring and a new door, new stovepiping, and a newly lined flue to vent into. There's not a lot left to replace (or so the boiler guy has promised). We drained the tank and checked the connections. We've also learned that there is only one dealer in parts for this brand of boiler and he's an unhappy unfriendly fellow out in Fairfax who gave our repairman incredible grief last time we needed a part. We have now spent about half the cost of a new boiler... when should we bag this one as a lemon and get a new one? Do we keep hoping that the next few hundred dollars will finally solve the mysterious problem? I'm beginning to wonder if it's not the actual beast of a boiler but instead the venting or something. Could the air be coming back down and tripping a sensor so that it won't light? Would a boiler repairman catch that problem, given that he is not a chimney guy?
::sigh::
And if we go down the road of replacing it, the questions only multiply. We have a gas fuel boiler now and I presume we'd stick to gas. Our boiler has about 80% efficiency, which I understand to be pretty standard for a boiler with a damper. We could try to get something with increased efficiency (routing flue gasses through more often to catch more heat). Or we could get wild and redesign the whole system with an indirect water heater/boiler system, for increased efficiency and less space used up in the basement. But I only want to start thinking on this if I can determine that the existing boiler is a loss. Because no matter how I measure it up, replacing the boiler is not an expense I am eager to embark on.
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