one other question please, Edwin. Coming off the pressure relief
valve, there is a drain hose. Seems to be filling up the bucket under
it every two days. Is this a "sympthom" of any foreseeable problems?

On Jan 23, 9:54 pm, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote:
wrote in glegroups.com...

PLEASE HELP!!

Background ... Just bought a house, so I do not know the history. What
I do know is I have a Freddy Krueger oil furnace in the basement
handling the hot water and heating duties (Huge ... 54"w x 30"d x 54"h)
Found documents from furnace .. 1952 original with house!! The heat
works great, not to mention heating the basement nice and toasty.
Problem is with the hot water. No hot water heater, so it is coming
from the furnace, as i mentioned.

First, lets talk the right terminology. You don't have a furnace, you
have a
boiler. Furnace heat air, boilers heat water.

Inside of that boiler, you have a coil that heats up the water for domestic
use. They can become clogged over time. It may have to be replaced.

Slim chance, but the valve to the hot water feed may be partly turned off
too. My guess is that it is not and you checked that already, but if not,
give it a look.

As for that workhorse, it is probably very low efficiency. Are there any
slips from the service on it? It may show what the efficiency was read by a
meter. Not long ago, 75% to 80% was normal, but new models are better. You
may be blowing a lot of heat up the chimney.

Most of the heat in the basement is going to travel up, but some will be
lost to the walls and floor. If you like it that warm, do nothing, but if
you'd rather have it a bit cooler, insulate the pipes in the basement.