Actually it seems relatively efficient, certainly heats up quick

The low water cutoff is broken, which is a Very Bad Thing. Getting the plumber to look at it, if it costs a couple hundred bucks to fix that, I might as well do the gas conversion plus rebate, which will end up being a few grand. Last apartment I did that on was for rent under 12 hours, people were so excited about a new efficient furnace. I had my pick of the litter for tenants.

Color certainly seems to change theft in a way. Used to work with a truck tech who had dipped most of his tool handles in pink enamel. No one ever took his stuff, even the notorious tool thiefs in our shop. Obviously, it was pretty easy to tell who had it if anything wnt missing :D

Yeah! Someone made an innocent mistake- so f@*k them and make them do tons of work for peanuts and lose money so they can raise the rates for everyone else. Might as well stop working and get as much free money from the govt and charities for rent, phones, food and anything while you are at it.

they were both joking.

however, even if I were inclined to play that sort of game, never gonna happen. Local oil company, not some huge monster looking to make a name for them in customer service by honoring silly blunders.

Im sure if I had called and tried it, they'd laugh their a$$es off and tell me to go take a long walk off a short pier. However, I did call and get them to correct it officially, as I do want the coverage on the other furnace. We had a good laugh about it, I did say that if they want to honor a free replacement contract on an 80 year old furnace, they get no argument from me. :D

Is that R2D2's father???

That is bad, but swapping in a new one is not that difficult if it's like mine. It's just an external loop on the boiler with an electric float switch of some kind.

Its a "Richardson B&W" with a "Beckett" oil burner retrofit

awesomely the company that built the thing is apparently still in business, they build nuclear power stuff now-
History


therfore, It must be R2D2's father

He may be able to fix the existing unit. The plumber I use is a deliberate and pragmatic individual, if its a waste of time, ill be hearing an earful about it. :D

If its not, he'll bust it out with only a few hundred muttered oaths

Go gas.

After converting our building from steam boiler to gas units almost 4 years ago, and my father following suit at his house not long after that, I wouldn't hesitate. The conversion in our building (just over $60K) paid for itself in less than 2 years.

My father's heating bill is 1/3 what it used to be with the coal->oil boiler and he heats the house entirely to 70 degrees (used to supplement with a wood stove and thermostat was set to 64). His new furnace was less than $5K and takes less space than a dorm-sized fridge. They converted all of his steam radiators to accept hot water and it's worked well.

Although I suppose if the tenants are paying for H/HW there's far less of an incentive.

It would be pretty cool to have a nuclear boiler...

It's far more common than you think (apparently) when people say they are joking about something and they follow through because they can and it nets them a few bucks. Neither of them said they were joking btw. In addition there are plenty of unscrupulous people who do what's in their power or find some lawyer who will make the other party honor the "amusing mistake". People screwing other people doesn't happen in your world?

^^I'm calling this post out as a copyright violation. Can we lock the thread already?

sure, it happens all the time. In fact the city of Providence has such a huge history of organized crime, you constantly have to be vigilant that you aren't involving yourself in some kind of shady outfit accidentally when you hire contract services. Fortunately the lions share of this blatant activity has been stamped out, but there is still a city wide "youse scratch my back, I scratch youse back" feel to the area.

As an outsider (originally from CT) its particularly visible when hiring contractors who are local and dealing with inspection officials. Its hard to put my finger on the mentality, but its less of a screwing you thing, than a contractor might want to "do you a favor" and in return expect some kind of favor.
Usually this takes the form of not submitting permits or documents, cash deals, not paying in any form that can be traced, hiring a brother, ect. Its irritating. This is one of the reasons I like my current plumber, he complains about this mentality every time I see him. His favorite comments are "just get the !@#$ permit, its easy to do it legal!". He usually says this when he sees some ridiculous repair that was designed around avoiding a building or mechanical permit.

Having said all that, my trying to enforce a clerical mistake locally by hiring a lawyer and getting all offical would be laughed at by the oil company, the lawyer, and the judge who is probably their customer/hunting buddy. :D

So in some ways, the shady buddy system serves to eliminate the whole "im going to sue you" nonsense, I guess there are benefits, and its pretty workable when you nail down good people.

Tenants are definitely wary on how things are heated these days, especially after this winter. :D Having a new gas furnace is a huge draw for people.

I definitely want to do it as the building already has new double pane windows in it and is pretty tight as far as drafts. Plus national grid is running a great incentive and rebate on gas conversions from oil heat.

I already took advantage of this once, brand new gas furnace to run steam radiators installed was about 5k discounted, with a rebate of nearly 1500 dollars mailed back in the form of a credit card, and I sold the iron 50s furnace from that property for scrap on top of that, was nearly 800lbs of metal with all the bits. All said and done I think my investment into the gas conversion was between 3500 and 3900 dollars.

Tenants told me their heating bill was slashed in half doing this.


tell me about the converting of the steam radiators to run hot water? is this more efficient than retaining the steam arrangement? ill have to ask the plumber about it.