After moving into our new house, my wife and I spoke about getting the steam boiler replaced.
The boiler was absolutely huge, but we kept talking about getting something modern that was more energy efficient. We used the steam boiler for the first winter, and it was surprisingly comfortable. It probably was more comfortable than any other heating system I had ever used before. The thing I didn’t like was the costly heating bills. Evidently, creating steam is highly energy intensive. There’s the benefit that there are no hydronic pumps required for pushing water through a system, since the steam rises up to the radiators in the house. Eventually, we were able to speak with some HVAC pros from a local contractor. These guys said they could upgrade us with a combi boiler that not only would provide 95% efficient heating, but it would provide the hot water in our home as well without having to depend on the old water heater. I thought this sounded great. When I asked them about removing the old steam boiler, they said it wouldn’t be a problem. They did have to charge us to remove that oversized boiler, but they did a great job. They took that thing apart and took it out of our home one piece at a time. I couldn’t believe how much space we had once that dinosaur was taken away. Now we have all new radiators and a fine hydronic boiler system that saves us a lot of money on the heating expenses. We’re very happy about this heating system upgrade.