Back in September 2023, BMP technicians found the combustion chamber cracked on the hot water boiler (the only source of heat for the entire building). The boiler was from 2006 and discontinued many years prior. We ordered (2) new Lochinvar FTXL 1.0 boilers w/4 week lead time and began replacement.
The old boiler was 2,000,000 BTU, and 85% thermal efficiency. Our new boilers are 1,000,000 BTU each – with 98.7% thermal efficiency. This gives the building redundancy, should one boiler fail – there is still another. This will also generate large savings in natural gas – as each boiler can modulate down to 10% of capacity on low-demand days (the old boiler’s lowest modulation was 50% or 1,000,000 BTU – the new boiler can run 100,000 BTU if needed).
The process included the removal of the old boiler & piping, installation of new one, reworking of all hydronic piping to accommodate 2 boilers instead of 1, new flue/fresh air vents, control wiring, isolation valves, and factory startup. As the new boilers are condensing, we installed condensate neutralizers to prevent the breakdown of the floor drain piping.
New boilers are also linked to the building’s wi-fi and can be viewed remotely via the Lochinvar ConXus app.
Final inspection was passed in early November 2023.
