Help! Boiler replacement cost to jump by a lot in 2009?
My neighbor called me about a radiant heat boiler replacement. She said a contractor told her that it needed to be replaced and wasn't serviceable anymore. The price quoted sounded high, but the part that got me curious was that if she waited till next year, the cost would jump by $4K due to some new EPA requirements.
That sounded odd to me. Does anyone know anything about what that could mean? My neighbor isn't that technically knowledgeable. My guess is that the implication is by 2009, emissions requirements from gas boilers might require some kind of expensive solutions or components. Or more energy efficient boilers are required to be used by then. Or the contractor just wanted her to replace the boiler now.
I'm going to help her out here and see what the real story is. Any insights appreciated!
Nelson
We're having our boiler replaced today with a medium-efficiency boiler (~85%) and were told by the installer that when they run out of these units they'll only be able to install the higher efficiency (~93%) boilers.
I did the math on the additional cost for the high efficiency boiler (which was $2-3K, depending on the size) versus the energy savings, and couldn't justify it. Also, I understand from multiple installers that the high efficiency boilers are considerably more complex and therefore tend to require more frequent service. That limited energy savings could easily be overwhelmed by a repair call every few years.
Ahhh, thanks for the info. That aligns with what I my neighbor said. I mis-remembered, she also said that once the current units run out, then a newer model must be used that's much more costly.
Thanks again and good luck with your new boiler!
