Dillon Fraioli faced a tall order in a recent installation in one of New York City’s most exclusive suburbs. The solution included dramatic improvement in efficiency, space-saving design in the homeowner’s basement and the installation of new liners through a 50-foot-high chimney.

The century-old home, nestled neatly along Mamaroneck Harbor, includes five bedrooms and five baths stretched across 5,244 square feet. Fraioli, the proprietor of Sustainable Heating and Cooling in Rye, N.Y., found an inefficient system that included a 30-year-old 500,000 BTU boiler, a 60,000 BTU boiler for a guest room and a standalone water heater.

“If the main boiler went down, the whole house was out of heat,’’ Fraioli says.

The water heater was undersized for the house, and the equipment ate up space in the basement that the homeowner sought to renovate. 

Fraioli faced an additional challenge replacing the chimney liners. The existing terracotta liners needed to be replaced due to age and deterioration. The Sustainable crew installed two new polypropylene liners in the chimney, which protruded a harrowing 15 feet above the roofline. 

“It was challenging dealing with an old house, old existing piping and the extremely high chimney,’’ Fraioli adds.

Providing Redundancy

From Fraioli’s perspective, the critical piece to the project was establishing redundancy. The existing system was old, only 80 percent efficient and undersized for the house. The 60K boiler also was only 80 percent efficient and oversized for the single guest room. 

Fraioli’s solution included two HTP Elite Ultra High Efficiency boilers and an HTP SuperStor Ultra indirect water heater. Not only is the new system much more efficient, but it adds redundancy to help maintain proper heating in case one unit goes down. 

“In a home of this size, especially in the Northeast, it’s important to have a redundant installation,’’ Fraioli says. “It dramatically reduces the risk of emergency downtime and if maintenance is required on one unit, the home will still have heat. It also delivers varying heat loads, extends component life and allows for easy expansion.”

Redundancy has other advantages. Multiple boilers improve the efficiency of each unit. If only a small amount of hot water is needed, just one boiler will be operational. If demand escalates, the second boiler will activate. Each boiler will also be operating close to maximum efficiency. 

Two boilers also reduce the stress on each, so maintenance can be more infrequent. And if a boiler does need to be shut down for maintenance, the additional unit handles the heat demand. A total shutdown with just one unit could lead to frozen pipes and other residential calamities. In essence, the boilers work together as a team to deliver the heat required in the most efficient means. 

“Redundant boilers only activate when the first boiler can’t meet the load,’’ Fraioli says. “That’s going to save money for the homeowner. It’s also going to allow for better servicing of the unit and will reduce the cost of operating with an old boiler.”

While more expensive at the outset, the system pays for itself over time with more efficient heat delivery and reduced maintenance costs.

Elite Solution

The HTP Elite Ultra boilers are the centerpiece to the new heating system for the homeowner. At the heart of the boiler is a stainless-steel heat exchanger that provides an increase in water flow. The increased internal turbulence acts as a scrub to the internal walls and reduces heat exchanger deposits. The heat exchanger, which includes a pipe surface up to 400 percent larger than conventional designers, ensures a longer life span for the unit. 

The Elite Ultra also has a 11:1 turndown ratio that limits short cycling and provides more efficient energy consumption. An outdoor sensor, when used, can provide up to 96 percent thermal efficiency. It also includes HTP Link Technology, which enables remote monitoring of the of the appliance and system. 

The 80-gallon water heater is also highly efficient, resists corrosion and eliminates the need for anode rods, which allows for the system to be virtually maintenance free. The heater draws energy from a boiler and does not need its own heat source. The SuperStor Ultra can generate more than 50 percent more hot water than many water heaters of a similar size. 

“The house went from inefficient, oversized equipment to new modulating equipment that provided redundancy,’’ Fraioli explains. “We also claimed back a lot of space in the basement for the customer with the new smaller footprint of the mechanical room. I think the homeowner will be very happy with this setup.”

Fraioli added HTP representative Moises Ortiz helped design and troubleshoot the final solution.

“HTP has great technical support,’’ he adds. 

Sky High Dilemma

The final piece to the project puzzle centered on the removal of terracotta chimney liners. While common in older homes, terracotta is brittle and tends to crack under rapid expansion and contraction. While terracotta liners are less expensive, they also have a much shorter lifespan. 

“We had to install two new polypropylene liners down the chimney,’’ Fraioli says. “The new high efficiency boilers cannot vent out of old terracotta liners.”

In an Instagram post, video shows two workers installing the liners while accessing the chimney from a steeply pitched roof. 

“That’s not something we see every day,’’ Fraioli says. “We had to set up special roofing supports for access. That chimney was extremely high.”

In some projects, especially for aging equipment, it’s not unusual for contractors to completely overhaul the existing system. The boilers on the market today are more efficient and durable, and can save homeowners money on fuel costs and maintenance.

“It wasn’t an unusual project, but it was challenging dealing with an old house, old existing piping and the high chimney,’’ Fraioli says. “This was a fun project, and we came up with a good solution for the homeowner.”

Thomas Renner writes on building, construction and other trade industry topics for publications throughout the United States.