Becoming Eco-Friendly at Lily Pond

February 14, 2011

My house in East Hampton is quite large and is more than 100 years old. When I purchased Lily Pond and had it restored more than 20 years ago, state-of-the-art oil burners were installed. Since that time, there have been many advancements in how homes are heated. The use of modulating gas burners is a much cleaner and greener, not to mention, cost-efficient approach. The time had come to replace my aging oil burners. After researching options, we chose Weil McLain, a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of gas- and oil-fired hot water and steam boilers for space heating in residential, commercial, and institutional buildings.

Unlike a standard oil burner, which is either on or off, a modulating gas boiler measures the temperature inside the building and out, and uses only enough fuel to heat, based on those readings. This translates to less fuel used while keeping the home at a comfortable temperature. It’s also an eco-friendly system that also happens to reduce energy bills. We recently aired a television segment about this subject and I would like to thank Weil McLain for helping us with this project.

: Blackman is the big distributor for Weil-McLain products, as well as other major brands of boilers, radiation, water heaters, unit heaters, furnaces, and other types of heating products.

: Unloading one of the two high efficiency Weil-McLain Ultra Condensing Gas Boilers

: Resting against the house are the two PVC pipes that will be sleeved down the chimney to vent out the two boilers.

: The bucket truck made things a whole lot easier.

: Meanwhile, in the basement, Kent Thuesen, my plumber and Joel were preparing the vent area for hookup to the PVC piping.

: Outside, Enrique moved the bucket into position, being very cautious not to hurt my beautiful ginkgo tree.

: The first task at hand was to remove the chimney cap.

: This is the old pool heater, which hasn’t worked in many years. It will eventually be replaced with a new high efficiency heater, also by Weil McLain. Stay tuned for the heat exchanger upgrade next spring.

: The ventilation hole actually had to be made larger to accommodate the new rigging.

: Approaching the chimney

: It was soon discovered that the cap actually needed replacement. After years of venting, a hole had worn through the slate.

: As the pipes were being positioned, the new boilers were set in place.

: With the bucket extended, it was a wonderful opportunity to take some aerial views. The other chimney caps, which vent the fireplaces, have fared much better.

: You can see how close the Atlantic ocean is.

: The ocean-front property is lined with stately homes.

: Mission complete

: This is my little guest cottage behind the main house.

: The Hampton beaches are beautiful white sand.

: We asked our friends at SavATree to help us maneuver the PVC pipes down the chimney.

: These are the circulation pumps for the five heating zones in the house. In addition, there is also a primary for the hot water and another for the pool heat exchanger.

: John Resso from Weil McLain was busy gluing the sections of PVC venting pipes together, making them long enough to extend down the chimney to the basement.