New baseboards = 2x the natural gas usage?

[gregorye70]

Hello,
We have a hydronic heating system consisting of a Smith boiler that was installed in 2003 and a conversion burner for natural gas which is about 17 years ago (it used to burn heating oil). It was connected to 2.5 inch old cast iron heating pipes running to old stand up cast iron radiators. In early November we had a contractor replace all the cast iron with PEX (the red kind used for domestic hot water, which may be a whole different issue) connected to modern baseboard fin type heaters in the entire house. In addition, he installed a "fan in a can" to increase oxygen getting to the burner. We also insulated must of the exterior walls in the house.

According to our latest gas bill we used 2.3 times as much natural gas during this year's December billing cycle compared with last years. I would expect this system to be more efficient than the previous one. Could something in the new system be causing more natural gas to be burned?

A few additional things that may have come into play:

• The expansion tank failed during this billing cycle and the system was dumping water until we had it replaced last week. It was dumping water for 2 to 3 weeks during the billing cycle.
• The installer put antifreeze into the system when he installed it which it didn't have before.
• Prior to November, the old system consisted of 4 rooms with stand up radiators and 3 rooms with 2 year old modern fin type baseboards so it was mixed. I believe the contractor may have installed high output radiators in those 4 rooms.
• Finally, although we insulated most of the walls, the one that didn't get insulated is the room with the thermostat.

I thought I'd run this by the forum before I approach the contractor and start asking questions.

Thank you for your time
-Greg

 

[Fitter30]

Most if not all antifreeze is gone down the drain. Did he leave any containers of the glyclo? Automotive glyclo is bad and not recommended. Pex tubing should have writing on it write it all down do a web search to see if it has a oxygen barrier. Has to have one. Dump ing watwr for two to three weeks not only raised your water bill but dumped heated water down the drain. Take some pics of the boiler, ex tank, pump, piping and fan in a can.