Worried about your heating and water bills rising each year? A lot of homes in Chicago use everything from electric heaters, gas heaters, solar heaters, and boilers for staying warm in the cold season. However, when it comes to choosing a particular option, we need to consider affordability, maintenance, and ease of use.

Today, we will talk about natural gas hot water boilers that run on natural gas and provide hot water and central heating in homes. Natural gas domestic hot water generation might just be what you're looking for.

Natural Gas Domestic Hot Water Boilers

Natural gas hot water boilers helps heat water for domestic use and generate steam for heat radiators, doing the job of both water boilers and central heating system. When you're using a boiler, you can use just your natural gas connection for both central heating and hot water. This way you can save up on maintenance and additional energy charges for heating water. 

Advantages Of Using Natural Gas Boilers

Natural gas domestic hot water generation have different advantages.

1. You don't need to spend money on oil or electricity for heating. Natural gas is directly supplied into Chicago homes. This way there's no need to spend additional money on oil/electricity and maintaining the boilers. Natural gas also doesn't produce a smell while in use unlike oil, and it is pollution free.

2. Money Efficient- Natural gas costs less than oil and helps you save a lot in heating charges. Other than that natural gas hot water boilers also costs less than oil boilers.

3. Environmental Friendly- Natural gas hot water boilers are cleaner than oil, generate less soot, and is less harmful to the environment as they come from pipes dug deep into the ground.

Types Of Natural Gas Hot Water Boilers

There are two types of natural gas hot water boilers:

1) Tankless Coil Gas Hot Water Boilers

2) Indirect Gas Hot Water Boilers

• Tankless Coil Gas Hot Water Boilers

Often referred to as "tankless coil", this small heat exchanger fits easily into a gas-fired boiler. They are very popular in Chicago homes with hot-water baseboard heat since they are cheaper or can be retrofitted into standard boilers. In this type of gas boilers, a copper-coil heat exchanger goes into the boiler which heats as it flows through it. It is similar to a "tankless water boiler" except that it uses the boiler as its heat source.

Tankless-coil water heater have one problem; the boiler has to be hot to generate hot water. In winters, the boiler stays hot most of the times, and most of the times it may not need even gas to be fired for hot water to be supplied as there is residual heat in the gas boiler. But in summers when the boiler is less likely to be used, the gas being fired again and again may waste a lot of gas. Tankless-coil gas water boilers are more useful in winter months, but they are not as efficient during summer.

2) Indirect Gas Hot Water Boilers

Indirect or indirect gas-fired water heaters are another option for producing hot waters.  In this type of gas heaters, there is a separate insulated water tank that uses heated water from the gas boiler to generate hot water.  The plumbing of this indirect tank comes from a separate "area" on the heating system. This type of boiler is efficient during summer months in Chicago as the water on the top of tanks remains hot and can be used multiple times before the gas is fired again after the boiler is turned on to heat the water in the tank.

Another advantage of this type of natural gas domestic hot water boiler is that you can cover it with extra insulation as there's no burner on the storage tank unlike in the case of storage-type water heaters.

The only downside to indirect water heaters is their high cost. A decent indirect gas water heater will cost you about $1,000 which includes the additional zone on the heating system. This makes them much more expensive than conventional storage-type water heaters.

Both Of These Water Heaters Are Efficient

It's important to note that both of these integrated water heaters can keep your boiler in good working condition. If your gas boiler in your Chicago home is kept in the basement that stays damp in the summer, periodic burner fires- which is recommended by a lot of heating engineers to reduce corrosion.

This makes the indirect water heater a good option.

A lot of people go with a tankless-coil water heater for winter months and switch to a stand-alone electric or gas-fired water boiler for the summer months. Keeping aside the problem of corrosion in the boiler in damp basements, this can be a very good option.

How To Convert An Oil Hot Water Boiler To A Gas Hot Water Boiler?

If you want to convert your oil hot water boiler to natural gas domestic hot water boiler, there are a lot of options available. An existing gas line can help reduce costs. You need to contact a heating engineer or contractor to know the equipment you would need and the changes that would be required in your home. A professional can advise you in the best way possible on which type of heaters you should use and how will the installation of a natural gas hot water boiler will take place in your Chicago home.