From the outside, the 1920s villa in the seaside community of Newport, Rhode Island, appears as any other stately historic home in the neighborhood. But, inside the 15,000-square-foot house, the state-of-the-art heating system — complete with Wi-Fi and remote programming capabilities — is powered by a Bell & Gossett (B&G) pump system.
The old cast-iron steam boiler was obsolete and expensive to run, costing the homeowners $20,000 a year in oil alone. Property caretaker Jeff Ward started investigating options to convert the system from steam to hot water, downloading manufacturers’ manuals to compare and contrast pumps for the system. He set up a beta test in the house to find the most effective and energy-efficient model by measuring output through an amp meter.