Boiler repair and replacement in Remington.

Electricity heats about three in four owner homes across ZIP 22734 and about eight in ten inside the town, mostly with heat pumps. The Census counts 92 owner homes on bottled or tank gas and about ten on a natural gas line, so a hot water boiler in Remington is almost certainly on propane. Oil, which heats a few homes here, is a fuel we don’t work on.

The houses run old: about four in ten owner homes predate 1960, in town and out, and the typical town house dates from 1982. Downtown has a long record of floods from the river and Tinpot Run, and a major fire in 1925. A boiler that has lasted in one of those houses is likely cast iron and on the chimney.

In Remington, a propane boiler swap is Fauquier County permit work even in the old boiler’s spot, because the County’s rule covers any fuel-fired appliance; the application goes to the Building office at 16 Courthouse Square in Warrenton. The heating season is long: in a typical year the Warrenton 3 SE station sees its first freeze around November 1 and its last around April 9, about 4,680 heating degree days a year.

The Rappahannock is the local hazard. At 15 feet on the Remington gauge, Tin Pot Run Road and Sumerduck Road flood; in June 2018 the river crested at 23.10 feet with water in a couple of homes, and the record is 30 feet in 1942. If floodwater reached the boiler, leave it off: a wet gas valve or control board has to be checked, and often replaced, before that boiler is safe to light.