Home › New Hampshire › Durham
Boiler Repair in Durham, NH
Fuel oil heats 40% of households in Durham, which puts this town among the places where a boiler is simply what a house has. The trade that services them is local and busy, and that is worth more in January than anything else on this page.
In brief
A boiler is an ordinary appliance in Durham rather than an unusual one: 40% of households heat with fuel oil. An oil-fired system is serviced annually rather than repaired when it stops, and the burner, the tank and the controls all belong to that appointment.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040.
How Durham heats
An oil town usually means hydronic heat, which means the whole house is a loop of water held at a pressure somebody set once. The gauge on the front of the appliance is the single most useful number in the building, and almost nobody looks at it until there is no heat.
| Households in Durham | Share |
|---|---|
| Fuel oil and kerosene | 40% |
| Gas — mains and bottled | 33% |
| Electricity | 18% |
| Wood, coal, solar or no fuel | 8% |
Across the 30 towns we cover in New Hampshire, 32% of households heat with oil. Durham sits 7 points above that.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 2,901 occupied housing units. The Census asks what the house is heated with, not what equipment does the heating. The oil share above therefore includes furnaces as well as boilers.
Carbon monoxide
CPSC recommends CO alarms on every level of the home and outside sleeping areas, and specifically not in kitchens or above fuel-burning appliances. The instinct is to put one next to the boiler, and that is the one place the guidance says not to.
Source: US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Carbon Monoxide Fact Sheet.
Hot water or steam
Knowing whether the system is hot water or steam saves a visit. A steam boiler has a sight glass and a low water cutoff; a hot water boiler has a circulator, an expansion tank and a pressure gauge worth reading. Almost nothing that is true of one is true of the other.
DOE regulates them separately too, at slightly different AFUE minimums by fuel and type.
Source: US Department of Energy, Energy Conservation Standards for Residential Boilers.
What to ask whoever comes
Ask whether the appliance is hot water or steam, and what its AFUE is. DOE’s minimums run 82 to 86 percent depending on fuel and type, so those two facts decide what a like-for-like comparison even means.
Other New Hampshire towns we route in
- Derry 47% heat with oil
- Hooksett 31% heat with oil
- Concord 20% heat with oil
- Hampton 19% heat with oil
- Peterborough 48% heat with oil
Checking a plumber in New Hampshire
The authority is the New Hampshire Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, Mechanical Safety and Licensing Board. New Hampshire licenses plumbers but publishes no online licensee search, so verification means contacting the office directly.
A boiler is not a furnace, and the person you want knows the difference.Tell us it is a boiler, tell us what the gauge reads if you can see it, and we will route you to somebody in your area who works on them. You are never charged. Any trouble at an address in Durham is welcome here.
Call (888) 510-4130