Wood powered boilers for home use.

[Chad Sheets]

Have any of you had any experiance first hand, or second hand, with boilers for home use? The ones I have been interested in heat your house and the water for the hot water heater.

The ones I have seen on the net are in their own self contained metal building, which you place outside of your house (nice... keeps the mess outside of your house). They have 2 lines coming out of them. One goes into the house and hooks into the hot water heater then flows into a small motorcyle looking radiator mounted in your heating ducts. The radiator has an electric fan on it to tranfer the heat into the house. From there, the water flows back outside (all the outside lines are undergrond) to the boiler.

With gas prices getting sky high, this might not be such a bad idea. I found one place up in Canada that sells one that is made from stainless and can heat up to 5000 square feet.

One guy out in the boonies has one like this and said his house is 100% electric. This month his electric bill was only $90. Everyone else I know of around here is forking out almost $200 to the electric company for 100% electric houses.

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[Bigsaint]

Chad, I heat my house with a Charmaster. It's hot air though, not a boiler. The Charmaster does have the ability to heat your domestic hot water if you install at tempering tank in conjunction with the existing hot water heater. I know a guy in town that has one of those North Carolina water stoves. It's an outside unit, like the one you described above. The only downfall I see to this stove is that emits huge clouds of heavy white smoke when the thermostat is not calling for heat. I think it has a blower attached to the door that spools up and actually forces air into the firebox when heat is called for. Here's the link to Charmaster, if your interested. I've had mine since 1995 and it is really well made, if you want forced hot air wood heat. Hope this helps. http://www.charmaster.com/index.html

Scott W.

 

[Sled Puller]

Chad,
I have a gas boiler, baseboard and some in the concrete floor. It is awesome, never go back to hot air.
I would like to get a wood fired boiler also, but keep the gas for back-up.
Around here, I see a lot of Taylor and Brunco dealers. Prolly a dozen more once you start lookin.
Keep us posted!
gene

 

[Wiz]

Chad,
Go to this site; www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/wwwthreads. pl

Go into the "rural living" section, and there is a lenghty thread I started regarding woodburners. There are quite a few makes out there, and a lot of different options. Most of the big names have their own websites. I started researching this, in preparation for a house I will be building in a couple of years. With unlimited access to wood, this is the way to go.

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[This message has been edited by Wiz (edited 03-26-2001). ]

 

[The patriot]

I've seen this done, but it was built into the floor (copper pipe?) when the house was being built. I dont think the system I saw would be practical as an add on. The guy that has it says he'll never go back. Cant describe it, but it's the best feeling heat I've ever experienced. Most natural feeling??
This link makes hot water heaters, maybe they can help. http://hotpro.com/
My parents had a house in upper NY state, and many people had wood/oil combos, but they were all located inside the house.
Eric

 

[Papa Joe]

Chad, I'm not sure I know how to post an address, so I'll tell you first, then I'll try it like the bigboys. Got to darbyindustries.com. Look under HAHSA (heat and heat storage apparatus). They work very, very well.
http://www.darbyindustries.com/hahsa

Cheers, Joe

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[Bob Wagner]

another money saver is www.whitfield.com

 

[illflem]

My shop is set up with one continuous hot water hose every foot in the concrete. The hot 50/50 hot water/ antifreeze is pumped though a fuel oil heater with heat exchanger that I converted to run on waste oil. Motor oil, hydraulic fluid, ATF,90 wt, solvent, diesel you name it I burn it. It is very clean and efficient, no smoke or smell. The trick is high pressure atomization (1200 psi) and forced air, it's almost a diesel engine. The unit is in it's own shed attached to the shop, but could be anywhere. It only needs to run 6 times a day for 1/2 hour to keep the 1800 sq ft shop toasty, don't mind laying under a rig on the concrete when it's warm. When you put out the word that you will take waste oil you have no problem getting more than you need, 500 gallons will usually get me though a winter, 2/3 of the waste oil I generate myself. Used to get waste oil from the school district, all the buses, but they got smart and installed a similar system in their shop. There are four other people using this system in my town, whenever one of our oil tanks get full we direct people with waste oil to each other, most of the time everybody's tanks are full, we turn folks away.

 

[Sled Puller]

I put on a 16x30 addition with pipes in the concrete. It is called PEX Tubing. Time consuming, but worth it. make sure to get it right, you only have one chance, unless you like jack hammering.
I set it up on 4 different thermostats/zones. Takes a while to get them calibrated. I also put a 10x10 entrance way on. Set it up to run no matter what zone was running. VERY nice to have dry and warm boots in the morning.
Gene

 

[Glen]

I use a woodfired hotwater boiler to heat the house. The floors are heated by hotwater. The most comfortable heat there is! You don't feel the heat; you are just very comfortable. I installed it 17 years ago.

The living room has a marble floor layed over concrete. Special, expensive, plastic pipe--with an oxygen barrier--is embedded in the concrete. The rest of the house was remodeled and has the same pipe installed in copper heat spreaders under hardwood floors. Do not use any other pipe; metal pipe will break in the concrete and other plastics will let in oxygen which rusts the boiler.

The boiler is located in my woodshed about 30 feet from the house. It is controlled by a thermostat that adjusts the hotwater temperature in proportion to the outside temperature. I pipe the hotwater underground through insulated pipe.

I designed and built a tube-in-tube heat exchanger to heat domestic hot water.

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Glen Eaton
2001 2500QC SLT LB 5sp 4x4 Garnet, Line-X, Steel GemTop, Karry boat loader, VDO gauges, Tekonsha Envoy

 

[Sled Puller]

Glen brought up a good point. Oxygen barrier pipe, I didn't get this, and not only is my boiler rusting, but it is gunking up my pipes!
I thought I was saving a few bucks on pipe, and the shop I was buying from did not know what "OB" meant, just it was more $$

Last winter for the cast boiler, getting a copper or stainless one now.
Expensive mistake made from ignorance.
Gene

 

[The patriot]

MGM I work in a steam plant, and chemical treatment is a BIG thing.
Sounds like it may be too late for this boiler, but maybe an oxygen scavenger(sodium sulfite) would help.
Where I live, wood heat is no savings (well over $100. 00 a cord) but I'd like to get out of this hell hole someday soon, and this is all good info that would be helpful.
Great subject!!
Eric

 

[Sled Puller]

Patriot,
I hate this boiler anyway, bad model. Early electronic crapola!
Do you know of any chemical to flush the rust out of the lines without hurting the plastic or copper pipe?

If you come out to any GLTDR rallys over here, bring a trailer. You can cut all the wood you need, We have more than enough just rotting down, I'll never catch up. 8" down to twigs, tops, on the ground, easy access!
Was planning on getting a fuel wood proccesser.
Gene

 

[Papa Joe]

Gotta love this site, eh?

 

[#2DSL]

Yes I do too.

 

[#2DSL]

It,s sooooo cool!

 

[illflem]

The tubing I used 22 years ago was Quest, I haven't seen a problem, but am running 50/50 antifreeze in a closed system. It's had the same fluid in it the entire time, I doubt that I have ever added even a gallon total to it. Be careful drilling holes for anchor bolts, that's where the infrared temp gun comes in handy.

You want free firewood come to E WA, from where I sit I can see nine fires burning, apple orchards being removed, due to the profit problem. Trees with trunks up to 18" in diameter, excavators with thumbs pull them out like weeds, stockpile about five trees then walk them to the burn pile. You can't get within 100 feet of the fires without getting toasted. Lots of BTUs going to waste today. Should be against the law, but what else can you do?

 

[Sled Puller]

What are they doing with the land?
If you say a new Wal-mart, I'm going to puke.

 

[Sled Puller]

Come to think of it, at a $100 a cord, I may be doing some delivering!

How about it Patriot? Set me up with a buyer!

How many cord of hardwood can a 3/4 ton haul/tow legally?

les,, see here, I can cut a 100 cord a day, prolly haul twice that. . **** , I see a twin turbo in the future!

Gene

 

[illflem]

Gene, most folks are just leaving it bare, no money to replant. Nobody even wants to buy the land. Not enough population to support Wal-Mart. There is talk of a golf course on one block. This is just what I see from my window, thing's may be different in other parts of the state. Estimates are 25,000 acres will come out this year. With apples you can't just abandon it, you will cause pest problems for the neighbors, then the county will come in and spray and give you the bill. Cheaper to just pull it and leave bare. It's sad seeing 2nd and 3rd generation apple orchardists going bankrupt.