Ergomax Tanks

hr

have you priced them yet? Even this small 23 gallon lists for over $1500. Not a lot of buffer capacity for the $$. This is a pic of one that arrived damaged.

I was surprised to find a cheesy insulation thickness, and detail, when I disassembled it. I may beef this up on my future installs with some EPS wrap.

I'd still like to see your piping ideas. I'm not following how you get the protection with an Ergo in series??

I think Lp tanks are the best gallon for dollar ASME pressurized vessel. About 2 bucks a gallon new. I can find used ones for a buck a gallon around here. I'm thinking you would like 300- 500 maybe more gallon capacity. Best to drive that wood boiler long and hard for best efficiency. You could spray foam or wrap an LP tank with layers of InsulTarp or The Barrier insulation fairly easily. Or box it in with layers of Dow Board.

One way with the Ergo to assure you always have DHW and quick recovery, is to pull the Ergo off the gas boiler as a paralel load.

Or you could pull it off the primary loop to allow the wood boiler to heat it also, but you would need to run the boiler circ, the primary loop circ, the buffer circ, and the indirect circ that way.

In this drawing a priority DHW would fire the gas boiler and only the indirect circ. Check protection at the circs is a must this way.

Wrap some copper around the OUTSIDE of the buffer for a DHW preheat on the domestic water. A simple way to preheat potable without another control. Protect the final DHW outlet with an approved tempering valve, just in case that wood buffer gets real hot. This also allows you to use a smaller capacity indirect and run it hotter.

Notice the VS circ, between the wood boiler loop and the buffer loop. With it's sensor at the wood boiler return, this pump is the return temperature devise, and the BTU shuttle between wood and buffer. This piping is not sized as an injection loop, but to carry the full BTU load. maybe 1-1/4" or larger depending on the boiler output.dto offer return protection.

Control logic gets tricky, I'd still suggest you send your final piping diagram to tekmar for an ideal control package.

There are a lot of ways to pipe what you have in mind. Be sure you cover all the bases for safety and component reliability.

hot rod

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Kevin_29

Wood Boiler w/ buffer tank

Hi everyone. I had a post on The Wall a little while ago about installing a wood gasifaction unit with a buffer tank. I got some good ideas. Rather than connecting the boiler to an regular indirect, why not use an Ergomax tank? This way, one tank could be used as both a buffer tank and for DHW. You could have a fire in the boiler and the tank would heat up then once the fire went out in the boiler, the tank would still have quite a bit of heat in it. The boiler and tank would be the "primary loop" so even if there is a call for heat from any of the zones, water would be circulated through the tank and the cold wood boiler. Does this make any sense? This setup also would make sure that the boiler didn't see to low of return temps.

Joe Brix_2

other alternatives

Also checkout the turbomax www.thermo2000.com

A few others make reverse indirects. Checkout allied engineering on the virtual trade web page here on the wall.

Dale

You may want to price out

HR, whenever we need an ASME tank we get one for compressed air, nice stamp and big outlets. You may want to compare gallon/dollar prices.

Maine doug

My Ergo

had a small leak from the factory. The thermo well leak has caused a large rust cancer on the side of the tank. I agree with Hot Rod, the insulation is cheesy. Still waiting to here from Ergo on the cancer on the tank and in the thermowell connection. Expensive tank. It does generate mucho hot water though.

Nick_16

Pricey, yes, but....

it also means one tank for everything rater than a buffer and an indirect for DHW. It does look like the insulation is bad and you are right about the amount of buffer for the $$$.