greenwood wood boiler

leo g_13

first hand knowledge HR. I should be doing a certification course at Greenwoods' factory in the next little while. I will report back what I find out.

Leo G

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Rich Johnson

greenwood wood boiler

I am going to install an add on wood boiler to an existing hydronic gas boiler. I am considering the greenwood boiler (www.greenwoodtechnologies.com) and H.S.Tarm(www.woodboilers.com). I am not familiar with the heat exchange plate on the greenwood or the water storage with the Tarm. Which would be best? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Josh_10

Go with the Tarm my friend! The difference between the two is that the Tarm is pressurized and the Greenwood isn't. The reason the Greenwood uses a heat exchanger is because your heating system needs to be pressurized.

The theory behind using a storage tank is so you can burn wood for a short period of time at full capacity resulting in higher efficiency. The Tarm is built for efficiency and pollution control. Outdoor wood stove produce almost 1000 times more pollution than a standard oil boiler and they are incredibly in-efficient.

S Ebels

No comparison

> I am going to install an add on wood boiler to an

> existing hydronic gas boiler. I am considering

> the greenwood boiler

> (www.greenwoodtechnologies.com) and

> H.S.Tarm(www.woodboilers.com). I am not familiar

> with the heat exchange plate on the greenwood or

> the water storage with the Tarm. Which would be

> best? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Tom_35

Rich,

We just installed a Greenwood that the homeowner purchased and were impressed with it. I haven't seen the Tarn (but I have visited their website, which is really nice), but it was talked very highly of in a previous thread.

We didn't have any complaints with the Greenwood and it is a quality piece of equipment---lots of weight there. We were using a 100,000 unit to provide the radiant heating for approx. 3,600 sq. feet plus domestic hot water heating and it did a really nice job.

As the unit fires up and gets up to temperature, the flue runs clear and you don't see smoke. As far as an open vs a closed system, we've done them both and both seem to work.

Efficiencies of equipment is something we all wonder about. While we look at rated efficiencies of furnaces and boilers (gas, oil, propane), the fact is that the installation and set-up of the system can far outweigh the efficiency of the piece of equipment.

If you have good access to wood and the cost of gas, propane, oil, etc is continuing to rise in your area, then the fact that woodburning is not as efficient is not near the factor that it would be otherwise. The family that we installed the Greenwood furnace for will be saving over $500/month by using wood as compared to what the natural gas bill would be---but, their wood costs them only the labor of their sons cutting the wood, gas, chains, and gasoline.

Greenwood vs Tarn---if the situation is right---either will do you a good job.

Tom Atchley

Paul Pollets

Where??

Where was the appliance installed?

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Tom_35

Location

Paul,

I assume you mean what part of the country was the boiler installed? If that is correct, it was in northwest Arkansas. As far as location in the home, it was in a room that could be double as a single car garage if it had not been designated for a mechanical and wood storage room.

The home had sprayed-in foam on the walls and roof rafters, Pella windows and doors.

Tom Atchley

Wayco Wayne_2

Hey Tom

I had corresponded with you about the Greenwood boiler and you were planning on putting it in at the time. I had been contacted by the customer and the Greenwood people about installing one a couple hours from my shop. The customer balked at the mention of paying travel time so I didn't have the pleasure. (heavy sigh) If you have any pictures to post let me see them. WW

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Josh_10

However..... Tarm did get testing done! Here it is... I have nothing to gain from this recomendation. It is just that I have alot of hours into researching wood boilers and I am convinced that outdoor wood "stoves" are only making our world worse. I really beleive that if you are going to burn wood in a boiler you need a presurized forced draft wood gasification boiler such as the Tarm..

Tom_35

Wayne,

> I had corresponded with you about the Greenwood

> boiler and you were planning on putting it in at

> the time. I had been contacted by the customer

> and the Greenwood people about installing one a

> couple hours from my shop. The customer balked at

> the mention of paying travel time so I didn't

> have the pleasure. (heavy sigh) If you have any

> pictures to post let me see them. WW

>

> _A

> HREF="http://www.heatinghelp.com/getListed.cfm?id=

> 255&Step=30"_To Learn More About This

> Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in

> "Find A Professional"_/A_

Tom_35

Wayne,

I will try to get to the office the first of the week and send some of the pics.

The Discovery Channel broadcast the show that featured the Duggar family and their new home about a month ago. The Greenwood boiler and radaint heating got very little "film time", but that's to be expected...not exciting stuff for the normal viewer.

Tom Atchley

leo g_13

actually Josh,

Greenwood has had independant testing of its boiler also. And they use a refraction chamber to re-burn the "smoke".
The intriguing aspect for me, is that with the Greenwood, you do not, load, burn and store. With this boiler, you load, burn what is needed for that event, then the boiler "turns" itself off, and when heat is needed again, there is enough energy left in the combustion chamber to re-ignite the pile. To me, that seems to be a bit more effecient use of the fuel and time.

Leo G

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BJ_2

Greenwood vs Tarm vs OWB

I am also familiar with the Greenwood and Tarm boilers. They are both very good products, but I wouldn't really mention either of those with the "smoker community" or Outdoor Wood Boilers (OWB). They both are far superior products than the OWB products. Leo was right on with his description of the Greenwood and Tarm. The Tarm offers heat on demand from water storage and the Greenwood offers heat on demand from within the furnace. It comes down to which you feel meets your application needs. I prefer getting heat on demand from the furnace. When you get it from water storage, there is the burning of wood efficiently yet indiscriminately. That water will continually need to be reheated even though it may not have been used for heating. It would appear to me that the reheating of water may be less efficient than heat on demand directly from the furnace.

Josh_10

Ya but it is the smoldering pile of wood on stadby mode that really pollutes the air...

leo g_13

Josh,

the smoldering does not last long, the unit shuts out the oxygen. When there is another call for heat, the actuator opens the vent and the fan starts up , forcing the air over the unburnt portion of the pile, because of the mass of the ceramic, the temp inside the cumbustion chamber can literally relight the pile up to 2 days after the last burn. I feel that it is the next step in wood burning technology.

The other big plus is that the Greenwood is listed for in the home installation. And without the thousand or so of gallons of storage water, the chances of a huge flood are less.

It's kinda like having a gas boiler, except you have to refurbish the fuel by hand.

Leo G

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Rich Johnson

Thanks Josh for the information! Do you know what temperature the water in the storage will max out at? I have designed present system at 180 degrees.Also I understand the supply from the tank is 3/4". How does the return from storage supply the system?

Rich Johnson

Thanks Tom for the information! on an average how often does the greenwood need to be reloadedwith wood. we live in Pa.

hr

I've yet to find a solid fuel

boiler, furnace, stove, etc that can shut itself off. Much less off and back on! That's marketing hype at it's finest

Any unit that shuts off the O2 will extinguish long before faning air across it can bring it back to life. Believe me I have tried many variations of dampers, fans, burn sizes, coal, large logs, small logs, dry, green, wet wood, motor oil drip, you name it. it just doesn't happen that way in real life.

I've got 5 solid years of solid fuel burning, with 3 different brands of wood boilers, and about a dozen customers wood firing, from pot head hippies to degreed engineers. Wood heat is not a simple start a fire and warm happily ever after. Better try it before you sell it as such.


Building a fire sized to an unknown load (since the heat load is ever changing) or weather condition (again ever changing) is another marketing myth.

Granted insulated parking spaces (buffer tanks) cost $$s, from my personal experience it is the ONLY way to tame these beasts.

Hit any Euro gasification website and you will see how they stress buffer or accumulator tanks. they have decades of experience with gasification and efficient burning.

I see a big switch to pellet feeders. Both across the pond and over here. Popular to the point of long waiting lists. They are a lot more managable, and much better suited to the American lifestyle (plug and play, or load & leave

Oh yeah, don't forget the weekly cleaning to keep them burning any where near efficient. In "off cycle" they are creasote generating monsters. Same with over sized units. Yet another marketing hype "bigger fire boxes+ more efficiency and less loading"

Better screen your potential wood burning customers very carefully and put the pros and cons in writing. Customers tend to forget the downsides rather quickly.

I'd love to "un-install" a few I have out there

Send potential customers to www.woodheat.org. plenty of good pro and con opinions there from "seasoned" woodburners.

hot rod

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Josh_10

Couldn't have said it better myself Hot Rod!

Josh_10

Rich the temperature and sizing of the tank is a real balancing act. You can store more heat with a larger tank or hotter water. If you would like to email me I would be happy to run a few simulations for you.

hr

Anxious to hear, Leo

what you see and learn. Report back after the trip.

hot rod

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Tom_35