Wood fired boilers

MikeL_2

Does anyone have an opinion / experience with HS Tarm wood fired boilerss?

Chris S

Wood Gasification Boilers

Mike,
Lots of info on Hearth.com
Tarm is a well respected company been around for a long time, one of the better units available in NA
Chris

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Tilmon

HS Tarm boilers are great units. They are very durable and efficient. That being said they very very expensive, unless you are paying over 275$ a cord or burn over 20 cords a year it is difficult to justify the price on the unit. For residential in North America NTI wood boilers are excellent units, although they are not quite as efficient as a tarm (about 10-15% less) they are about 1/4 the price. I can buy a lot of wood here for 7500$ (the difference in price in Canadian dollars).

ChrisHoskin

wood fired boilers

hi all, first, all cards on the table: I started working for Tarm USA a couple of months ago so my bias should be clear! Just wanted to set the record straight. Tilmon suggested that an NTI boiler could be bought for $7500 LESS than a Tarm. That is about the price of our middle size (140k btu) add-on wood boiler. Is the NTI a combination wood/oil? If so, and you can buy and NTI for four grand then the comparison to our wood/oil combo (Excel) is correct.

I would also like to add that the advantages of using a down draft gasification boiler (who's ever brand you choose) go far beyond using less wood. First, I would suggest the amount of wood you save would exceed 15% - remember, that's not just 15+% less wood you have to buy, its also less wood you have to handle and store. Second, by design, a wood gasifier produces much less creosote and burns more cleanly so your boiler will last longer and require less maintenance. Further, the virtual elimination of the 'runaway' fire and overheating common to the old style natural draft units is a huge difference - no PRV pop-offs and no overheated dump zone.

hope this doesn't come across as a blatant plug, but I thought it was worth adding my two cents.

thanks for being here,

Chris