Wood burning steam boiler (need help sourcing)

Neider

Hello,

I am looking for a wood/multi-fuel steam boiler to use as my main boiler (natural gas moved to back up). I heard you can convert wood burning hot water boilers as long as they're pressure rated and you can make the proper modifications for the steam expansion (welding).  My natural gas bills are killing me!  Any help is appreciated.



ps

I am also looking for install tips.



thx!

Rod

Wood is No Fun!

Hi-

You need to look into this very carefully as I would question whether going to wood was very practical. First of all you don't even want to be thinking about converting or "welding". Steam Boilers are especially designed and built by certified boiler makers and are in no way a "Do it yourself" project.

As for being wood fired- I have a friend who lives in the outback in northern Maine and has a wood burning (with propane backup) hot air furnace. (He went with hot air so he doesn't have to worry about freezing pipes when he is away traveling). During the heating season he burns on average 1 1/4 cords a week- (a cord of wood in a stack- 4 ft high,4 ft wide and 8 ft long) Last winter he burned over 30 cords of wood. That's a stack 4 feet wide,10 feet high and 100 feet long. Is there a savings?, yes, but if you only count the cost of fuel and not the hauling and stacking of wood and the time constantly feeding of the furnace. The initial cost of the furnace installation wasn't any bargain either.  If you want to learn more about steam and ways you can save money on fuel, take a look in the "Shop" section at the.top of this page. There are a lot of good books there that will help you.

- Rod