Diesel Hydronic Boiler

lamp_ak

I’ve been lurking the halls of this forum learning what I can. I’m at the point where some questions are do. 

Im building a 48’x48’ hangar. Slab on grade, 12’ walls, R60 roof, 2x6 walls and 4” exterior foam. Located in Alaska. The lowest temp I’ve seen in 5 years in -35F. The goal is too keep the hangar at 50 degrees with the apartment set to 68-70. 

Here’s my questions. I am installing the whole system but would like a resource or design pro to “build” my system on paper. 

What manufacturers should I look to for a diesel boiler capable of providing both domestic hot water heater and radiant infloor? 

Also does anyone have input into design features for integrating an exterior wood fired boiler into this system. 

One more thing. I’m still toying around with open loop geothermal. I have high flow rates out of my well and can easily drill a 2nd for the injection well back to the water table. 

Jamie Hall

Any oil fired boiler will run quite happily on diesel. With some adjustments, most of them can be set to run quite happily on kerosene blends (this is a bit tricky) or Jet A or JP 4.

Hot_water_fan

For the wood: 

https://www.caleffi.com/sites/default/files/media/external-file/Idronics_10_NA_Hydronics%20for%20wood-fired%20heat%20sources.pdf

wood would work great with infloor radiant - lets you use the fullest capacity of a thermal storage tank. An gasification wood boiler saves you $ and labor. 

Plenty of oil boiler options out there: any installers around? Find what’s most common.  

leonz

lamp_ak said:

I’ve been lurking the halls of this forum learning what I can. I’m at the point where some questions are do. 

Im building a 48’x48’ hangar. Slab on grade, 12’ walls, R60 roof, 2x6 walls and 4” exterior foam. Located in Alaska. The lowest temp I’ve seen in 5 years in -35F. The goal is to keep the hangar at 50 degrees with the apartment set to 68-70. 

Here’s my questions. I am installing the whole system but would like a resource or design pro to “build” my system on paper. 

What manufacturers should I look to for a diesel boiler capable of providing both domestic hot water heater and radiant infloor? 

Also does anyone have input into design features for integrating an exterior wood fired boiler into this system. 

One more thing. I’m still toying around with open loop geothermal. I have high flow rates out of my well and can easily drill a 2nd for the injection well back to the water table. 

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Using open loop geothermal is fine the problem that can occur is the water can be contaminated by the lubricating oil and the gas refrigerant rendering the water well unusable for domestic needs.

How far are you from the nearest coal dealer or The Usibeli Coal Mine?

I burned softwood Hemlock slab wood and coal for years averaging 15 full cords just for soft wood
per year to heat an old leaky house and I switched to burning only anthracite coal for heating my domestic hot water and my heating loop 8 years ago.

Have you thought at all about using a coal stoker boiler for your home and hanger heating and heating all your domestic hot water?

The AHS rolling fire grate stoker pushes 130,000 BTU and can burn western Sub Bituminous coal.
If you interested please look for AHS coal stoker in Montana in you tube to learn of this mans successful use of an AHS S130 to heat his home and domestic hot water.

psb75

Do not consider an outdoor wood boiler. They are "forest eaters". They waste resources and labor. Use an indoor down-draft wood boiler or Austrian-made pellet boiler if you are considering bio-mass fuel. If choosing cord wood as your fuel, then your "fuel management system" is very important--handling, storage, timely havesting/acquisition etc.