Outside wood boilers

MikeA1

How many of you service or sell outside wood boilers? Looking for marketing ideas on selling them,especially with fuel prices so high.

Thanks,
Mike Hemenway

hot_rod

I have

installed a bunch, but I am not a dealer. I saw Central had a booth at the ASHRAE show which opens today in Chicago. Be interesting to see how they do at that show

Seems like a "low tech" product for a show like that, maybe.

Try www.woodheat.org Looks like wood burners hang, and communicate there. You may pick up ideas there.

hot rod

hot_rod

don_3

I have an Aqua Therm wood boiler and I love it. I installed it myself and wasn't hard at all.

MikeA1

Hot Rod, Thanks for the lead to woodheat.org. Not really so interested in the wood burning as I am the information I can gather from this site, Regarding radiant heating.

I find it interesting that Central Boiler was the first one to come to mind. "Low Tech"?-Not so sure they are as low tech as you think. Central Boiler has that secondary combustion area for intense heat collection and transfer. They use a 100% airtightseal around the water jacket and use that heat lock baffle. They have a HeatTrac control that allows remote monitoring and adjustment of all furnace functions from inside the home. Now I see they have a Dual fuel option for lp/ng or fuel oil. It even has a clean start mode to boot. Not so "low tech", I see these things all over the place, even in town.

hot_rod

Maybe

low tech wasn't a good word! Remember, no matter how you slice it or what brand you are looking at, in reality what you have is a steel tank with a fire under it, located outside! The common operating temperature is 180 F. Consider most are insulated with 3-6" insulation blankets. Run some numbers on the heatloss of a 150- 300 gallon tank when the outdoor remperature is 0 degrees!! Try that calc at - 20-35 F!!

Add to that the loss thru the open vent in the top. Ouch! Maybe better than half the energy conversion (wood to water) is lost to the great outdoors

The transmission losses getting the hot water from the heater to the building can be large also.

They smoke considerably when they come out of the "sleep mode" make sure the downwinders are considered


That being said I heat with wood. Actually have two wood boilers. Mine are recycled units from homeowners that grew weary of wood burning Both are pressurized units located inside the building, so all the jacket loss in in the structure.

If I were to consider a new unit I'd look at a corn and pellet burner. Looks like Tarm offers a boiler with this option. Seems like a much more controlable "fire" and living in rual farm country corn and pellets are readily and inexpensively available. Pellets are pressed from wood scrap, generally headed to landfills.

I do still enjoy the fall wood gathering ritual. A nice crisp autumn day spent cutting, spliting, and stacking is still fun for me and my teenaged son.

I do have lp back up for times when we leave town for a week or so. make sure you have a try in available or planned for back up options. Happy heating.

Here is another article you might enjoy.

http://www.pmmag.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/features/BNP__Features__Item/0,2379,4498,00.html

hot rod

greg_7

Free or nearly free wood is a great incentive for wood firing. However, if you are located where anthracite can be obtained you should compare. Hard coal burns much hotter and is easier to maintain. An automatic boiler is almost effort free.