Wood fired boiler ??

[Deleted User]

I am building a new house in Ontario and I want to install hydronic radiant floor heat. I have lots of wood on the property and am wondering if wood fired boilers are feasable for a 2500 []' house + a shop. Most of the info can find relates to other fuels. Does anyone have experence with wood?
mike

[Deleted User]

Wood fired boiler

I am building a new house in Ontario and I want to install hydronic radiant floor heat. I have lots of wood on the property and am wondering if wood fired boilers are feasable for a 2500 []' house + a shop. Most of the info can find relates to other fuels. Does anyone have experence with wood?
mike

Big Ed

Fuel

What ever fuel is more feasable for your area . Take a heat loss calulation to find the size boiler and amount of radiation that is needed to heat your home for the lowest expected outdoor temperture.

I came across a duel fuel unit in a home a few weeks ago I beleve the boiler came from Sweden. One side was wood burning and the other side was gas or oil.... Would be nice to have a back up . Say you can not or forget to load it up , then the other fuel will kick in to maintain.

Buy the outdoor reset option for longer burning and savings on fuel. It will also heat the home with greater comfort....

Betz

I have an outdoor wood boiler

in a very old 2 story house with hot water heat. Let me know if you'd like some information on what I have. My house is about 4500 sq. ft, and not insulated very well. The unit I have has a natural gas backup, but you can get it with a propane or oil backup also.

[Deleted User]

thanx for the replies

im getting a heat loss done. we had minus 35* c last week. my concern is if the wood would have to cycle to often and cause creasote in its cool down stage?
and yes i would like to hear about your expenence with an outdoor boiler.
i am concidering an electric water heater for backup cuz its cheap and i hope not to use it often.

hr

My wood burner suggestion

would be to invest in a good quality gasification unit. Sounds like the EPA is putting the screws to those outdoor units due to emissions. Rumor has it several states have already banned them.

Gasification units burn much more efficiently, less smoke and less wood consumption. This brand has a good presence in the U.S. http://www.woodboilers.com/

Several other Euro brands are filtering into this country. Make sure that they have any listings that may be required in your are CSA, UL, ASME, etc.

Think I would pair it with a nice condensing LP or gas boiler, or a basic cast iron boiler for back up, instead of a combo unit.

Find an installer that has experience with these, they generally need to have a buffer tank, properly piped, to smooth out the operation.

Good pro and con info, and more on EPA tiers at this Canadian site www.woodheat.org

hot rod

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Big Ed

Wood value helpful

One pound (mixed average)of wood = 3,500 btus.....

One cord (mixed average)of wood =14,000,000 btus......


1,000,000 btus = 286 lb (mixed average) wood...

Write down the Sub-Total btuh(per 10*F) in the heat loss calulation . The number before multiplying the "Adjustment Factor" . Use the sub-total x factor for a given day to figure lb wood per hour.......

STEVE N

My experience...

Mike,
A few years ago my company put in an outdoor wood boiler. We had radiant on the 1st floor, baseboard on 2nd and an indirect.

I used heat transfer plates so I could pressurize the system. With the elevation of the wood boiler, I wasn't comfortable doing it any other way. You basically piped each transfer plate as a boiler. The system was awesome and works really well. There are a few drawbacks. First they are wood hogs. This one had almost a 100 gallon capacity to draw off of and it takes alot of wood to do that. The boiler itself was stainless steel.. it had a draft inducer which kicked in when the aquastat closed. The other problem with wood boilers are their life span. I have seen them fail in less than 10 years. If you compare that to a good gas or oil boiler you may never see payback on this investment. They are also sensitive to the type of wood used to burn. Oak, ash and locust work well... the softer woods just do not produce enough btuhs.

Hope I helped

Steve

malcolm_2

Wood boilers

Check out the Tarm boiler at www.woodboilers.com Its made in Denmark and is purported to be very efficient, especially when used with their storage tank. They say you can fire it once a day and "charge" the storage tank, then the in-floor uses the stored heat all day long. The unit has a secondary burn chamber to complete the combustion of the wood gases and achieve operating efficiency of 80%. They also market duel fuel Wood/ oil and wood/gas versions for when you're not home to load the wood box. I bought one of their wood-fired units and the tank but have yet to install it so none of the above from personal experience.
BTW, where are you in Ontario? I live 50km North of Barrie.

Malcolm

Betz

if you'd like email me

and I'll give you a description of all the pros and cons of what I have.

[Deleted User]

thanks steve thats good to know cuz i have a fair bit of popular i was hoping to us thinking i didnt need the btu's cuz the lower temps for the radiant floor.
mike

Gary_15

Recent installation

I just installed two of these units for someone here in PA. They are Aquatherm outdoor wood boilers. One unit was installed to supply two ceiling-hung unit heaters in a utility building. It is the primary source of heat. There is a wall-hung LP gas unit and an electric one in the building. They were the source before. They were left in and set on a lower temp in case the wood fire goes out or the customer goes away, there will still be heat there. The second unit has two circ pumps, one going to a building with in-floor hydronic heat and a mini-therm Lp gas boiler. The piping from the wood boiler hooks directly to the Lp gas boiler, so again if needed, the gas boiler will fire up. The other pump goes to the residence, tying into an oil-fired boiler with a hot water baseboard system and domestic coil. It has been in operation since December. Drawbacks I've seen-they do burn a lot of wood, however, these units use an aquastat controlled draft fan to boost air to the firebox. When the temp is reached, the unit almost idles. It look like the fire is going out. Cirrently we have the aquastat set at 170, which keeps the wood boiler temp between 160 and 175. Both systems run an average water temperature of 155 at the existing boilers. These temps don't give the customer the domestic hot water temp they are used to. The manufacturer talked to them about boosting the temp to 180, we'll see if that makes much difference. If you have the wood available, it seems like a good supplemental system. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions about the system I put in.