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Wood Burning Boiler (Attn: Hot Rod)

hr
hr Member Posts: 6,106
They burn much cleaner and more efficient. They do take more care and best quality DRY wood to operate best.

Most are built for indoor applications, but we build small sheds to install them outdoors. Most insurance companies really frown on wood burners located inside the home. Be sure to check with the customers insurance carrier.

Some insurance carriers may demand UL and or ASME also.

I have installed and worked on Tarm, a nice solid unit. Atmos, Dakon, and EKO.

I just got this 40 KW EKO Vimar (made in Poland) for my FarmFest display. Nice controls and a variable speed motor for the inducer fan. Huge 2" connections for gravity systems. Not the quality of the Atmos, but very, very heavy.

Try www.newhorizoncorp.com. He is the importer I deal with and has good links to various manufactures. The EKO Vimar plant tour video is real nice :)

I think Tarm is at www.woodheat.com.

www.woodheat.org is an excellent discussion forum. canadian site I believe. Lots of comments about those smokey outdoor wood furnaces :)

I haven't got through to these folks yet. A US made high efficiency unit. http://www.greenwoodtechnologies.com/products.html

Have your customer check out some of these sites, especially www.woodheat.org. They need to know all sides of wood heat.

hot rod

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Comments

  • Jim Pompetti
    Jim Pompetti Member Posts: 552


    Hey Hot Rod,

    From what I remember you put in alot of wood burning boilers and I was wondering if you prefer any certain brands and why.

    Jamie
  • Marv
    Marv Member Posts: 1
    insulation of under ground hot water pipes

    The old insulation on my pipes that run from my outdoor furnace is blue foam and last winter the ground never froze where these pipes run i have dug the lines up and will be reinsulating them and have priced products sold by furnace manufacturers they seem pretty high any suggestions on less expensive options the insulation seems very water logged there was no plastic around it would it work to wrap styrofoam box in plastic Thanks Marv
  • hr
    hr Member Posts: 6,106
    With insulation, you

    get what you pay for! I prefer this InsulSeal product. Good R value, but more important excellent water proofing. Wet foam is not a good insulator, whatever insulation you choise it MUST be kept dry to perform.

    I have seen all kinds of homade insulation projects,most fail miserably. Buy the good stuff and forget about it :)

    www.insulseal.com

    hot rod

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  • Still more on wood gasification boilers

    Hot Rod,
    Thanks for your input on the insulseal product. It looks like the way to go.

    I'd like to learn from your experience if I can. I'm ready to buy a Garn wood gasification boiler. www.garn.com. Its large enough to heat both my wood shop and home, and it holds 1400 gallons of water, which stores lots of heat.

    I'm going to run 120' of insulated pipe to the house. I need to know what size of pex tube to put inside the insulated pipe for a run of that length.

    Also, if you have any thoughts or experience with Garn boilers, or ALternate Heating Systems boilers. Both are wood gasification boilers.

    Thanks for your right-on advice!

    Wayne from White Salmon

  • hr
    hr Member Posts: 6,106
    Do you know

    the heat load of your home? 1" pex would move 80- 85,000 BTU per hour with a 20 degree delta t. 1-1/4" pex is available, but it its a bear to work with. Make sure it is warm!

    Think I would look at the Viega Fostapex. It's a composite with a PE outer coating, and full size 1" pex inside. You could lay it flat to ease installation.

    Another tube that would be excellent, but very expensive, is Watts Radiant 1" Onix. It's rated at 210 continous, and tested to 350°! It has a steam hose as it's inner most tube. Very flexiable also.

    I've heard good things about the Garn, but never installed or worked on one. I've questioned keeping 1400 gallons of water at 180° OUTSIDE in zero or below temperatures!! I'd rather have the buffer capacity in the 70° space, in the home :) I suppose with enough insulation losses would be limited??

    hot rod

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  • My house heat load is just 40,000 btu. But I also need to heat a large shop with not great insulation.

    My plan is to put the Garn in an insulted lean to next to the shop. If it leaks heat, it will leak it into my shop.

    But the underground PEX is only gonna carry heat to the house, so do you think it still needs to be 1" or more?

    Since the boiler will be sorta part of the shop, I'll just run copper to the couple of radiators.

    Thanks for the info again- you are a great resource!

    Wayne
  • hr
    hr Member Posts: 6,106
    What about DHW?

    may as well run that from the wood burner also.

    I'd still go with 1" for the cost difference. 40- 45,000 is about max for 3/4" @ 20° delta t. (160- 180°)

    1" could easily handle a full heat load and some DHW generation with an indirect tank.

    This (an indirect) would also be a good dump zone if you add a thermostatic scald guard mixer to the DHW side of the tank.

    hot rod

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