Attn: Zoomy...boiler pics

[72gord]

Here are a couple pics of my boiler we talked about, burning about 1 large pick-up load of wood a weeek heating my 30x32 garage, my 4 bedroom house and my hot water, and have used no other back up heat as of today. Any other ??? let me know. If you think you might be interested in one I can give some tips/advice on install if you want. I don't sell them or have any interest other than to help out a buddy!!! BTW..mine will take about a 3 1/2 foot piece of wood and the door is about 30'' x 30''....it will take as big a piece of wood as you can lift! Later, Gord

P.S. Thanks again for going a few miles out of your way to pick up my parts at teeitup's....and doing it all for free, what a great guy!!

[chevyboy55]

Cutting,splitting,stacking a load of wood a week! when do you find time to work on your truck?

[Brainchild]

Aw a guy and a friend can cut a load of wood,adn split im a couple of hours with a wood splitter.I do it all the time.

Ok a couple of questions.Is there a website that explains the setup of one of these systems?
What kind of exchange does it use to bring heat to the house?

And what kind of temps is it in the house? Is it well regulated?

I am intrested in this system.I have an outdoor furnace that I haven't hooked up yet,but I might want one of these instead.

[Bamm]

Hey Gord is that a central boiler? I have a Hardy Waterstove myself and I love it. I've had it for almost 11 years and it paid for itself looooong ago. I liked it so much that when I recently sold my house, I put in a new heat pump so I could take my stove with me. Really helped, a "suburbanite" loved the house but didn't want to have anything to do with the stove, he agreed to pay list price for the house if I put in a new heat pump and got rid of the wood stove setup. Perfect, paying me to keep what I wanted to anyway.

[CHEVYE]

that`s the kind of stuff i work with (hydronics). there would be a few different ways to do it.

[ZOOMY]

Thanks for the pix. I'll check out the website too................Z

[casey1972]

Some More Info On The Brand And Where We Could Look Up Some Info On This Unit Would Be Greatly Appreciated!!!!!!

[Bamm]

Another thing thats really good is that if it stays burning as it should, you don'y really need to split a lot of your wood. I only split about 25% of the wood that I cut and thats just to "pack" the wood in around the "unsplit big" pieces. My hardy unit will take a 36" long stick of wood but the doors not quite as big as Gord's door. If you don't mind a little work, it will definitly pay for itself. It's good to get my son and me off the computer/xbox some too.

[72gord]

My stove is an Empyre, made in Canada I believe. I know they have a web site,but not sure what it is, just do a search for wood boilers...should come up. My set up has a heat exchanger placed just above the existing gas furnace (looks like a small heater core), uses the same blower, just wired in another thermostat and relay to start the blower when the house calls for heat. Very well regulated, just like a gas furnace. The boiler keeps the water at about 150 degrees and a small circulator pump pumps it through the heat exchanger constantly (the exchanger is always hot) when the thermostat calls for heat, it just turns on the fan, blowing the heat through the existing duct work into the house. I have the basically the same set up in the garage and a side arm heat exchanger on my water heater that heats the water in the existing electric water heater.
Your right Bamm, I haven't split any wood yet, all the really big stuff that I can't lift alone I will split later & burn, I throw in a couple big pieces of body wood then fill in with smaller stuff and top off with slab wood I get for real cheap from a local sawmill.
Because the wood can be cut in 3 foot lengths and not split, my 14 year old son and I can cut a couple big loads in 2 to 3 hours, figure a half a day by the time you get it unloaded...not bad exersize and as of yet no heat bill this year.
If anybody has any more questions, just post or pm, I'll do my best to answer them.
BTW, I know of a few different companies that make these boilers; Empyre, Central Boiler, Woodmaster, Spirit Stove and Boiler and Aqua Therm to name a few.

[72gord]

To add some more info, I buried 1'' insulated pex line at 2 1/2 feet deep to circulate the water through to the house and shop, two different loops with seperate pumps.
My stove is the 450 model from Empyre and holds, I believe, 250 gallons of water. My garage has minimal insulation as of now, so when the weather gets down below zero,I turn the heat down in the garage so I get full heat in the house. We have been keeping the house at 73 and the garage at 60, except when its really cold then I drop the garage to 40 so the house stays 73. I figure that this system will pay for itself in 4 to 5 years at current propane prices and I get my garage heated for free!!(it wasn't heated before)

[Bamm]

Perfect......... After last years gas bills, (had just moved and hadn't installed the wood furnace yet) I was determined to get it in for this year. I spent $600 on gas for last years Va winter and my light bill was around $175. This year there are no gas bills at all, and my first winter light bill was $117 and my second will probably be even less.

[454_72_4X4]

Nice setup Gord. hadn't heard of that brand yet. My neighbor has a Hardy and it seems to work well also.
I've got a Central Boiler myself and love it! It just heats the house right now but I'm gonna hook it up to the shop shortly. We ran the lines to both the house and shop when we installed the stove so I'm just waitin on some extra $ to buy the extra pump and heat exchanger coil.

Ya can see it in the background in this pic of my trailer.



Model # CL5648
Door opening is 23"x31"
Weight 2360lbs (without the water!)
Holds 385 gallons of water

It heats our hot water also.
I only split part of the wood also, and that's just so I can pick it up!

[69sixpackbee]

Nice! My damn gas bill was $40.00 last month.!! (LOL) I guess if I lived somewhere that was below 45 degrees in the winter like here I would definately invest in hydronic heating. I know the new homes nowadays have coils in the floors as well to help even more. Nice setup yo!

[454_72_4X4]

I know the new homes nowadays have coils in the floors as well to help even more.

Yea, that's how I was gonna heat my shop but for the time being I'm gonna have to settle for the forced air route.
At least until I can afford to get a new concrete floor poured.

My damn gas bill was $40.00 last month.!! (LOL) I guess if I lived somewhere that was below 45 degrees in the winter like here I would definately invest in hydronic heating.

Damn CA people! Hahaha LOL
19 degrees here right now!

[Bamm]

Heck Virginia usually doesn't get too cold but with the wind chill it was 0 degrees this morning at 8:00

[Peregrine]

It was -3 here this morning.

[69sixpackbee]

[mrein3]

Originally Posted by 69 1/2 Six Pack Bee

Nice! My damn gas bill was $40.00 last month.!! (LOL) I guess if I lived somewhere that was below 45 degrees in the winter like here I would definately invest in hydronic heating. I know the new homes nowadays have coils in the floors as well to help even more. Nice setup yo!

I had to re-read that quote. With the temps around here lately when you see 45 and below next to each other your mind makes you think they meant minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit. It was -54 Fahrenheit up north yesterday morning. That is not accounting for any wind chill. That is cold.

It only got down to -24 F at my house the last couple of mornings. When I went to work this morning it was a balmy -3. The 20s above they are predicting for the rest of the week will feel nice.

I know a guy that lives up where it got cold the last couple of days. To this day he has the best boiler setup I have ever seen. His boiler is in an oversized 3-car detatched garage. The fire in the boiler heats those three stalls. He uses the in-floor radiant heat to heat his house and his insulated pole building. One fire heats three buildings.

The size of the door and fire box on his furnace allows you to throw in logs I can't lift. To top it off he is a logger in the winter. He simply drops off a load of logs, cuts them into 3 foot or so lengths, and hasn't had a heating bill in the 20 years or so that I have known him.

Did I mention it was -54 FF there yesterday. (You can imagine what that 2nd F is for).

[Bamm]

Thats the way to go if you don't mind the work. A lot of heating systems are probably useless in -54 weather.........

[69sixpackbee]

'course, then again, even if you could have a boiler here in the "Golden State" the tree huggers and the AQMD would'nt let you burn anything to fire it anyway. Hell, you can't even legally fart here without a fine!

[72gord]

69...I hear you, some of the local amish sawmills have been trying to burn their edgings and sawdust, someone turned them in and DNR officials came and told them they couldn't burn it unless they were using it for heat; some of the more inguiness ones are now burning them in large used barrels (2500 gallon size) and trying to claim the heat off the barrel heats their saw mill building. Stupid...can't burn it on one hand; then on the other you can???

454...I gotta ask: Did your home owners insurance go down? ( I see your boiler is close to the house) My company said it had to be at least 50 feet from any buildings....mine was like 55 so I will be getting the $75 wood burner rider removed from my policy and I'm also supposed to get a lower rate----we will see!!

[72gord]

Hey Bamm...the calenders came today, you did a great job!! Thanks

[69sixpackbee]

I thought the religious sects were pretty much exempt from government regulations. When I was in Lancaster cty. PA, it was that way (as far as I know?)

[72gord]

Not around here...we had three amish brothers sentenced a couple months ago for raping their sister repeatedly over a 12 year period, the amish community claimed they had punished them their own way, but they still got arrested and went before the courts after the young lady came forward because they had started doing it to her younger sister and she wanted it stopped.

[69sixpackbee]

Good for the courts!! Ya know, I never really understood the doctrine of the Amish. They do not use running water nor electricity yet they had bent the rules enough to allow the use of modern-day farm implements (i.e; 2004 John Deere combine) yet it has to use old steel wheels --no rubber. Is that because rubber is a petroluem product? Isn't the Diesel fuel powering the beast a petro. product? I am unclear. Maybe someone more savvy on the religious bylaws of the Amish can enlighten me.