Hearth.com Forum

Forest Expo… HUGE !

2008-05-10T17:57:49Z

I have never seen so many pickup trucks in one place. In terms of dollars in forestry and logging equipment, astounding. Something I’m glad I didn’t miss. Wandered around for quite some time with video cam and camera before I finally found Eric, Craig, and nofossil (Bill) . Yes here we are, These guys are as real as they get, and their knowledge and passion for wood heat is amazing. Eric led us to Econoburn and EKO in respective order, and speaking for myself, seemed at home and comfortable at EKO. Mark was super informative, and knew the product very well. Not to take anything away from Econoburn, as they had some very good reps as well. My mind was already made up before I arrived, EKO helped me understand more the importance of proper sizing.

I wished we had more time together, you know, to burn some meat, have a beer or three and just sit around starting things on fire. Maybe we could organize a Boiler Room gathering some year. Who knows.

Left to right is Eric, Nofossil, Craig, and Trehugr.

Trade Show

2008-05-11T12:17:34Z

Can anyone tell me of an upcoming trade show or Expo where I can see wood boilers and meet dealers in New England? I know I just missed one in Vermont.

Drilling Through the Concrete

2008-05-08T07:14:23Z

I started digging the trench for the Pex-Flex or Logstor and electric. Beginning at the house and working towards the shed. I know exactly where to go through the 8” foundation. The question is how. I want a nice clean hole (the approx dia of the insulated pipe so I can seal it up good and tight with the water loc stuff (whatever its called) Is there some sort of concrete hole saw that big, and what happens if I run into a chunk of re-bar ?

Concrete Septic tank for thermal storage

2008-05-01T07:46:01Z

As I mentioned on previous posts, I am helping out a friend with his system. The design calls for 1000 gallons of water storage.
I called a company that does precast concrete and asked for a septic tank. The woman on the phone gave me the size and price. She asked what it was for, and I told her thermal storage. She said “oh”

When the owner called to order it, someone at the company took notice because our town has all city sewer. They got into a conversation and a heavy, 6” wall tank with rebar and an interior plastic coating was recomended instead of the thin wall tank usually used.
The OD of the tank is about 7’x7’x7’, the cost is about $3,000 delivered. He checked and told me that 200 deg f max temp is OK. The total volume is around 1200 gallons.

We plan on insulating all sides w/ 4” extruded polystyrene.

What do you guys think? Don’t beat me up too bad because its ordered already.

pump oil

2008-05-10T14:07:36Z

Hi, new to forum. I have a question, can you use oil from filling station pumps for your home oil fired (#2 heating oil) furnace/boiler,forced hot water baseboard. The stations around here sell “clean diesel”. thank you.

Questions on the caddy furnace

2008-05-08T20:54:51Z

I saw a new caddy oil/wood furnace at winair the other day for $2600 as they ordered the wrong thing. Good price but No one there seems to know what an EPA furnace is. Does this produce less creosote? Or just lest smoke? I don’t know much about emissions but they have no clue what epa een stands for. some help please

CENTRAL BOILER. bypassing my h/e had a few questions

2008-05-05T05:29:04Z

central boiler has green poly pex pipe with a thick wall that they used to run in my basement. i need to make up a by pass line with pex and i cant find that heavy wall green pipe just regular pex . will that regular pex be fine? also giving those shark-bite fittings a try..
what i planing on doing is just kill the power to the water circulating pump in the morning before i go to work and by the time i get home it should be cool enough to cut the pipe and work with it.
any other suggestions or pointers are welcome.
thanks ant.

Radiant in slab - Anti-freeze needed? Closed loop with heat exchanger?

2008-05-07T11:35:11Z

Hi again to all ....In my continuing pursuit on designing my system ....I talked to one dealer yesterday about my concept with radiant heat installed in a slab. He stated that I really should use a heat exhanger and put anti-freexe in a closed loop for the piping in the slab. This is the first I have heard this recommendation ....all along I thought I would just pipe the pex tubing to a manifold with a mix valve and not be using a heat exchanger. Additionally, I was going to insulate the slab well and was not thinking of anti-freeze in the pex tubing. Are his suggestions overkill? Necessary? As always any input would be appreciated. I could not find another place to put this thread on the various forums ....so I thought this was the place to open this discussion. Thank you, RH

Heat Storage Tank

2008-05-08T15:49:27Z

It seems one of several common threads to discussions and answers on good levels of efficiency, involve adequately sized Hot Water Storage Tanks.
I would like to know if there any out there that aren’t 8’ or more around as I must place it in an 8’ wide breezeway area(no Basement) Are there any elongated or vertical versions to set up with a Greenfire, Benjamin, Econoburn, or EKO (confused and undecided as of yet)?? Will a more traditional technology boiler come close to being as effective, as long as a large enough storage tank is put in also? what size tank with a 1800 sq ft hot water baseboard house to handle heat and hot water or just hot domestic water?
Wood Boiler Novice, trying to comprehend in Maine

Swimming pool as a storage tank?

2007-12-11T10:12:44Z

The suggestion was recently made to use an aboveground swimming pool frame for a hot water storage tank. I think that’s an interesting idea, except that I can’t seem to find any pools in the 500-1000 gallon range, which is all that most people want in their basement.

Any help?

Thanks,
Joe