Storage is definitely something I will look into, its just that right now I want to get up and running with a wood boiler. I know I shouldn't rush it but if I wait I will be getting my third fill of fuel in February which will put me at 2400 for the year on oil which I feel would be much better spent towards a wood boiler. I know its hard to tell because I never did a heat loss calculation or figured how many BTUS I need but do you think I could make it work with an EKO 25, again my house is 1950 square foot with a basement and garage that is at 1885. I realize the footage is over what the EKO 25 is rated at I believe its 1800 square feet. But I wouldn't have all zones on at once so my thinking is that The 25 will work for me, at least for now. Any ideas?
Trying to choose a gasification boiler
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stee6043
Minister of Fire
I've never seen a square footage recommendation for an EKO. I'd run from a dealer that told me "1800 sqaure feet". In this day and age there are 4,000 square foot homes and 1,300 square foot homes that have exactly the same heat load, in the same climate. Sure we can use square footage as a gross guide on where to start, but it shouldn't be how we make an actual decision on model/size. At the very least there are online tools that can help estimate load. This should be a bare minimum. Or record the "on time" of your current heating appliance and figure out it's total output in a day (taking into account it's rated efficiency). I'd do these two things long, long before I'd use a square footage type number.
And for what it's worth - in my humble opinion this heating season is OVER for anyone that doesn't already have a system installed. First, there will be a learning curve no matter what you buy and second, February would be the very worst time to deal with said learning curve. Also, I don't think you're going to want to be borrowing wood from your parents to get things rolling. If you're brand new to wood heating I think you're going to be surprised by how much wood a true cord really is. How much do your parents use in a year? How big is that shed?
The shed is 8x12x8 and holds around 5 cords we figured with the splitter sitting inside it. But we have alot more waiting to be split and they use around 4 to 5 cords. However I will take your comments into consideration. Thanks
If you are going to have storage a slightly oversized boilr might be preferable. Allows you to do large loads that heats your house and storage at the same time.
I would also agree with stee. You'll be hard pressed to buy and install a boiler now to get much use out of it this year. But if your going to buy one anyways now is as good a time as any.
Also if your converting a fireplace flue it might be oversized for the smaller boilers. Might have to install a liner.
Also if your converting a fireplace flue it might be oversized for the smaller boilers. Might have to install a liner.
JP11
Minister of Fire
Ditto on the others. I started in November of last year. The first 6 or 7 months.. I planned.. Cut, Split and Stacked.
All more important than rushing.
JP
All more important than rushing.
JP
Clarkbug
Minister of Fire
What size is your current oil boiler? Do you feel it heats your house adequately? That will at least put everyone in the ballpark of what size unit you should investigate.
That whole line of thinking irritates me.... If I cut down a tree and burn it, my carbon footprint is 0. If I dig up a tree from the ground and burn it, it's pollution. It's the same tree, same amount of CO2... Just delayed about 10,000 years between being cut down and burned.
I'll put it this way; I live in Wisconsin... I'm ditching my boiler to burn coal.
No storage, no burn planning..... it's as close to push-button as solid fuel will ever be. I like using my trees to make furniture and lumber with. :D
BoilerMan
Minister of Fire
That whole line of thinking irritates me.... If I cut down a tree and burn it, my carbon footprint is 0. If I dig up a tree from the ground and burn it, it's pollution. It's the same tree, same amount of CO2... Just delayed about 10,000 years between being cut down and burned.
I'll put it this way; I live in Wisconsin... I'm ditching my boiler to burn coal.
100% with ya, complete flawed logic, but that is for another forum.
Do a heatloss calc and you will know what boiler output you need to meet a design day. Storage size and type fo emitter you have will also play a key role, or the stoaker coal setup. Worked on an old EFM stoaker setup from the first fuel crunch in the 80s very nice and cheap to run. All you need to worry about is the ash. I know of two of them around here, one guy (farmer) got his EFM to burn wood pellets as well with some tweaking of the air settings, said it worked very well.
TS
Yep. But hey, if it keeps wood burners legal, so be it..... God forbid we ever get forced to the oil man! :O
Yah, I've done heatloss in the past..... We were looking at a worst case load of about 160k BTU/hr at -25... The stoker I have has a max of 186k. That being said, I've moved the boiler into the shop, so waste heat helps heat that, and I've done significant updates to the house to make it better..... My EKO 60 idles most the time..... Even on below zero days.
Yah, my burner is very similar to an EKO in the way it works.....
flyingcow
Minister of Fire
If you want to throw a size at it--What is the btu of your existing oil boiler? Than add a minimum of 25% btu's for a wood boiler. Not the best way to do it, but it'll give you a ballpark of what size to pricing/looking at.
And i'm with Steee, by the time you get it, install it, learn it, it will be spring. But still plan on getting it. You might catch an end of season sale on boilers.
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