econoburn outdoor

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Hi
I have the ebw-200 i believe.Its inside a dedicated boiler building.I wasn't sure i would get the building done so i hedged my bet.
Works great,no complaints,i have 1000 gal storage,will probably double that some day.Easy to use,my wife is as comfortable using it as i am.I have done a few mods and will add some more in time.
I would probably buy it again.
Thomas
 
I'm heating a house (4000) and a shop (2000) Thought it might be a stretch for the 150 to keep up in colder weather but it probably could have. The price for the 200 wasn't much more and I didn't want to worry about the output so went that way with out much thought. It's worked out well.
 
Looks like a very nice boiler guys. I am curious as to how many sq. ft. you are heating, and if you are heating DHW. How many cord of wood did you go through each season you have run it so far? How many cord so far this year? Thanks.
 
Hi
I went with a 200 because i wanted to make sure i had one big enough.
It gets cold up here too.
At the moment we arn't heating our complete house,we live in the basement and have the upstairs under construction.
So far we have been using about 1.2 cords per month,spruce it's all we got.
I have a lot of heat loss in my boiler building it's always too warm,one day i will insulate the pipes.
Thomas
 
outdoor econoburn 150 on slab, 50 feet from house. Will be plumbed in series with my existing oil burning hydronic system with baseboard, heating 2700 sqft (no outbuilding to heat). Getting ready for install and cant decide about using glycol with heat exchanger (40 plates or more?) for peace of mind or manually draining the system (the econoburn is a pressurized unit) if I go away during a cold snap. I pretty much never travel during winter but it is a possibility in the future (vacation). Any and all comments would be welcome on pros and cons. (corrosion, testing water quality, efficiency, etc)

thanks in advance
 
Personally I would not go for the drain down solution as it will cause more corrosion than you ever need to have in a closed loop system. Glycol and a plate exchanger would require an extra pump and is expensive. It depends on how much time you'll be gone in the winter.... I'd opt for a small taco 007 or simmilar to circulate water through the underground pex and boiler when your gone. There are piping diagrams on here that have been suggested before for doing this. It would "waste" some oil keeping the EB warm though so that is a consideration. If you are going to be useing oil quite a bit in the winter and not be around then the glycol may work out to be less expensive, but it comes at the cost of another pump's watts whenever you have a fire and 4-5 year replacement of the glycol. Just my thoughts.

Also series piping of and oil boiler will draft a suprising amount of heat up the chimney, parellel with an aquastat somewhere in the system to keep the oil off works out better IMHO.

Taylor
 
Taylor Sutherland said:
Personally I would not go for the drain down solution as it will cause more corrosion than you ever need to have in a closed loop system. Glycol and a plate exchanger would require an extra pump and is expensive. It depends on how much time you'll be gone in the winter.... I'd opt for a small taco 007 or simmilar to circulate water through the underground pex and boiler when your gone. There are piping diagrams on here that have been suggested before for doing this. It would "waste" some oil keeping the EB warm though so that is a consideration. Also some electric baseboad in the boiler shed set on 40 can give peace of mind. If you are going to be useing oil quite a bit in the winter and not be around then the glycol may work out to be less expensive, but it comes at the cost of another pump's watts whenever you have a fire and 4-5 year replacement of the glycol. Just my thoughts.

Also series piping of and oil boiler will draft a suprising amount of heat up the chimney, parellel with an aquastat somewhere in the system to keep the oil off works out better IMHO.

Taylor
Click to expand...

just to be clear it sounds like either option you suggest needs an extra pump, not that its a problem either way, just want to keep it clear in my head.

option 1: extra pump to handle the supply side of a glycol to water heat exchanger (does the 4-5 year repalcement include the "boiler" type of glycol?)

option 2: extra pump to circulate the supply and return, without any heat exchanger.

I dont have a problem with wasting oil heating the outdoor unit if its going to be "easier" then a glycol/heat exchanger, especially since I dont really ever travel during winter. Apart from a weekend or 2, I'm always home during the winter.

thanks for the help
 
The only downfall to water is the chance it could freeze in a prolonged power outage. With my boiler being in a shed It would take days to freeze. Being out in the elements I might be inclined to use glycol or better yet
invest in a battery back-up.
 
Mauler said:
just to be clear it sounds like either option you suggest needs an extra pump, not that its a problem either way, just want to keep it clear in my head.

option 1: extra pump to handle the supply side of a glycol to water heat exchanger (does the 4-5 year repalcement include the "boiler" type of glycol?)

option 2: extra pump to circulate the supply and return, without any heat exchanger.

I dont have a problem with wasting oil heating the outdoor unit if its going to be "easier" then a glycol/heat exchanger, especially since I dont really ever travel during winter. Apart from a weekend or 2, I'm always home during the winter.

thanks for the help
Click to expand...

Yes you are correct. W/O the heat exchanger though the second pump is small and is only used when the boiler temp falls below a certain point, say 55::F meaning almost never if you are home burning. With a heat exchanger and glycol, both pumps are larger and are run whenever there is a fire in the boiler, costing you more wattage. Woodmaster has a good point though, if your area is prone to power outages, you would want to invest in a battery backup or a small generator, a good idea for all wood boiler users. No power = no circulation = freezing or boiling over. The only way around this is a gravity dump zone which has to be above the boiler on a normally closed type zone valve.

Taylor
 
Taylor Sutherland said:
Yes you are correct. W/O the heat exchanger though the second pump is small and is only used when the boiler temp falls below a certain point, say 55::F meaning almost never if you are home burning. With a heat exchanger and glycol, both pumps are larger and are run whenever there is a fire in the boiler, costing you more wattage. Woodmaster has a good point though, if your area is prone to power outages, you would want to invest in a battery backup or a small generator, a good idea for all wood boiler users. No power = no circulation = freezing or boiling over. The only way around this is a gravity dump zone which has to be above the boiler on a normally closed type zone valve.

Taylor
Click to expand...

thanks, i do have a genny setup to run the house and have used it in the past, we dont get alot of outages but they can happen. That being true, im partial to the small circulater pump w/o heat exchanger/glycol (but am still interested in any other comments pro or con). With that type of setup is the pump on the supply or return? Im guessing return? I want to tell my plumber about this becuase the only options we discussed were glycol/HE or manual drain down. Again thanks for all the help.
 
maple1 said:
You mean normally open?
Click to expand...

Yes, sorry backwards........


Pump away from the expansion tank wherever thats located in the system. I would go with glycol + HX before I'd go draindown in either case. You don't want to be draining gallons of water out of a closed loop system only to be replacing it with fresh oxygenated water on a regular basis, even annually. Plus there is always the risk of water laying somewhere and still freezing.

All this being said I am not familiar with the EB outdoor unit, only the indoor unit.

Taylor
 
Taylor Sutherland said:
Yes, sorry backwards........


Pump away from the expansion tank wherever thats located in the system. I would go with glycol + HX before I'd go draindown in either case. You don't want to be draining gallons of water out of a closed loop system only to be replacing it with fresh oxygenated water on a regular basis, even annually. Plus there is always the risk of water laying somewhere and still freezing.

All this being said I am not familiar with the EB outdoor unit, only the indoor unit.

Taylor
Click to expand...

great info

So I'll skip manual draindown altogether leaving

option1) HX with glycol

option2) small circulator pump that kicks on only during low water temps

I still like the sound of option 2

any more pros and cons?

Thanks

PS, the outdoor unit is identical to the indoor unit, just has insulation and metal shell
 
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