Wood Boiler Advice for New Construction

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nbroyer

Member
Apr 30, 2012
35
Maine
Hi all,

I've been reading through the forum for months now and have learned a lot, but I was hoping I could get some specific advice.

My wife and I are putting up a 2500 sq. ft. modular colonial in Maine this summer. Our builder has included a propane wall-mounted Biasi boiler with on-demand hot water that will be direct vented out of the basement. Since we will be living on 72 acres with plenty of hardwood, we asked to have a single flue chimney as well that we can use with a wood boiler. I really like the Charmaster HW-30 boiler because it comes with the 200 gallon water storage but we just can't afford it. We are trying to figure out what the most efficient system is that we can afford on a small budget. Any advice you can give we would really appreciate.
 
You have what I started with. Mine is an open system, potable water in the radiant loops with a tankless heater. I then ADDED my storage with an in tank HX which heats (or preheats) the water before going through the tankless (I now have a temperature controlled bypass loop which routes around the tankless when the HX output is above my setpoint).

Cheap? Gassification boilers are not cheap. Installation and storage can quickly raise the total project cost to 2X the boiler cost. More if you have to hire a professional plumber. Not meant to scare you away, but that is the reality. The other reality is that heating with propane is REALLY expensive. Electric heat or even better, a hot water heat pump, can be better choices now compared to that propane boiler. I have propane because I want to be able to heat when the utility power is out. I can do that with solar and/or a small generator with a gassification boiler, radiant, propane backup.

If you are thinking you will heat with wood is a year or two, start splitting and stacking NOW. It will be like money in the bank with a wood boiler in a year or two. HX2.jpg
 
How much does the charmaster sell for. I don't think it is a gassifier. Do youKnow how efficient they claim it is ?
 
Hunderliggur, thank you for the advice. I will look into other alternatives for the propane boiler as well.

Woodsmaster, the charmaster is ~$10K. You're right, I don't think it's a gassifier. I haven't seen an efficiency rating, all I can find is the claim: "Typical wood consumption for an average home in northern Minnesota's very cold climate would be 4 to 6 cords of wood." So whatever that's worth...

I'm not looking for a state of the art system, just something to heat my house somewhat efficiently and clean that can hook up to my hot water baseboard system.
 
for 10,000 K you have a lot of options to heat 2,500 sq'. If you can do the install and find some tanks you could probably have a gasser with 500 - 1000 gallon storage for the same money.
 
IMO, this is THE time of the year, right now, to buy a boiler. There are some end of season discounts to be had. Start with clicking on the banner ads of the vendors supporting this place - I don't think any of them are selling anything bad. I think there are EKO 25's going for not much over 4k right now - that's about the low end of the range for gassers.
 
The Pro Fab Elite 100 will heat up to 3,000 sq ft - great unit KISS principle
 
Your going to be able to find a gasser anywheres from $4-ish to $10,000 plus. Look at Tarm, Vigas, EKO, and there are others. A lot of us have storage, but not necessary. storage is extra $$$'s. year end deals should be out there.

What region of the state are you building in?


Also, has your builder done a heatload calc? Is it baseboard heat?
 
nbroyer;

Do you have experience in wood burning and the work that goes into it? What part of Maine? Read flyingcows last sentence!

We are lucky people to have some dealers on this great website. Two that would serve you well if your comfortable with a good modern wood boiler. Effecta and Vigas. Do some searching on this site and you will find who sells which brand. Then its your call on which make and model fits your situation best.
 
We will be building in Oxford, right down the street from the new casino...

Our builder has not done a heatload calculation. I will ask him if he can do that for us. We are planning to use hot water baseboard.

I don't have much experience heating with wood. My parents burned wood in a wood stove when I was growing up but they had wood delivered. I have helped my father-in-law cut wood for his oil/wood furnace (about 6-8 cords a year) so I do know the work that goes into it as far as that goes. I am definitely not experienced with using wood boilers which is why I'm trying to learn as much as I can before I need to use one this winter.

I really appreciate everyone's advice. I have looked into everything that has been mentioned and have contacted multiple dealers. I have learned something different from every phone call.
 
well, keep asking. this forum has been a great source for me. good group of people on here. The builder should have a calc for you. Just for the heck of it, do one yourself.

As mentioned, heating with propane is expensive. If you can go with a high R-value in walls and ceiling. Ideally something in the R-40 walls and R-60 ceiling. it's well worth the extra coins now.

Start getting a few cord cut/split/stacked soon. You're going to be using anywheres from 6 cord to maybe what maybe 10? IMO, you want to buy a true gasser type boiler. Wood needs to be dried at least a year. preferably two would be better. Trust me on this. Get started on wood soon.

I was using 1000 gals of oil a year. I replaced that with 6.5 cord of well seasoned wood. And i keep the T-stat a little higher now too.
 
I'm not going to recomend a boiler brand as that has been done already. However I would recomend that you install the boiler on a ground level slab in the house. Either in a walk-out basement aka dyalight basement, or a slab on grade such as partitioned off from an atteched garage etc. This way there is no throwing wood through a basement window, or down the bulkhead. Plan on making it as easy to bring the wood in as possible with the least amount of mess. Just my two cents.
Taylor
 
Why baseboard hot water versus whole floor radiant? You're builder might not be familiar with the latter but up in that area you should have many options for radiant heat. Mark at AHONA served me well - great advice and support. He cannot (and no one else either) have unhappy customers. Give him a call and see what he might be able to do for you. Also, the Radiant Company was excellent on my system design and supplies. There is a lot of labor (time) involved in an under floor radiant but the results are worth it. If you are a little bit handy maybe you can work out doing the radiant install (at least the tubing loops). I installed my system with very little problem. I have about 3500 SF and 6000 linear feet of radiant tubing under the floors. I built with wood web floor trusses to make the install a lot easier. And yes $5K +/- for a gassifier is in the right ball park. Plus installation which can be another 50% to 100% of the cost of the boiler. If you preplan and cash flow is an issue, you can start with the fossil heat source first then add a boiler later (that is what I did). A wood boiler is not acceptable for a primary heat source for most lenders so it is often easier to leave it out until AFTER you close on the permanent loan.
 
I will add another vote for in-floor heat. We have baseboards, and like the heat, but regret not doing infloor at least in some places.

If you don't have the budget to get pipes under the floor now, at least try to build so as not to restrict the options of putting them in later. Web floor trusses, as mentioned above, and leaving basement ceilings open. I might be able to string some up here eventually, but it will be a serious PITA. Even with our good baseboard setup, there are some 'cold feet' areas. I'm sitting in one right now.

Also another vote for walk out basement. We have one, accessed by a 7' wide garage door. I can wheel the wood right to the boiler on pallets.
 
You aren't far from me at all. I'm about 10 miles away in Minot. I will echo what others are saying. Wood.... get it now. Radiant will give you much nicer heat, not restrict where furniture goes, and be able to use wood heat with storage SO much more efficiently.

Propane is awful expensive, I think oil as backup, with wood system planned from the start would be better. Double flue chimney would cover all scenarios. Listen to what folks on here are saying. There's a wealth of knowledge. If I were building again a few tweaks would make the boiler in a better spot, with better room for storage tanks.

None of this is cheap. I think my oil system cost 8k or so to put in (I might have gone cheaper on it if I knew within 5 years I would be trying to minimize it's use) My wood boiler and storage and controls was about double that.. and I had free tanks.

JP
 
Another curiosity to check out is this.

There are financial incentives available here (rebates) to get people off electric heat. I'm not sure what the situation is on that in Maine, and I don't know what it costs to have the propane setup you are having put in installed - but it might be worthwhile in the longer run to have an electric boiler put in now, rather than the propane, then utilize incentives to supplement that later by adding on a wood unit & shifting the electric to backup. I know electric boilers are a fairly cheap & easy install - but maybe you have other things you will be using the propane for? Electric boilers can get pretty expensive to run, but you could even supplement with a wood stove until you got a wood boiler worked in while getting into your wood supply routine.
 
I would love to do radiant heat but it's just not feasible right now. After looking into different gassifiers and the cost of installation, storage, etc. I think I'm going to have to push that off for a couple more years. I've seen some used wood boilers for sale that I know won't be the most efficient but should be able to get me through until I'm ready to do this the right way. I really want to get a nice gassifier and a good amount of storage in the future so I'm going to take what I've learned from here and from talking to others and prepare the house so that it will handle what I want to do in the future.

We do have a walkout basement with double doors so we can get wood in easily. We'll be heading out this weekend to start cutting wood.

Thanks again for all the advice.
 
If no heat load was performed, how did you know what size propane to get?

Forget the baseboard, go with radiant.

If you do storage, you probably won't use the propane much. Spend less money on the propane side, and get the best you can afford on the wood side.

I'm not going to recommend brands, because I only have up close personal experiance with one brand. But search around the forumn, you will learn way more than any dealer will tell you.
 
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