Need some input.

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Blevesque

Blevesque

Member
Oct 17, 2008
155
Maine
So yesterday morning we got an offer on our current house and excepted it. Now come the questions! We are going to be buying my grandmothers house. I really want to do this right this time and don't want to be a slave to the boiler like we are now!

-1600 sqft ranch built in the late 60's by my grand parents.
-Current heating systems is an old Memco 100 wood boiler and a 7 year old buderus oil boiler with riello burner and a 40 gal indirect.

I will be upgrading the heating system and will be getting away from oil. My budget is $15-17,000 for materials, I'll be installing.

Option 1: Froling w/ 2-500 Gal propane tanks, pellet burner conversion, keep indirect.

Option 2: Varmebaronen new lambda Vedolux w/ 2-500 Gal propane tanks, pellet burner conversion, keep indirect.

Option 3: Varmebaronen non lambda Vedolux with pellet burner option, 1-1000L Teknik Tank, 2- 1000L UB Tanks. Remove and sell oil boiler and Indirect.

So these are some options that I'm thinking of. I really like option 3 because I would have wood/pellet/solar/electric for options but its not a lambda boiler.

Please give me your opinions good/bad or if you have any other suggestions. Thanks, Brian
 
Do you want to burn wood or pellets as your primary source?
 
mikefrommaine said:
Do you want to burn wood or pellets as your primary source?
Click to expand...

Wood will be primary. Pellets for summer/vacation. Right now firewood is free (minus my labor) have use of skidder and pulp truck.
 
I would consider leaving the oil in place, the cheapest backup is almost always going to be what you already have in place. If you plan to burn wood as much as possible I don't see the cost of converting to pellets or propane ever paying for itself.

You could always add pellets later if you no longer want/can burn wood.

I'm also a fan of indirects with wood boilers -- I have two 120 gallon indirects that I use as a sort of buffer tank. Though I'm also adding 1000 gallons of pressurized storage.
 
I should have mentioned this earlier space is limited. Right now the oil boiler and Indirect are tucked under a stairway (I'll see if I can get over there soon and snap a few pics of the area) And the existing oil tank is where the water tanks would fit the best. So at a minimum everything needs to be moved around. The Varm Teknik Tank has a copper domestic tank built in as well as a solar coil (if I decided in the future to add some panals) I messed up big time on my current boiler and have hated it since day one, I don't want to do that again.
 
I vote to leave the oil alone as well. My setup is similar. Oil comes on if the storage tanks aren't up to temp. Simple and easy. If you have no intention of using oil, why put any money into that boiler. Vacations and summer you will never make your money back. Insulate the heck out of your tanks and run most of the year. Oil usage will be just enough to keep the fuel in the tank fresh.

JP
 
JP What are the chances of checking out your system?
 
Pretty good. Don't know where in Maine you are. I'm in Minot. jason@ lastingimagephoto.net is my email. I put a space in there so the web crawlers don't grab my address for spam.
 
Brian, as a former WC-130 owner I feel your pain, they do work well on hand fed coal though. Anyhow, I wote for a large indirect of at least 100 gallons if you don't go with the Tek tank. If you can score some cheap LP tanks I'd go that way, but price it all out first. I do like both boilers you have in the options..... If you have free wood, and will have the storage configured right, the lambda controls might not be worth the money for the small amount of wood you'll save IMHO. I think you have a good budget to work with, the Froling is alot of $$$$$ I'd be inclined to go with the Varm w/o lambda. Could consider installing low temp emitters like Iron rads if you like the look, or panel rads if budget allows. Radiant is usually out of the question unless you have good access to the subfloor and don't mind fiberglass over your head. Getting more use out of whatever storage you go with.

TS
BTW in Mapleton
 
082812183248.jpg082812183305.jpg082812183312.jpg 082812183204.jpg

Here are some bad pics of the existing space. I would move the shower and the washer/dryer to get more room.
 
That space looks tight. My wife would kill me if I got her laundry smelling like smoke.

Have you considered an gasser in a shed? Or better yet a garn?
 
Someone already beat me to the Garn suggestion. If you have a need or want for an outdoor building (or perhaps an extension of your basement if it's a walkout) I'd definitely look at a Garn with your budget.

The boilers you mentioned above are all fairly new so I don't think you're going to see a significant amount of feedback on this site. I think your budget is right in line with what the total cost of a quality gasser with storage should be, with a little room to spare. If you want to look at some of the more traditional gassers research the Tarm, EKO, Econoburn lines and you'll see a lot of users on this site. Your budget might be on the light side if you end up picking a Froiling type boiler...
 
mikefrommaine said:
That space looks tight. My wife would kill me if I got her laundry smelling like smoke.

Have you considered an gasser in a shed? Or better yet a garn?
Click to expand...


Thats my 2 cents also. I have a gasser and wood in it's own building. For me, I like the set up. Also, my storage is in basement of house.
 
Thank for the ideas guys. I have looked into a garn but i don't have enough height in the garage for one and I don't want to build another shed. The house is a ranch and the basement is half garage and the other half is family room/laundry/boiler room. I would be moving the laundry room, and the existing shower, toilet and sink. Make a new laundry/bathroom and a bigger mechanical room. So the laundry would be seperate from the boiler room. I know moving a toilet,sink and shower seem like a big under taken but I work for a mechanical contracting company so saw cutting and replumbing isn't all the bad. But I just got word yesterday afternoon that the buyers backed out on buying our house so this project is on hold a little longer:rolleyes:. Brian
 
More planning is always better. Come on over and take a look at mine. Might see something you like, or hate.

There's many, many ways to do this. What's "right" is up to you.

JP
 
JP I might get ahold of you sometime I'm right in Minot also. If there were only one or two good boilers this would be easy.
 
First step, I would look at converting the Buderous--depending on the model you probably can put a pellet gun on it (Pellergy or other brand) so you can burn pellets with minimal investment. Added benefit is yu can easily switch back to oil burner if you are going to be away for an extended period and need to keep the house warm automatically. Then I would look at the options for upgrading the old wood boiler. Free wood is hard to beat as long as you have the time and capability to handle it. However (I know this is probably not the right place to say this) for where you live I would also look at coal boilers. It seems like yu have pretty much all the plumbing in place for a dual system so, with constrained space, replacing or modifying boilers is all you need to do unless you really want to spend.
 
I know several people with coal boilers and like them. BUT, it is almost exactly the same price as pellets. 300/ton coal and 200/ton pellets = almos the same price/BTU. It's the ash of coal that makes the mess, about a 55gal drum for a ton burned, and you can't just go and dump it anywhere. Smells like sulfur, trust me on this one, I was on the edge of pulling the trigger on a stoker coal setup here, but I'd go pellets first. Well cord wood is always #1 in my mind if it's feasable. Free wood = feasible.

Sorry to hear they backed out on your house........ :(

TS
 
TS yeah I don't recommend selling a house right now:) My good friend is going to buy the oil boiler, Indirect and oil tank so swapping over to pellets will pay for itself pretty quick. We most likely won't be using them all that much. My wife has no problem starting fires and loading the wood boilers. She just got sick of having to go down and feed the new yorker every 3 hours when I'm away. Almost heating season for you guys up in the county, few more weeks and there will be snow in the ground:) Brian
 
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