Gasification Boiler Piping Scheme

Thanks to a lot of help from Dave at cozyheat.net, here's the piping scheme for my new boiler installation. I tried to keep it simple and relatively inexpensive, using as much of the existing equipment and layout as possible.

The illustration is hard to read. Here's a link to the pdf:

http://www.nefpexpo.net/thewholeshebang.pdf

Yeah, and about as much smoke as one of your Marlboro's, BB.

The people I've talked to who have gasifiers, both Tarms and EKOs, say that the best way to do it is fire them full bore. So yes, the tank is where you would store your heat. A guy I talked to who has a similar-sized Tarm and an 800-gallon tank says that even when it's below zero, he loads the thing twice a day, max, and can skip a day when it's in the '30s. In the summer, you can run one load of wood per week for your domestic hot water. The Tarm goes out if it has to idle for too long (i.e., when the tank is fully charged and there's no call for heat from the house). The EKO has a feature that blows the fan every ten minutes or so during idle, so that the coals (allegedly) stay alive during idle, as long as there's wood in the firebox. I suspect it smokes a little when that happens, but probably not very much.

In a way, these are more like conventional gas or oil burners, in that there's no big bed of coals to constantly supply heat. When you make the heat, you have to put it somewhere. Hence the tank. I think it's quite a bit different from an operational standpoint from what I have now.

I'm used to tending the boiler when I'm around, so at first I'll probably get into going out there and putting small loads of wood in it all day long, just to see it work. I have enough room to expand the storage tank from 1,000 to about 2,500 gallons, so I might eventually get into a situation where I'm firing the boiler up once every couple of days during average winter weather and maybe once a day when it's really cold. In the summer, it would be so long between firings for DHW that I'd probably forget to do it and catch hell from my wife for running out of hot water.

The guy with the Tarm says that when the fire goes out, all he does is squirt a little lighter fluid on the charred wood remaining in the combustion changer, hits it with a propane torch, and in a couple of minutes he's back in business. Beats fooling around with paper and kindling. Personally, as I've said before, I'm used to firing the boiler up in the fall and keeping it going until the following spring. But, in the immortal words of my main man, Red Green:

I'm a man.
I can change.
If I have to.
I guess.....

That, the 72 virgins and the rivers of wine.

As for the progress pics, BB, you won't have to ask twice.

It's two-inch foam board. Not polypropylene (blueboard), which can't take the heat. It's the other, yellow stuff with the foil wrap that they sell at Home Depot and Lowe's. About $33 for a 4x8 sheet. I can't begin to spell it.

Here's the thread detailing the tank construction.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/6929/P15/

The tank is 7' long by 4' wide by 5' deep. The insulation covers the entire surface area of the inside of the tank (including the lid) and is sandwiched between the pond liner and the concrete. The floor is poured concrete and 3 of the walls are reinforced concrete 8" thick. The other wall (7x4x5) will be 8" cinderblock filled with vermiculite.

Craig showed me how to calculate the heat holding capacity. Assuming that the discharged tank has 130-degree water and a fully charged tank is full of 190-degree water, it represents just over 400,000 btus of storage. The boiler puts out 205 to 210K btu per hour, depending on who you ask.

Calculate away, Corie.

For me it's the next logical step. Actually, I'm already using the (homemade) sidearm with my current boiler, and it works just fine. We have plenty of hot water all the time, even with a 16-year-old girl. So I'm sticking with what works, but indirect is definitely a good way to go. And thanks for the foil bubble tip. Sounds like mylar, no? That stuff is pretty cheap and it reflects like crazy. That's a great idea--I'll have to check it out.

Good points, elk. The greenhouse loop is not really diagrammed completely. What I need is a reservoir (along with a PRV and gauge), since there's not very much fluid in that loop to begin with. If I use cast iron radiators instead of baseboard for radiant heat, then I probably don't need a res. I don't like messing with glycol, but the greenhouse is just too vulnerable to freezing up, and I don't want to have to drain the system every time I decide to shut 'er down. I'll probably just put in a fill tube and top it off as needed, instead of trying to put in a domestic water feed.

The DHW tank is under normal city water pressure. The heating system is at about 15 psi. There's really no connection between the two, other than through the copper sidearm heat exchanger and the system fill line, which runs through a regulator and is shut off with a ball valve when I'm not filling the system. I also have a check valve on that line to keep the boiler water from backing up into the domestic water.

I decided to put my meager resources into the gasification boiler instead of solar, although you could easily transfer heat from solar panels into the tank. I don't think thermal mass is comparable to 1000 gallons of hot water for heat storage and transfer, if that's what you're suggesting. Liquid is so much more.......liquid as a heating asset.

The Euros have this gasification thing pretty well doped out, I think. I'm impressed with all the gasification boilers out there.

Somebody's got to stick up for wood-based central heat on this board--and keep you stove guys honest.

Seriously, I think there's plenty of room around here for just about everyone, including (and maybe especially) OWBs. I think most of us understand that the critical issue in wood burning is using the appropriate technology in the right application and location, and all within a reasonable budget. I could show you some outstanding OWB installations. I think we could even get the no-burn Nazis to contribute some useful and thought-provoking discussion that would benefit all of us.

How many people have upgraded from their pre-EPA stoves, chimneys, etc. after hanging around Hearth.com? And would they have bothered to stick around if they were abused for using what they happened to have installed? Tolerance, understanding and a willingness to both learn and share information and ideas seems to be the prevailing attitude around here, and that's what makes this such a great site. That and the great mods.

Good points, Bill. Well said. The 440C was (and still is) a great skidder. A lot of us wish they still made 'em. I drove by Eddie Nash's the other day, and it looked like he has more than a few stacked up in the yard.

I haven't seen one of the new Black Bear gasification OWBs in operation yet, but I hear they're performing more or less as advertised. Hopefully they will become a big hit and start producing units bigger than 90K btus.

I like your stack extension, keyman. You're right about oil burners--I've seen them put out more smoke than a pre-epa woodstove.