Replacing a wood boiler - when?

I have been heating my house year-round with a Central Boiler CB5648, 2004 model year. The boiler was installed but not put into service until fall of 2006 owing to when we finished the house and moved in. So it is now on its' 9th year of heating all of our water for both domestic use and heat. I haven't kept really good track of my wood quantities that I've burned, but I'll guess it's between 10 and 13 cords annually. Less if I have good dry hardwood (rare), more if I'm burning softwood or wet/punky wood. My backup consists of the "dual-fuel" propane burner from Central, that has got to be the most inefficient thing on the planet.

I'm now in the process of constructing a 3-bay garage to house 1 car and a woodworking shop. I also installed a pool a couple of years ago and was hoping to put a little bit of heat into the pool water to extend our season. I'm a little bit concerned that my wood use is going to go up so much that I won't be able to keep up. I'm expecting to use an additional 3-4 cords if not more.

An additional concern is that I've gone through a few parts in the CB so far - granted, nothing high-tech. A couple of Taco pumps, a temperature controller, a solenoid, and now the door is cracked badly and needs replacing. I can still get the parts though, so I'm not too concerned yet, but CB is discontinuing the classic so I expect to have a hard time finding parts someday.

I am wondering if it is worth replacing this thing entirely, with something far more efficient, a good backup system, and maybe a secondary water storage system (1000 gallon salvage insulated propane tank). I've also come to the realization that I put the wood boiler in a crappy location and it would be worth moving. I've got until next summer to decide what to do, I have no problem tearing up the yard and putting in new conduit and PEX to a new location, but it is a big project.

What is the life expectancy of a Central Boiler? Am I looking at a replacement at some point in the near future anyway? Would the new E-classic models (or a different manufacturer entirely) give me a much more efficient use of my firewood? I'm also wondering if there is a market for a used boiler. I have been trying to get ahead of my wood supply but the past two years have been a failure. I do have two wood sheds that collectively can store 20 cords, but the larger one (14 cords) is completely empty, so I'm sorta sabotaging myself.

Any advice would be welcome.

maple1 said:

What is the location of the garage with respect to the house, compared to the CB?

I think I would try to utilize the opportunity presented by the new garage construction, to put an indoor boiler in there, along with my entire winters wood, and maybe also the storage tank(s). Tanks could also go in the house if possible though. You might have to wall off the boiler in its own space with its own outside entrance. With the problems your having chasing wood now, that will only get worse in the future if you stick with an OWB. Having the boiler inside a heated space along with the wood would pay huge dividends every year going forward in greatly reduced wood consumption.

Click to expand...

Not gonna happen, unfortunately. The garage isn't big enough and I even reduced the size of it on the fly while I was forming the footings and frost walls. It's about 160' away from the existing boiler and on the opposite side of the house. I have a much better location for an outdoor boiler that is only about fifty feet from where it is now. I can put most of it under a roof to at least have a dry loading area.

Reading some replies, it never occurred to me to put an indoor boiler in a shed. I don't know how I missed that. A friend of mine has an EKO 40 in an unheated lean-to off his kitchen and it works well for him.

I like the idea of building a small sugarhouse (since I have maple trees) and allowing space for both a small OWB and a small evaporator setup. It's starting to get a little crowded around here, I already have five buildings on the property (ok, two of them are basically pole sheds with tin roofs) and another one would probably be frowned upon by the wife.