Storage questiopn

I also have a Solo 40, with 1000 gal pressurized storage. The best answer is that I always burn "full-out," maximum high burn beginning to end, with one or more loads of wood. My boiler rarely idles. Since my boiler output is considerably greater than my heat load, all the excess btu's are put into storage, and then drawn from storage between burns. Example: even with the extremely cold temps now (-30/-35F at night, and about 0F in the daytime), I only burn 4-6 hours or so, essentially 1-2 loads of wood. Simple, quick, efficient, and practically no tending. As temps get into the 0-30F range, I often don't even need to burn every day, and above 30, a burn every other day to as much as 5 days between burns.

No dispute that storage is not essential, but so practical and adds to efficiency and usefulness of boiler hot water heating.

I think that the question of whether storage is necessary or not has more to do with the manufacturer's marketing strategy than with the technology of the boiler.

Any gasifier can be used without storage - you just end up idling more and/or building a lot of short fires.

Any wood boiler can be used with storage - however, it adds to the cost of the installed system.

If the manufacturer is worried about cost driving away potential customers, then they might be more likely to say that storage is not required.

If the manufacturer wants their system to provide maximum comfort and convenience, they might be more likely to say that storage is required.

It may be the case that some boilers modulate a bit better than others. If that's true (I haven't seen any data) then those boilers would benefit less from storage than others.

just curious , what brands have mandatory storage requirements?

My Tarm (Baxi) Solo Innova requires storage. Don't know why either.

Mike

Thats funny birdman was referring to his tarm

The new Innova line requires storage, the older Solo line does not. I heard something along the lines of the company moving to the Innovas, but a grandson of Tarm's founder really likes the Solos and has continued building them.

I think the Tarm Innova requires storage because there are no damper controls (only pri and sec air). You just burn full out every time; there is no limiting device except as Nofossil said, small fires. Because of this, I can see that mine would not be good without the storage.

Thanks Frank. I didn't know that.

Mike