Advantage of longer wood in an Eko?

Yes indeed I like it. We are getting much more milage out of the junk wood. And when we load up with real fuel wood, the whole place is warm.

We won't know about wood consumtion till spring. But it is alot easier to keep the place warm.

One thing that was kind of a shock though. Operating one of these things is not as simple as it looks -- lots of subtleties; things to be aware of. We are better at it now than we were 2 months ago. But then, we really haven't had that much cold weather yet. We'll see.

So far, so good.

Hate to admit it, but maybe NoFossil was right about these things.

Hydronics- I'm still laughing at your Z quote, but please don't underestimate this man. He is a mechanical engineer by trade, and moved from Poland to WV to set up a massive OSB plant for Weyerhauser. He designed and built (even welded) his own gasification boiler from memory of one he saw "back home", and liked it so much he decided to begin importing finished units into the US. He is (singlehandedly) responsible for the success of ECO-Orlan in the US and Canada. His input to Orlan engineers made the "EKO Super" as they were previously the "Standard" model with lower efficiency. He designed the BioMax (copyright made him change name to BioMass) units himself and hired Hamech in Poland to build them for him on a contract basis. The Biomass is one of the best residential-sized gassers on the market today. The more I get to know this man the more respect I have for what he has accomplished.

DISCLAIMER-
Yes- I sell his boilers, but only because I believe in the quality of his products and the warranty he provides.

Maybe I should clearify my previous post...

Like buying a car, the newer models have come out and it would be nice to have some of these features. The one I bought gets me where I want to go.

I have had my eko for 5 years now, I don't notice any rust. Also I'm not sure how you would prevent a fireball in the face outside of waiting till it needs a refill. I think I have learned that if has bridged or needs a poke, the wood is not dry enough or it needs to be smaller splits.

WoodEnergy said:

Hydronics- I'm still laughing at your Z quote, but please don't underestimate this man. He is a mechanical engineer by trade, and moved from Poland to WV to set up a massive OSB plant for Weyerhauser. He designed and built (even welded) his own gasification boiler from memory of one he saw "back home", and liked it so much he decided to begin importing finished units into the US. He is (singlehandedly) responsible for the success of ECO-Orlan in the US and Canada. His input to Orlan engineers made the "EKO Super" as they were previously the "Standard" model with lower efficiency. He designed the BioMax (copyright made him change name to BioMass) units himself and hired Hamech in Poland to build them for him on a contract basis. The Biomass is one of the best residential-sized gassers on the market today. The more I get to know this man the more respect I have for what he has accomplished.

DISCLAIMER-
Yes- I sell his boilers, but only because I believe in the quality of his products and the warranty he provides.

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Understand that I meant no disrespect to the man. As a Professional Engineer myself, his knowledge and practical experience was evident when speaking to him. Personally, I think he has played a large role in bringing gasification to many in the US. I noticed he's finally advertising here, I'm surprised he hadn't earlier.

gorbull said:

Thanks for all the replies, this has got to be the best wood burning porno site going!

Soooooo.....getting back to the intent of my original post.
A bigger boiler allows for bigger loads and bigger burns and with big enough storage I do less work.
If that is correct spending an extra $1000 for a bigger unit is a no brainer me thinks.

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There does seem to be a point of diminishing returns on storage and bigger boilers - even the best insulated tanks lose heat over time - you want to avoid having so much that your heat loss "eats" the stored BTU's before you can use them for heating, especially during shoulder season... In addition, the larger the storage volume, the more time and energy it takes during a burn cycle to get the storage up to temp, even with the bigger boiler - you don't want a setup that takes longer than you have available to charge... I don't know if anyone has done an exact sizing equation, but it seems to me from all the threads I've read, that the optimum combination needs one or two fires / day during "design weather" - seems like a reasonable design target at any rate.

Barnartist: Also I’m not sure how you would prevent a fireball in the face outside of waiting till it needs a refill.

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Seems to me like the Woodguns have the best setup for this - the infamous "wait for green light before opening door" warning... As I understand it, they have a switch on the bypass flap control that turns on the air supply to the wood chamber and starts a timer - the green light doesn't come on until enough time has passed for the combustible gases to be cleared out of the wood chamber so there isn't anything to make a fireball when you open the door and let in more fresh air... It would seem like it wouldn't be that hard to come up with something like that for the other brands, as the "open bypass and wait" routine will work w/ any gasser if you really need to open up before it has burned the load. If one wanted to get REALLY fancy, it would probably be doable to make some sort of solenoid interlock that wouldn't LET you open the door w/o the green light...

Gooserider

Yes gorbull it seems like a no brainer as you are going with storage. You may spend a little more than the extra 1000 on the boiler when you are through with the storage, install, etc. But well worth it. Congratulations on your eventual system.

I have found with my 40 when I use wood close to the max length is when I get bridging . This year I cut a little shorter and so far only had one incident of bridging when I loaded a few longer splits. I like the 40 but wish it had a bit larger firebox but keep the rest the same.

Yes, a fireball of smoke. I started yelling at my Eko again today saying "how stupid". It could have been made better. First off they could have raised the top of the firebox 2" and welded an "L channel where the top of the door is. This would stop at least some of the smoke, maybe most of the smoke from coming at you when having the door open to put wood in. They could have just raised the back so it would be higher so the smoke could rise to the back and out the flu. I'm not an engineer, I'm a dumb carpenter and I know this stuff. Why don't they know it. Then started using insulting words describing "Pollocks" . I wonder if I'd be happy with something else like a Woodgun 100 but it was quite a bit more. The whole setup cost me 9400 dollars and that was too much with the low heat load of my house. Not worth it unless gas goes way up, and it might. I got the Eko 25 for 4,974 dollars with delivery minus 1500 for the tax break, so 3,474 for the Eko 25 I couldn't beat the price, but again I wonder if I'd be happier with something else.

Well. I got the Eko for 5k minus the 1500 for the tax rebate, so I'm at 3500 dollars.

3500 Eko 25 with rebate
1760 125' insulated pex
2000 material( 1" copper, hx coil, pump, Danfoss valve etc
1060 labor for install (heating man) @ 45 dollars per hr.
360 chimney (8" 18" t, 1 1' pipe, 2 3' pipe stainless
300 shed (6'x6') small but works nice.


175 trencher rental
170 for 10 gal. "antifreeze"

Does everything sound ok with these prices. I didn't think it would cost more than 8000 dollars.
Ok, 9325, thanks, I feel just a little better. I want storage but 250 gal. would really help. I don't know how much that would cost.

ihookem said:

Well. I got the Eko for 5k minus the 1500 for the tax rebate, so I'm at 3500 dollars.

3500 Eko 25 with rebate
1760 125' insulated pex
2000 material( 1" copper, hx coil, pump, Danfoss valve etc
1060 labor for install (heating man) @ 45 dollars per hr.
360 chimney (8" 18" t, 1 1' pipe, 2 3' pipe stainless
300 shed (6'x6') small but works nice.

175 trencher rental
170 for 10 gal. "antifreeze"

Does everything sound ok with these prices. I didn't think it would cost more than 8000 dollars.
Ok, 9325, thanks, I feel just a little better. I want storage but 250 gal. would really help. I don't know how much that would cost.

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Well, looks to me like about 2.5K of that went to putting it outside - one reason I want to go with an inside install... I figure 2.5K Will buy me a nice storage system, and an exhaust hood...

Gooserider

I also spent some extra money to put it outside but I have no regrets about it.
If the house had a exposed basement I would have put it inside. I know carrying all that wood down stairs would drive me crazy so the outside shed where I can pull a trailer load of wood right to the door of the shed suits me fine.

I know people here have them in their basements but......I would NEVER! put one in my house they are smokey and dirty. I have to sweep fine ash everyday in my shop.


Just my $.02

Rob

I sometimes think about the heat I would gain coming off the boiler if it were inside, but I'll trade that for all the mess and smoke and such. It was worth the expence for me to have it out thar inda lean-ta.

Oh ya, longer wood is better.