Underfloor Heating And Gassification Boiler

I am not a pro but will try to help you out.

Yes you can use a gassification boiler with radiant floor heat. A boiler combined with heat storage is an awesome system for radiant floor heat because you can utilize lower temps from storage. That means you can run your tanks down to around 100* F. For instance I have baseboards and I can only run my storage down to about 150*

You can heat your pool with the boiler. You would do that using a heat exchanger to separate your pool water from your heating system water. If you have storage you won't be using your pool to get rid of extra heat but more like an extra heating zone.

The key to your system will be having a knowledgeable installer.

Good Luck and welcome to North America!

Hairy cornflake,
Welcome to the hearth. You may want to check with your insurance to see if they will allow you to put the boiler in the shop, many won't. lots of knowledge on this site. you may want to read some of the old posts to learn
a little about gassifiers to make your planning easier. you can do a search to find most answers then if you cant find what your looking for ask a question.

Welcome!

Boy oh boy do we have some ideas for you, and of course a lot of us will disagree, but you're the one paying the piper so do with it what you will.

A gassifier will work fine with infloor heat. Anyone building new should go with infloor heat for any concrete slab. A lot of houses on this side of the pond are wood framed and have existing hot water or air systems which aren't as effective to integrate storage into.

If you're building new, you have the ability to build so efficiently that it won't make economic sense to invest in an expensive gassifier and storage system, especially if you go with passive solar design and/or active solar heat. Check out Radiantec.com and especially http://www.radiantsolar.com/pdf/ases_paper.pdf (5page paper)
http://www.radiantsolar.com/pdf/DOEREPORT.pdf (28 page Department of Energy paper from the early 80's)
These papers are demonstrating the sand bed heat storage concept for solar. The rest of the site covers radiant heat and solar systems, and only touches on wood boilers.

I've combined the slab mass with active solar, and a wood boiler for the cold months. My home is a work in progress and I don't have any data, except a wife whose freezing point is 65f and haven't had a fire since second week in March.

I'm assuming the pool is an indoor pool that you want heated and not just somewhere to dump the heat. Firewood is too much work to dump even if it's free. Flat plate heat exchangers are usually plumbed into the pool filter/pump system to heat a pool.

the hairy cornflake said:

Good Morning All!
My wife and I are emigrating to Canada from the UK next year and this forum looks like a great place to answer a couple of questions.

We are looking at installing a Gasification Boiler in the workshop with a feed to the main house. The plot has lots of wood on it so we feel fuel wont be an issue. As we are new building the house we will install lots of insulation and thus the house should be quite thermally efficient.

We intend to install an underfloor heating system with multizone thermostat control.

Are gassification boilers compatible with an underfloor heating system?

Also we intend to build a small swimming pool to take away any excess heat from the boiler when running. Is this a suitable outlet and if so whats the best way of doing it? Do you use a similar coil system to that used in heat store tanks?

Best regards

Rob

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With a very well insulated house you will be able to have a smaller boiler which saves in cost. I would still suggest having some heat storage, but with a low temp radiant delivery system and a well insulated house, you will not need too much. The advantages of storage are convenience for when you fire the boiler, ability to use the boiler in the shoulder season, and DHW in the summer. A total wood system and with a super insulated structure, you will likely only burn less than a handful of cords per year. Sounds like you are on the right track. Keep asking questions...

Building new with wood heat in mind gives you lots of opportunities. I'd say the more you look around, the less you'll be looking at a boiler. If it was me, it would be ICF construction and a masonry heater.

jeff_t said:

Building new with wood heat in mind gives you lots of opportunities. I'd say the more you look around, the less you'll be looking at a boiler. If it was me, it would be ICF construction and a masonry heater.

Click to expand...

Some friends of mine just built a new house near here (northern VT) with carefully insulated and airsealed wood frame construction, lots of south-facing windows for passive solar, and a masonry heater. Any time that I've visited them during winter months, I am very warm, and they don't require a lot of wood. They have radiant floors with a propane hot water heater for back up, but it virtually never comes on.

Great plan. If you are not an expert w/ green building (ie, saving fuel, using eco-friendly materials, etc) check out greenbuildingadvisor.com. Then insulate and air seal PROPERLY till the cows come home!

We just did our first firing of an extensive in-floor and in-slab radiant system connected with a gasifier (we went with a wood gun). It is a great idea, especially if you are willing to really give a bit of thought.

Tubes in the cement floor are a no-brainer. There is no reason not to put them in. They are cheap to install and a wonderful way to heat. Keep in mind this is a large heat storage. I estimate our basement floor will hold something like 15,000 BTU for each degree F. You might not need a swimming pool to take the extra heat!

Tubes in floor are a bit more tricky, but still doable (we did both the basement slab and the first floor.)

There is a LOT to think about here, I spent 4 months looking at the various pros and cons. You will find some great info from this site. Go slow and have fun working it all out.

Are you planning on doing a storage unit? As previously stated, you would have an ideal set-up with all in-floor radiant.

Andrew

Two thoughts:

Build your system designed for a storage tank (you'll want one eventually). You don't need to finish it now; you can always add that sort of thing at a later date if you plan for it.

With new construction it is simple to put in a huge storage tank. We used the empty space under our front porch. This space is frequently filled in with gravel before the front porch slab is poured. For just a few more dollars you can wall in the space and use it for a storage tank. Our porch is 9 by 9 feet, so the area under it yields something like 3500 gallons of storage. that would heat your house for a day or so, and any heat lost will keep snow off my front porch. Again, you don't need to finish it now, it can be done at a later date.

Andrew

If you are looking at a super insulated home, radiant floor heat may not be the best choice. For many years we have sold radiant heating systems as "warm floors" radiant ads showed children playing on the floor, warm toes, etc.

Here is what is happening. Homes with heating loads below 12 BTU/square foot require very low water supply temperatures to maintain 21C (70F) room temperatures. A building with a room temperature of 21C and a 10 BTU/ft load, for example would require an average supply temperature of only 25c (78F). That temperature floor will not feel warm to bare feet.

Here is a graph to show the relationship between floor temperature and heat output.

I'd suggest radiant in the bathrooms, maybe kitchen and panel radiators elsewhere. There are panel radiators coming out that can supply high output with only 32C (90F) water temperature. Ideal for solar use, also.

Do a detailed room by room heat and cooling load calculation. Perform a blower door test before you insulate. Build the structure as efficiently as possible.

Buffer tanks of at least 500 gallon (1900l) will eliminate boiler cycling with zoned systems. It also give you some "no-burn" days.

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