EKO 25 in drafty out building. Insulate building, unit or don't worry about it.

[Rugar]

My EKO is fifty feet away from the house in an aproximatly 12x16 uninsulated very old tin roof shed. Should I finish the walls and ceiling and insulate them or just build a box over part of the unit itself. Or just not worry about it. If I do insulate, to what extent do I go. I do not have storage but someday may. If I do put in storage I'm not sure if it would go in the same shed or next to it or place it in my small cellar basement.

 

[trehugr]

I would put the storage in the house, any heat loss from the tank will be lost to the house. The shed.... if you don't insulate it, you'll never have to shovel the roof, of which I did today.

 

[Dave T]

I have an EKO 60 in the basement and I can tell you it releases a good amount of heat which is lost into my house, you have clearences that need to be met I think 18" on the sides and 36" front and back, you could always insulate the shed with fire wood to some degree, I don't know about KS but here in NY we have to give freeze protection serious thought..Personally I would not put the boiler in an uninsulated shed I would insulate the heck out of it especally the roof, either way you go the pipes under ground need as much insulation as you can afford to give them on all sides, just my 0.02 cents and that may be all it is worth lol..Dave

 

[Rugar]

we don't seem to get frost ever over 1 ft. I ran my pipe in a 4inch corrigated pipe with 2 1/2 wraps of refelective bubble wrap (tight fit), then burried it 3 ft deep. Skid steer digs a pretty good hole. Overkill but when you got it use it. I've got 15 gallon of no burst antifreeze. Do I use it or try to send it back. When I found out the controller turns on the circulator at 40 deg. I figured I don't need it. I'm open to suggestions. My insulation thought is for efficiency and second for freeze protection. Not sure if I'm right on that.

 

[Duetech]

Insulating is a "rate of return" investment. My boiler (no storage yet) is in an uninsulated outbuilding. In severe cold weather there is a 2f degree drop from my boiler only (primary) circuit to my secondary (air hx and dhw sidearm) circuit. When I go to storage where my boiler and tank will be in the same out building it will be insulated. I can't tell what that two degrees does to my efficiency except through wood consumption (hour loss burn time but part of that is in the home too) but a guestimate would be 180/2 or 1 90th which is close to one percent of out put is lost. My pipes are fairly well insulated but could obviously use more. The real mystery is how much heat am I losing by my boiler alone? 5%???? Maybe more??? I think the insulation would pay for itself in short order.