greenwood boilers / econoburn/ EKO-line

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

ace1

New Member
Jan 26, 2008
2
NJ
Need more help, got 2 gas boilers one is 245btu and the other is 145btu and 2- 50 gallon gas hot water heaters the house is only 3 years old and properly insolated. The house is around 5600sq ft and high cellings, need a good boiler that will handle this house, I have enough of high gas prices.Thank you for helping me.
 
I'm starting to see a trend here, my 5,000 to 7,000 sq. ft. home has high heat bills. Now I want to burn wood to save money. Buy a boiler. Buy a couple chainsaws. Buy a splitter. Buy a H.D. pickup. Hope you have a strong back. Hope that strong back stays strong. Hope you don't have an accident. Hope you have the ambition to feed that boiler,cause it'll be hungry. My question is, "At what point does one become a slave to his posessions?" My advice, if you want to, DO IT!! The boiler room is the right place to find out how. Best of luck to you.
 
Ace1

Whew...........where to start.............?

First, I'd highly suggest that you have a pro do an actual heat loss calculation on your house. You have a total of 390,000 btu's available for heating. If they are 80% efficient that gives you 312,000 actual output. That my friend is a TON of heat for a 5,600 sq ft house, over 55 btu's per square foot. Most of the old drafty farmhouses around here will stay below 40/foot and new houses fall in the 15-25 range for the most part. That being the case, I'd say you are WAAYYY over fired for your actual building needs. Unless of course your design temperature is about -45* or the house is made of galss. I'd make a wager that your boiler(s) short cycle like mad. On/Off about a dozen times and hour. You would be absolutely shocked at the fuel savings available by simply installing a correctly sized modulating/condensing gas fired boiler. In most cases where I have done that fuel consumption has gone down by a minimum of 35% and some have crowded 50%.

Get a heat loss done (or you can find a downloadable one at HeatingHelp.com and do it yourself) Then use that as a yardstick to see where your current system is really at.

Second, your best investment is ALWAYS tightening up the structure with window and insulation improvements.

Third. My own personal choice of the two you mentioned would be the Econoburn with a good sized storage tank. I'd recommend about 1,000 gallon minimum for a house the size of yours. Econoburn's gasification system works as advertised.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.