Well,let me start by saying you all rock.I have picked alot of good help here.My situation is that my older eshland indoor boiler smokes in many ways.First was out the door when loading and a smoke hood has resolved that.Second is that when loaded with alot of wood it pulses air until fire stabilizes after about 1 hour.Now when pulsing smoke puffs out all seams on flu pipes and from seams on 90 degree pipes.Small amounts of smoke but the smell goes right upstairs.The unit holds about 40 gallons of water and is hooked up to a buderus condensing boiler which has no water storage so all water is from the wod stove.My house is 1400 sq ft. older drafty house.The wood stove does idle alot and today my chimney (8 inch)plugged up.I clean chimney about every 4 to 5 weeks.So i am considering if possible to install this stove outside in an insulated shed or make a housing for it and run insulated lines into the house and hook up to a storage tank?What do you think?Also if so what size expansion tank is needed for a larger storage tank say 100 gallons or so as my system is pressurized and direct to buderus.The way i am hooked up is pump runs continous loop from wb to buderus return manifold and back to stove.I have a normally open zone valve between feed and return so water makes complete loop when no heat is called for.When buderus calls for heat and heating zone valve opens and pump turns on the normally open valve between closes causing wb water to head thru buderus thru baseboards back to wb and continue on.Works goodI just turn down buderus temp to below wb setting and buderus does not fire.My chimney is just afew years old and always worked great with other wood stoves.My wife deals with this problem ok but cannot stand the smell and it has gotten the best of me to.thanks in advance.I can add pic of hook up if needed.
indoor boiler hooked up outside.
- Thread starter vipertec
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Many here have done what you are contemplating, moving all the mess & smell etc out of the house. Plenty of threads dealing with outside boiler shed. Most recommend building it large enough to hold a supply of wood as well, so what you feed into the boiler is warm & above all dry. IMO to get a break from feeding the boiler you will want more then 100 gal of storage. Plenty of threads dealing with converting used propane tanks for storage as well, if budget is a concern. One or two 500 gal tanks will allow you to burn full blast therefore clean & efficient as well, store all that energy in those tanks & enjoy the break from feeding.
Mine is next door in a unattched garage. Works very well for us. But i have 820gals of storage. Fire unit once a day. Boiler is in a insulated room inside the garage. No heat in boiler room except for the boiler itself. Wood is right outside the door.
Mine is in an outside building with 6x12 for the boiler and 10x12 for wood (insulated building). Based on prior threads this year, warm (not frozen) wood burns better. I can keep a days worth of wood in with the boiler to "pre heat" to about 50F and it does burn better. If I knew this before I built the wall I would have made the warm area a little bigger (8x12). Since the warmth is waste heat anyway I don't mind preheating the wood.
Your lack of storage is causing a lot of idling which is helping to cause the flue cleaning problems. I bet your wood is less than perfect in terms of moisture content - mine is.
Your lack of storage is causing a lot of idling which is helping to cause the flue cleaning problems. I bet your wood is less than perfect in terms of moisture content - mine is.
You are on the right path. I have an outdoor boiler room all insulated in an out building 12 x 24, room for the boiler 1000 gallon storage and a weeks wood. Only thing I would do different would be put the storage in the house as all the extra heat would go to the house. My tank is insulated I really don't know if it looses much heat as the boiler and all plumbing is all in the same room so I not real sure where the heat is all coming from. I do know the majority is coming from the boiler itself as the skin and door get very warm. You are in the right spot for info, just wish I had known of the site before I started.
Good info here. BUT 100gal won't do anything for you. You need at least 500gal in my opinion and 1000gal would be better. Read the sticky above for your lines. VERY IMPORTANT. By burning the boiler hot and without idling you will keep the pipes clean, use less wood, and not have to tend the fire as often and at your convenience. And you will make your wife a happy camper and that's worth more than all the other reasons combined.
leaddog
leaddog
sounds like a plan for summer project.Could anybody tell me where and how large of an expansion tank would be needed if say i use two heating oil tanks,about 550 gallons.also what would be an average price for used propane tanks(500 gallon) just to give me an idea.thanks again to all
Don't even think about oil tanks. They aren't to be pressurized and won't last. Propane tanks can be had around here for about $250 or so. Check around scrap yards, CL, propane dealers. They are out there just had to find someone to sell them because of the liability problem. There is lots of info here about propane tanks. Just hit the search with propane tanks and you will have several days of reading. Same for expansion tanks. You can use a bladder tank or an other small propane tank. You are on the right path.
leaddog
leaddog
i had an idea cut a hole in foudation wall install metal door stove would be in room below grade 5 or 6 feet out side roof might stick up 4 feet have stainless chimney out roof and you could have vent window in that room for smoke and ventilation if you really went crazy you could have coal bin out side to gravity feed in nto your room,so we will call it semi ouddoor wood burner.you should in stall drain in floor for times your working on system ,i would also run separate zone into cast rads for dump zone in base ment or up in attic
My question would be why did your 8" chimney clog up in 4-5 weeks? I ran my WB with 8" flue in outdoor shed for 11 weeks and it is just barely lined with fly ash. My flue T's off boiler. The lower half of T fills with fly ash that I empty out every 2 weeks but the upper portion of flue is fine.
my stove idles when outside temp is in the mid to upper 30s.So air to stove shuts off and fire smoulders.
I built a 12' deep addition on the back of my 28 x 40 insulated garage.
The boiler and tanks and 3-4 days days of firewood are stored in ths room.
I have an effecta lambda 35 boiler with (2) 500 gallon tanks stacked horizontally for a total of 1,000 gallons of storage.
My garage never gets below 50 F even when its below zero (I have NO heating devices in the garage) outside and I attribute this nice garage temperature to the small amount of heat that does escape from the boiler and the tanks in addition to the heat that escapes from the area where my copper pipes and zone valves are located.
You must never use old oil storage tanks as they are not built for pressure.
EBU
The boiler and tanks and 3-4 days days of firewood are stored in ths room.
I have an effecta lambda 35 boiler with (2) 500 gallon tanks stacked horizontally for a total of 1,000 gallons of storage.
My garage never gets below 50 F even when its below zero (I have NO heating devices in the garage) outside and I attribute this nice garage temperature to the small amount of heat that does escape from the boiler and the tanks in addition to the heat that escapes from the area where my copper pipes and zone valves are located.
You must never use old oil storage tanks as they are not built for pressure.
EBU
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