I am knew to the whole wood boiler thing. I might be purchasing a new indoor one and putting it in my garage. My question is what size do I need. I really like the econoburn and tarm boilers. How many btu's would I need? My house is 1800 sq.ft. my basement is about 900 sq. ft. and I would also like to heat my garage with it. Its a 2 stall garage with a work shop in the back. Any advise would be appreciated.
Indoor wood boiler???
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maple1
Minister of Fire
First advice is to make sure a boiler in your garage is OK with your insurance person. It's usually not.
if its not I will have to find one that will do it. Is there a difference in having in a garage or in your basement?
Yes your garage has or can have a car in it which has a tank of gas in it which it very volatile. I personally don't see all that much risk with it but most insurance companies wont allow it and in many areas it is not allowed by code.
Highbeam
Minister of Fire
The fire code, the actual NFPA, prohibits solid fuel burners in a garage. Fine but what is a garage? It is not simply a building that has a door big enough to drive into. There is some interpretation here that your local AHJ will be making when they permit the garage burner. I have a permitted and insured woodstove in my detached garage "shop" building with three 12x12 foot overhead doors. I had to switch insurance companies to do it but I love my shop stove.
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You need to have an energy audit done long before you unload your wallet or chain yourself to a bank for a boiler.
You may just save huge amounts of money with doing home improvements alone
allowing you to have a propane forced air through the wall furnace.
For the money your going to invest in block walls and a fire
resistant sheet rock ceiling to house the boiler B4 you buy the
boiler you should seriously look doing an energy audit first before
anything else.
You may just end up losing your work shop so you need to consider that too.
I am switching to coal after 33 years of burning wood BUT that is just me.
^ Read Leon's first line again. Do a heat loss calculation, and carefully calculate savings between your options, including additional insulation.
flyingcow
Minister of Fire
I got a call into my insurance company right now and they are looking into it. At first they said no to the garage, but I told them I have a separate room off the garage(workshop) where it was to be installed. They said they will have to get back to me. I like the suggestion of a wood storage facility
I had an energy audit done and I added more a ton of insulation when I re did the house this past winter. I am not totally sold on the boiler investment yet. Still might just do a simply wood stove to supplement my oil boiler.
flyingcow
Minister of Fire
chances are per insurance regulations you'll have to have the boiler in a separate room. With no access from the garage into the boiler room. Boiler room will have to have outside infants.
Chances are if they want it in a separate room, it has to have an outside entrance. No entrance into boiler room from the inside of garage. Double sheetrock walls, etc.
Chances are if they want it in a separate room, it has to have an outside entrance. No entrance into boiler room from the inside of garage. Double sheetrock walls, etc.
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