Hey guys, great site. I have been doing some research about wood and pellet boilers and your site has some excellent information on it. And to make a loooong story short, decided a wood gassification boiler was best for my situation. (I have access to free wood and some inexpensive wood if I get lazy and don't cut my own.) I have purchased an E100 Wood Gun (stainless steel vessel) from Alternate Heating Systems, which will be arriving the end of this week. Was able to get a floor model with a nice percentage off list price. And I wanted a stainless steel vessel.
I currently have an oil fired boiler which heats my house (almost 4000 sq. ft.) with base board hot water heating, and my garage (580 sq. ft.) with a radiant in-floor heating system. (This system uses a simple mixing valve to get the water to the right temperature for heating in the Pex tubing in the concrete floor. Part of the house is kept about 68 degrees and other parts a allowed to stay around 60-65 degrees. (Laundry, office, spare bedroom) The same boiler also heats my domestic hot water which is fed into a super store hot water tank(no coil) which is about 50 gallons. I have been using an efficient wood stove to keep my oil boiler from bankrupting me. The Pacific Energy Super 27 wood stove heats a very good portion of the house. Over the last four years we have used 60% less oil from this medium size wood stove. Excellent stove that I will be keeping for back up. Have used 16-18 cord of wood each year for the last four years. I will disconnect my wood stove and use that double wall insulated stainless chimney for the new boiler.
So this new Wood gun boiler will be added to my existing system. (Should it be and add-on to the existing system, or set up on its own?) I decided to go with this now because I could not heat my domestic hot water or the garage with the wood stove and the upstairs to my house would often call for heat from the oil boiler in the winter time. With the wood gun I will be able to heat everything. I have looked at some of the install diagrams on your site. I do not have the money for a new thermal storage tank at this time. Would like to add a thermal storage tank at some point but will probably have two shut off valves installed in the right place for the future installation of that. I have also been thinking of making my own thermal storage tank instead of paying 5 or 6 thousand dollars for one. So, some questions for you.
1. How in the hell am I going to get this 1400 lb. thing into my basement? ( 4 stairs down from ground level) Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have a brother who can set it next to my front door for me with a tow truck that has a extendable boom arm and winch on it. I will use steel pipe to try to roll it to the stairs, but what about getting down the stairs? Build a ramp? Reinforce the stairs, they are currently pretty solid. But I will play it safe and brace a little extra.
2. Could I buy two or three used 80 gallon electric hot water heaters, made within the last few years, and use them for thermal storage? I have seen a few around, they are fairly well insulated. R-value of 16. Be a lot cheaper at $250 apiece. AHS boiler holds sixty gallans in itself, my oil boiler holds its own water, probably 30 gallons with out looking, and then there is the superstore tank of 50 gallons. The reasong I would like some additional storage is so I could fire my boiler once every other day in the summer in order to heat DHW. I have also thought about a used 250 gallon propane tank and then insulate it with a closed cell spray foam kit. Or better yet an upright used tank.
3. Should the new boiler be an add-on to the existing system? I believe I read somewhere on your site that boilers in series is not good.? All the gasification dealers say they can be added to your existing system.
Sorry about the novel guys. I have more questions but I told you I would try to make long story short. I did not suceed. Have a good one.
I currently have an oil fired boiler which heats my house (almost 4000 sq. ft.) with base board hot water heating, and my garage (580 sq. ft.) with a radiant in-floor heating system. (This system uses a simple mixing valve to get the water to the right temperature for heating in the Pex tubing in the concrete floor. Part of the house is kept about 68 degrees and other parts a allowed to stay around 60-65 degrees. (Laundry, office, spare bedroom) The same boiler also heats my domestic hot water which is fed into a super store hot water tank(no coil) which is about 50 gallons. I have been using an efficient wood stove to keep my oil boiler from bankrupting me. The Pacific Energy Super 27 wood stove heats a very good portion of the house. Over the last four years we have used 60% less oil from this medium size wood stove. Excellent stove that I will be keeping for back up. Have used 16-18 cord of wood each year for the last four years. I will disconnect my wood stove and use that double wall insulated stainless chimney for the new boiler.
So this new Wood gun boiler will be added to my existing system. (Should it be and add-on to the existing system, or set up on its own?) I decided to go with this now because I could not heat my domestic hot water or the garage with the wood stove and the upstairs to my house would often call for heat from the oil boiler in the winter time. With the wood gun I will be able to heat everything. I have looked at some of the install diagrams on your site. I do not have the money for a new thermal storage tank at this time. Would like to add a thermal storage tank at some point but will probably have two shut off valves installed in the right place for the future installation of that. I have also been thinking of making my own thermal storage tank instead of paying 5 or 6 thousand dollars for one. So, some questions for you.
1. How in the hell am I going to get this 1400 lb. thing into my basement? ( 4 stairs down from ground level) Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have a brother who can set it next to my front door for me with a tow truck that has a extendable boom arm and winch on it. I will use steel pipe to try to roll it to the stairs, but what about getting down the stairs? Build a ramp? Reinforce the stairs, they are currently pretty solid. But I will play it safe and brace a little extra.
2. Could I buy two or three used 80 gallon electric hot water heaters, made within the last few years, and use them for thermal storage? I have seen a few around, they are fairly well insulated. R-value of 16. Be a lot cheaper at $250 apiece. AHS boiler holds sixty gallans in itself, my oil boiler holds its own water, probably 30 gallons with out looking, and then there is the superstore tank of 50 gallons. The reasong I would like some additional storage is so I could fire my boiler once every other day in the summer in order to heat DHW. I have also thought about a used 250 gallon propane tank and then insulate it with a closed cell spray foam kit. Or better yet an upright used tank.
3. Should the new boiler be an add-on to the existing system? I believe I read somewhere on your site that boilers in series is not good.? All the gasification dealers say they can be added to your existing system.
Sorry about the novel guys. I have more questions but I told you I would try to make long story short. I did not suceed. Have a good one.