I'm starting to plan a new boiler install and hoping that you may have some suggestions. Here's the background first:
Last year we had a Caddy hot air oil/combo installed in our house. In a nutshell, the contractor didn't do a heat loss and the furnace is too small. We had him back shortly after it was installed because we were having trouble with the heat output (imagine). He put it down to the wood not being dry enough. In hindsight I should have insisted on a heat loss but we accepted his word that it would "give us lots of heat." This year, with dry wood, its better but still needs feeding every two-three hours and it's not even cold yet! Needless to say, we're pursuing the contractor but so far he is avoiding us. In the meantime we need to figure something out for next winter, this winter my wife is home and can feed it regularly so it's not too bad.
The house is 160 years old, stone, two stories, and about 2,500 square feet and we've done about all the tightening up we're able to do. I've done a heat loss using the HOT2000 software and it comes out to 120 000 BTU, the Caddy oil is about 70 000 BTU but that's not heating the entire house really. The forced air duct system is primitive at best - there are only two supplies to the second floor and no returns. One of our bedrooms was regularly 12 degrees Celsius last winter (53 Fahrenheit). Installing more ducts would be complicated given the layout and likely destructive.
One suggestion that we had was to install a hot water system. This seems like a good solution since I'm pretty such it's much easier to run 3/4" pipe than 6" duct. Since the house is old, we would like to use cast iron rads because they will look more appropriate.
I'm looking at the Tarm Solo Innova or the Solo Plus from the conversation I've had with the local dealer. I want to do storage because I have an unused cistern that's about 1000 gallons that is in the same room the boiler will go in. The dealer was suggesting perhaps going larger with the boiler because of the storage. So should I think about the Innova 50 or the Plus 40 or 60?
As far as the backup heat goes I'm looking for some advice here too. In another thread someone had suggested that a backup boiler could be sized smaller since it would only need to be used occasionally. I'm thinking of the Weil-Mclean CGI series in propane. Oil is a possibility but venting becomes more difficult. I know that someone else was using a tankless water heater as a backup but I suspect that may not be a great idea. The wood will be the main boiler so I don't see a need in getting the most efficient backup boiler known to man for it only to be used a week a year. Could I get away with a CGI-4 (74,000 BTU) or should we go bigger?
We are hoping to do as much of the work ourselves as possible once a proper design is worked out. I'm actually enjoy soldering, so copper is fine for most of the system. I think pex would be easier for the lines to the second floor.
Does anything here not make sense or not belong? I'm hoping that we can start with a basic system and then expand as more time and funds become available. Am I missing anything obvious that we should be looking at?
Thanks for your help!
Last year we had a Caddy hot air oil/combo installed in our house. In a nutshell, the contractor didn't do a heat loss and the furnace is too small. We had him back shortly after it was installed because we were having trouble with the heat output (imagine). He put it down to the wood not being dry enough. In hindsight I should have insisted on a heat loss but we accepted his word that it would "give us lots of heat." This year, with dry wood, its better but still needs feeding every two-three hours and it's not even cold yet! Needless to say, we're pursuing the contractor but so far he is avoiding us. In the meantime we need to figure something out for next winter, this winter my wife is home and can feed it regularly so it's not too bad.
The house is 160 years old, stone, two stories, and about 2,500 square feet and we've done about all the tightening up we're able to do. I've done a heat loss using the HOT2000 software and it comes out to 120 000 BTU, the Caddy oil is about 70 000 BTU but that's not heating the entire house really. The forced air duct system is primitive at best - there are only two supplies to the second floor and no returns. One of our bedrooms was regularly 12 degrees Celsius last winter (53 Fahrenheit). Installing more ducts would be complicated given the layout and likely destructive.
One suggestion that we had was to install a hot water system. This seems like a good solution since I'm pretty such it's much easier to run 3/4" pipe than 6" duct. Since the house is old, we would like to use cast iron rads because they will look more appropriate.
I'm looking at the Tarm Solo Innova or the Solo Plus from the conversation I've had with the local dealer. I want to do storage because I have an unused cistern that's about 1000 gallons that is in the same room the boiler will go in. The dealer was suggesting perhaps going larger with the boiler because of the storage. So should I think about the Innova 50 or the Plus 40 or 60?
As far as the backup heat goes I'm looking for some advice here too. In another thread someone had suggested that a backup boiler could be sized smaller since it would only need to be used occasionally. I'm thinking of the Weil-Mclean CGI series in propane. Oil is a possibility but venting becomes more difficult. I know that someone else was using a tankless water heater as a backup but I suspect that may not be a great idea. The wood will be the main boiler so I don't see a need in getting the most efficient backup boiler known to man for it only to be used a week a year. Could I get away with a CGI-4 (74,000 BTU) or should we go bigger?
We are hoping to do as much of the work ourselves as possible once a proper design is worked out. I'm actually enjoy soldering, so copper is fine for most of the system. I think pex would be easier for the lines to the second floor.
Does anything here not make sense or not belong? I'm hoping that we can start with a basic system and then expand as more time and funds become available. Am I missing anything obvious that we should be looking at?
Thanks for your help!