OWB and storage

[coolidge]

Would any of you seasoned veterans use storage with an OWB. I broke down and bought the Optermizer 250 and i have a 330 gal tank in the basement i am using for the old Tarm, would it be beneficial to hook to the tank or is the 240 gal in the boiler enough?

Thanks

 

[Nofossil]

Short answer; "It depends'. As with so many things in life, bigger is generally better.

One of the major reasons for storage is to allow you to build short, hot, efficient fires at your convenience. In order to do that you need enough storage to allow a meaningful amount of time between fires. 'Enough storage' depends on the size and usable temperature range of the storage tank as well as the heat load of the house. Baseboards and water-air heat exchangers need hotter water than radiant floor, so they reduce the effective size of storage.

If you're heating a smallish / well insulated house using radiant floors, 500 gallons would likely be fine. If you're heating a larger house through a water-air heat exchanger, 1000 gallons might not be as large as you'd like.

A storage capacity any less than 12 hours of average demand really isn't going to help much - you'll have to build more than one fire every day, or keep the fire going after storage is full. 24 hours would be better.