Planning a boiler purchase and need advice

[shepherdmoon]

Hello out there in boiler land,

I have been lurking around this site for a while trying to gain more insight in the world of gasification boilers. My husband and I recently took out a home equity loan to purchase a boiler... we are looking into the Econoburn. We have a 2500 sq. ft. , two story, 1950 duplex that we converted into a one family. The rooms are small and we thought a gasification boiler would be best for our home. After taking out the loan we realize that we need to have a way to get the boiler into our basement. We would need to build a bulk head or a dog house as the boiler is almost 1500 lbs and would be rough to maneuver through our narrow kitchen and down the basement stairs. we live in town on about a tenth of an acre and I guess I am uncertain about a "dog house" due to aesthetic appeal however the bulk head might be a pain to keep clear in winter, especially with the huge shelves of ice that fall off our roof. We have VERY limited funds and I am starting to get nervous as we haven't even ordered our boiler or wood yet and it is now JULY! Should we look into installing the boiler in an out building ( which we would need to build) or would that cost even more money than a bulkhead or dog house?

Also... wood prices here are about $220/cord and that is green. If we ordered now would it be dry enough to burn this winter and if not, is it going to be a problem burning green wood? I am starting to lose sleep over this as oil prices sky rocket.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

 

[steam man]

I assume there are neighbors close to your home so that could make an issue. Here's my alternative idea: Look into adding an outside access to your basement, possibly a simple rollway. Look and see if there are any concrete cutters in your area that can do remove a section of the basement wall. You'll probably need some joist/header work. A good competent general contractor should be able to manage this job. You'll want to be able to get wood inside also. Some other questions-do you have space for a boiler? Is there a flue available and what condition is it in? Any of the projects mentioned will have a cost involved: All you can do is get quotes on all of them and see what is best for you. What town do you live in?

Mike

 

[jebatty]

As you now burn oil, I assume you have an oil fired boiler, and you will do a parallel plumb for the gasifier. Make sure your budget can handle the costs of the new boiler, plus all the install work and parts, including building modifications to house the boiler. If you haven't already done so, your best and least expensive payback is better insulation and weather sealing of your house to make it as energy efficient as possible; also electricity reductions through CFL's, turning off lights, shutting off all electronics with a power strip, as they use quite a bit of electricity in their idle modes; also water and hot water reductions with low-flow on everything, especially the shower, and just reducing use.

I don't have a clear picture of what you mean by bulk head or dog house, but I agree that I would not want to attempt to move the gasifier through a kitchen, down stairs and into the basement without hiring a rigging company to do the work. That likely would be costly. What about in your (detached) garage? or in an attachment to the garage?

As to buying green wood now and having it dried sufficiently to burn by fall, that likely is problematical. My guess is that you need 4-6 cords minimum to substantially meet your heat needs. If that wood is split small, 6" and smaller splits, with lots of air circulation, you might get into a moisture range of 30% or under, depending on the kind of wood. You might do better buying seasoned wood, but you also would want to buy green wood to cut, split, stack and dry for next year's use, and then do the same every year. That means you will be storing a minimum of 8-12 cords each year, half for the current year and half for the next year.

 

[shepherdmoon]

Hi Mike and Jim. Thank you for your fast replies. I live in Waterville and have contacted someone to come out and look at our basement to see what our options are. We already priced the boiler and have a friend who is a heating contractor who would install it for us, he will also be coming out soon to double check to make sure this is what will work best for our space. As far as a garage... that would be an ideal option if we had one. We are trying to determine if it would be better to build some kind of a detatched building just for the boiler and wood. The wood demand has been so high this year that the people I have contacted have run out of dry wood and are now selling green. Thanks for the help.