Planning on building a boiler barn

[wrightk20]

I'm planning on building an outbuilding to house a boiler with storage. I'm thinking 16 by 24ft for dimensions. I would like to run at least a 1000 gallons of storage at first. Now i have a royall 6300 outdoor pressurized boiler that went through a fire but its still in working condition. I'm wondering if i could run that boiler as an indoor and charge the tank and get better efficiency with it? I know that i want an econoburn gasifier but i think money will be tight after i get the barn built. Am i thinking correctly? Is this a good approach to getting more efficiency without spending the big money on a gasifier right away? Probably looking at running it no more than 2 years. I would think that it would be easy to swap out boilers when the time comes. I'm just looking for some input and suggestions. Thanks, Kevin.

 

[Tennman]

Absolutely. Have you looked at the thread currently running showing system pictures. I included mine because others have way cooler boiler systems, but my barn is a pretty cool man cave! My mindset was exactly like yours except I had NO wood heating experience so I wanted to get a really good gasification boiler at a good price that I could add storage to at a later date. In other words, I didn't know if it would be practical for us. Now that I know that my wife and I actually enjoy the process, I may upgrade my boiler to a francier one that has this Lambda controller stuff in a few years. My suggestion is that you don't underbuild that outbuilding. Very inexpensive to make it a little bigger, because you'll inevitably use all the space. We use ours to house our various "on property only" vehicles. So yes, great idea. I can't tell you if storage and your 6300 makes sense, but all the circ pumps, etc. should be good.

 

[goosegunner]

Kevin,

Would you put your current boiler in the building for now or would it remain outside?

If inside check the UL listing.

I will be around this sun, mon, or tues if you want to look at my Econoburn. Give me a call again, if you have any more questions.

gg

 

[wrightk20]

Hi Mike. You make a good point about the ul listing. I will have to contact the company on that one. I'm thinking for now about just using the boiler i have for now and just use it with storage. Its an indoor royall 6250 that they put a shell on and call it an outdoor so i'm sure it will be fine. It might be on the big size as it is 300,000btu but maybe that doesn't matter. Doesn't seem like it anyways. Should just charge the storage faster. One thing i am questioning is how big of a line i should run between the boiler and storage. I have 2" outlets on this current stove. Should i use 2" pipe to hook the 2 together? I'm slowly coming up with a plan that should be ready to start on by spring. Do you think that i should install return protection valve with this boiler i have? It doesn't say anything about one in my installation and operation manual. Thanks, Kevin.

 

[BoilerMan]

I've always questioned how they arrive at an output rating of a wood boiler. Especially one that is just a water jacket box. Surface area I'd guess, but the input can vary so wildly. If I fill my boiler with cardboard and let-er-rip I bet I could get some crazy output.

TS

 

[wrightk20]

I think if a guy could capture the heat off the exhaust of this thing it would make more than that! When its in a hard burn the smoke is almost gone and you can just see ripples of heat leaving the stack, but it does need to run awhile to get that way. I never have to fill the thing full. I get the same heat and burn time out of it whether i pack the thing full or just fill the back half. The first year i figured that out after i already burned up almost 20 cord of wood! Live and learn i guess. Kevin

 

[goosegunner]

Hi Mike. You make a good point about the ul listing. I will have to contact the company on that one. I'm thinking for now about just using the boiler i have for now and just use it with storage. Its an indoor royall 6250 that they put a shell on and call it an outdoor so i'm sure it will be fine. It might be on the big size as it is 300,000btu but maybe that doesn't matter. Doesn't seem like it anyways. Should just charge the storage faster. One thing i am questioning is how big of a line i should run between the boiler and storage. I have 2" outlets on this current stove. Should i use 2" pipe to hook the 2 together? I'm slowly coming up with a plan that should be ready to start on by spring. Do you think that i should install return protection valve with this boiler i have? It doesn't say anything about one in my installation and operation manual. Thanks, Kevin.

I would plan pipe size for the size of the boiler you will be purchasing and factoring in the distance from boiler to storage. Most of the owb's are overrated for their output. I used 1-1/2" copper with my 200K Econoburn. You need to move 20gpm with a 20 degree delta T for 200k. That is peak output, average is probably closer to 150K. As you near the end of charge it is hard to maintain a good delta T. That is why it helps to know how much wood you are loading. Btu output should be falling as delta narrows.

I would definitely put in some type of return protection if you are going to use storage. When charging tank from cold or even a good depletion your return water from bottom of storage can remain cool for quite some time. It would be very hard on boiler to not have some type of return protection.

If you get a chance to watch my system on a charge you can see it first hand. It makes a lot of sense when you see it. Pump speed and gpm change how the tank is charged. It is quite remarkable to see how even a large horizontal tank stratifies.

gg

 

[goosegunner]

Hopefully Heaterman can comment on OWB output. He had a good account of how overrated a large Central boiler was.


gg

 

[wrightk20]

Yeah seeing things first hand should help me make sense of it more. I'm looking at possibly goin to work early in the morning or sometime during the day tomorrow it looks like so maybe i will get ahold of you around the first of the week and maybe set up a time. I will know more when i get the call to go. Kevin

 

[goosegunner]

Yeah seeing things first hand should help me make sense of it more. I'm looking at possibly goin to work early in the morning or sometime during the day tomorrow it looks like so maybe i will get ahold of you around the first of the week and maybe set up a time. I will know more when i get the call to go. Kevin

Ok

 

[flyingcow]

Do you want to put the Royal inside the building? I'm alittle dense, sorry if i missed something.

 

[wrightk20]

Yeah i would like to put it in the boiler shed and use it for at least the first year and then hopefully have enough money to take th leap to a gasification unit. Kevin

 

[flyingcow]

I think that would be a bad idea, between the flashback and the smoke and flame roll out. I've got a dairy farmer that has a Royal. He likes it, but it's outside. He puts about 60 cord a yr thru it. Had it about 5 yrs

 

[wrightk20]

Well i plan on running it with storage so i guess it wouldn't be burning all the time. Plus i would plan on reloading when it would be down to coals. You are right about the flashback and smoke, but that only happens when you run it like an outdoor wood boiler and just keep it full of wood all the time. I load mine every 12 hours. Only putting in enough wood needed to last that 12 hours. When i first got it i would pack it full but quickly realized that i could fill it half way and still go with a 12 hour burn time. Everytime i load it is just on top of coals. It sure is a nice boiler as far as build quality but the efficiency is just not there. Kevin

 

[flyingcow]

Makes sense what you say.

FWIW- i have my indoor gasser in a 8x12 boiler room in the back of my garage. For just the boiler(storage in basement of house) 8x12 seems to work fine, plenty of room. 16x24 should work very well. Also, my garage is 35ft from my house. For me, i like the separation between structures.

 

[wrightk20]

What size royal does that farmer have? Possibly a 6490? I have heard those have air tubes installed inside the firebox to help aid in somewhat of a secondary burn.

 

[flyingcow]

Not sure what size unit. Just knows he goes thru a lot of wood. But he's got indoor pool, big garage with radiant floor, plus the house and barn's heat load. He had his headlands cut back last spring. Piled up120 cord of wood for his boiler. Thats a pile of wood.