Suggestions on wood boilers and hooking up to radiant heat

[Bj1234]

I read the thread on the Garn and radiant floor heat but I don't have a garn..and on a budget.. so thought this wood be a good thread for others like me...... Sorry it's a little long

My stats-
- I wanted a wood burner to replace crapy money hogging geo-thermal. But then thought why not use the geo as a back up and install a wood burner boiler to my radiant heat instead.
- winters are 10 to 30 degrees outside..
- I have PLENTY of wood but I don't want to cut gobs of wood If I don't have to.
- inexpensive efficiency is impotent
-my house, new 3500sqft ranch with radiant floor 5/8" tubing in the concrete of garage (800sq ft) and 3000sqft in basement concrete

I have a existing radiant floor heating system professionally in stalled under 3800sq ft of concrete and is being fed by a 75gallon gas water heater. At this point some of you should be shocked by this...I think......Cause It Can't Keep up. Lots of tubing being fed by 75gallons.. this Dosent seem right... right?

I want to add a additional 3000 sq feet of tubing in the basement between my floor joists to heat the main level of my ranch home which has real maple floors..

My QUESTIONS. ...

1)** what wood burning boiler would you guys buy?... I'm thinking cheap.. my thoughts Natures Comfort 120 or 80. It's close to me.,some of you say don't go for close... but they seem to have a lot of happy reviews and resale seem good on the used units.there usually sold by the time I call to inquire...

2) I'm assuming I can just disconnect my hot water line on the radiant floor water heater and replace it with the hot supply line from the boiler and do nothing else cause the professionals already have my pumps and relays conected. I would just be adding a few more pumps/relays for the additional piping. Anyone think this is wrong?should I add more storage like a 500 gallon or is it over kill..

I'm guessing I would need a 175,000 btu wood boiler..if my math is right..

So there is my predicament. .I don't know what's best..

*my goal is to stop paying $700 electric bills to heat my house and gradually build my system up so I can rely on my own heat when the power goes in the winter...and I need a hobby

I am facinated by the wood burning expierence and call me crazy but I LOVE collecting wood and spending time out doors splitting it..

Hoping to here some suggestions. .THANKS!

 

[Wisneaky]

There is a guy on here from Michigan selling a Eko 40 gasification boiler. I think they are 137k btu. I don't know if that would be enough to supply your demand though. I think storage is a good way to go. I don't know tons about boilers, but there is a lot of helpful people on here that do.

 

[stee6043]

I'm that guy selling the EKO, but I would have responded to this thread even if I wasn't.

Have you done a heat load calculation of any kind with your various loops/buildings/floors? When you pick an appliance you should be more interested in btu/hr and not water volume. Share your math on how you arrived at 175k and this thread may provide more useful information.

And what's your budget? How often do you want to (or can you) load the boiler?

There's nothing wrong with looking at used rigs if you're looking to save some money. But the truth is the boiler is probably only going to be half of your expense by the time you add up all of the other fun things you need. It'll be less than half if you choose to invest in thermal storage...

 

[Bj1234]

Thank you BOTH for your responses! !

Stee6043- my budget... will say $5000 all my pex and relays are already up and running..

I can feed the burner 2x a day. But would prefer 1 time a day...,depending on cost..
I'm not good at picking out BTU'S per hour or heat load...just starting to learn that now..

But I came up with 175000btu based off of heating 5000sq ft of house...

by using the following formula I read on another website... sq ft X 35 (or 40)btu's/sq ft. So 3000 sq ft of basement concrete covered in pex and 800 sq,ft of garage concrete with pex. Plus 1200 sq ft buffer for future use.
I would like to eventually heat my main level with either pex or tying into my furnace duct.

So thinking about it now I should give my self a 3000 sq ft buffer not 1200...... so with that being said my sq ft now goes to 6800 to 7000 sq ft which would put me at 245000btu ? Or would that be wrong..

This is the hardest part for me..figuring out what I need to buy....I can hook up just about anything its the parts list of what I need that throws me off..meaning size of wood burner..storage..ect..

I would like to hook a wood burner up to my 75gwater tank now and see how it works and slowly add to it as I get more knowledge in this. Is this not smart or am i wasting my time?

I'm going to read up on your unit now in the 4 sale section.....

 

[Bj1234]

Also..
Right now I have 5/8" pex running in the concrete in 400ft leangths per run. ( 7) 400ft loops to My manifold ... total leangth of 5/8" pex is 2800ft