The Garn has arrived!

[RowCropRenegade]

Took 3 hours to unload the green beasty. The Garn was shipped with the door at the back of the trailer. Made it impossible to lift off with the forklift. Was worried about bending overflow pipe and goofing up the door. So I backed my trailer up to his, and we dragged it out. Then lifted the rear up, and the semi pulled out from it. Multiple different chain ups but we got it! Thank god for having a couple forklifts.

I attached a couple pictures. More to come once installation is underway.

 

[RowCropRenegade]

at my house.

 

[SolarAndWood]

Not sure which is more priceless, that beautiful piece of engineering or the big ole grin on your face. Congrats!

 

[Gomez]

Not having to buy 2300 gals of fuel would make me grin too!!

Congrats and good luck!

I hope to be following in your footsteps soon (the Garn (or something like it) , not the 2300 gals of fuel)).

 

[RowCropRenegade]

My smile does tell the story. I about had a heart attack when I filled my 1000 gal tank of fuel oil last year before Hurricane Ike. 4 bucks a gal.

I've got all the hole taped up and covered, no bird nests gonna be made in there. Now that I have it here, I can map out the plan. And get the concrete poured. I'm going to put in floor heat in too. Question is, should I put the infloor heat beneath the garn too?

 

[RowCropRenegade]

makes sense cycloptic, i ask the dumb questions along with the smart ones.

According the Garn manual, they do not want a doorway from boiler room that leads into the garage. Where I want to put the unit, that makes this impossible. With a fire rated door, we would this be a big deal?

 

[pybyr]

makes sense cycloptic, i ask the dumb questions along with the smart ones.

According the Garn manual, they do not want a doorway from boiler room that leads into the garage. Where I want to put the unit, that makes this impossible. With a fire rated door, we would this be a big deal?

I can't speak for Garn, but my strong guess is that they're concerned about codes and/ or insurability. Heating applicances are not supposed to be in a space connected to a garage out of concern that fumes from gas or diesel from the vehicles could ignite. Some people in rural locations and with easy-going insurers do seem to be able to create a boiler room in/connected to a garage. But if your insurance company says OK, confirm it in writing, so that you have a record if they ever try to claim differently.

 

[RowCropRenegade]

my dad says you are you own best insurance. Without insurance concerns, it's my fault if I bring a leaky car into the garage or store gas in there. Never store gas in doors, period! It takes alot of fumes for a spark to ignite it. If the door is closed and a good seal, a fire isnt possible. Common sense operation and maintenence. Correct me if my thoughts are wrong. Forget the insurance.

 

[deerefanatic]

I agree that most garage fires are preventable....... But if you DO have a fire, you know what the insurance company's gonna blame first...................

 

[Jim K in PA]

Congratulations! The farm looks fantastic. Good luck with your install, I look forward to the pics!

I love the shot of Red Power and Green Heat side by side.

Cornbinders rule!

 

[RowCropRenegade]

Jim, that 1086 does look mean with the Garn be its side. Glad you could drop in.

Cy, damn that murphy and his laws! I've seen alot of crazy stuff on the farm, although 95% of them coulda been prevented. I'm gonna put in firerated door, firewall and keep the door closed.


I did some reading on some other threads about infloor radiant.

I'm thinking... 6" of rock. blueboard the whole thing. wire 6" mesh, egg cartons? and pex line. Then 6 inches of concrete. Blueboard under garn and hoila, heated boilerroom. Plus insulate around edges of the pad with blueboard 2 feet down. Suggestions?

One more thing. Do you Garn users out there worry about the unit not breathing enough and moisture inside the super insulated structure?

 

[RowCropRenegade]

Pictures of garn room, tore out 2 walls and entire floor. Rotting away anyway.

 

[radiantman]

Love that new door

 

[Later]

Nice Garn room. Although a hot tub and tanning bed would be another option!

 

[tom in maine]

I have a question for all the Garn users: I believe the Garn is unpressurized, so how is corrosion treated? Is there an inhibitor added?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[RowCropRenegade]

Yes that new scratch proof door is pretty sweet.

I like the idea of hot tub, but I don't deserve one of those til im 40.

The water treatment program is pretty intensive. Fill garn with filter. Add treatment chemical package. Send off water sample to treatment company, they give future recommendations. Drain garn after 3-5 years. Rinse and repeat!

Water treatment is biggest downside to the Garn. But, i'll take that headache for getting this capacity and simplicity of a unpressurized boiler. 2000 gallons at 200 degrees in a pressurized boiler would make me nervous.

 

[RowCropRenegade]

My garn project has been on the backburner due to cutting up some ash trees in a water way (4 cord) split and stacked. Then rebuilding two waterways. Bought extended forks for my 1086 today, so maneuvering the green beastie around is easy money now.

I've pretty much got all my pre concrete pour work done. With exception of a couple things.

Thermal line. Dad thinks I should go under the foundation where I enter and exit the house/garn barn. That will keep it at least 3.5 ft to 4 deep at all points. I'm leaning towards going with the micro flex 1"1/4 line. It's 30 per foot but if I go into house then into boiler room I'd need only 20 feet or so. I'm guessing you would use big pvc under and around the foundation walls. Then pull the micoflex through and have a junction to convert to regular pex line to run the extra 40 feet to boiler room.

Or just elbow it in above foundation and save alot of digging and go direct to boiler room. But worry when I go on vacation in the winter?

Also a question about pex for infloor heat. The area I'm doing only requires one loop. I saw at http://www.pexsupply.com/ThermaPEX-Oxygen-Barrier-PEX-Tubing-355000 for a 300 foot roll of 1/2 is on sale. I haven't located a manifold for one loop, with pressure test for pour.

I've been absorbing alot of information today but nothing clearly defines which direction I should go.

 

[dogwood]

Great looking Garn. They really do impress. On that door question. The International Mechanical Code, which is the code for boiler installations used in my county, forbids any door between a garage and the boiler room. The building inspector seconded that when I asked. Use of a fire door between the garage and the boiler room did not get it in my county either. Check your local codes. If that is the case in your area, you have to have the door to the outside only, which is my situation, or risk failing inspection. Giving your insurance company an easy out if God forbid your house burned down, or worse yet, an even easier out if you didn't get the required mechanical permit and inspection from the building inspectors office is not a place you want to go.

Check the local mechanical codes at the library, or online if possible, and talk to the County Mechanical and Plumbing Inspector. My insurance company, State Farm Insurance does a look-see too after installation to verify if its a safe and insurable installation. Both these folks need to be on-board with your installation. Its not something you want to mess up on considering the possible dire financial consequences to you and yours. Its a pain, but not as big a pain as what could happen. Everyone is leery of inspectors but they can really be helpful too in keeping you on the right track and out of trouble. Those codes don't come out of thin air. They are there to keep us safe, whether we like it or not, which I usually don't, but what are you going to do?

Mike

 

[RowCropRenegade]

Door has to be there, no way around it. It will be a fire rated door.

The previous questions remain.

 

[RowCropRenegade]

Here's some eye candy for you guys. Hope I didn't lower the resolutiont too much, if I did, I'll repost.

Working on insulating and putting in ceiling at the moment. Trenching in microflex, 10 gauge electric wire, waterline, network cable and an empty conduit this weekend.

Project starting to come together. Anyone heard of Icynene® foam insulation?

 

[RowCropRenegade]

2 more!

 

[heaterman]

Yes that new scratch proof door is pretty sweet.

I like the idea of hot tub, but I don't deserve one of those til im 40.

The water treatment program is pretty intensive. Fill garn with filter. Add treatment chemical package. Send off water sample to treatment company, they give future recommendations. Drain garn after 3-5 years. Rinse and repeat!

Water treatment is biggest downside to the Garn. But, i'll take that headache for getting this capacity and simplicity of a unpressurized boiler. 2000 gallons at 200 degrees in a pressurized boiler would make me nervous.

Actually, it's a myth that pressurized systems do not need to have water quality monitored. Granted, many of them aren't but I have distinct memories of a few that sure could have used a good treatment program and diligent monitoring. A Garn is technically a closed unpressurized system. The only exposure to the atmosphere is the 1" overflow tube coming out of the front of the unit. Under normal use very little water is lost over the course of a year.

 

[RobC]

I had some Icynene sprayed in roof when re-roofing and it is great. However it has some limitations and I don't think use around boiler equipment / water is good. It is open cell and has heat limitations.
I will be looking for spray foam ideas for propane storage over the weekend.
High temp 250F / direct contact / closed cell ?


Don't know if link will work but spec sheet states.
" not to be installed with in 3" of heat emitting devices, or where the temp is in excess of 200F.

http://www.icynene.com/assets/docum...50-SpecSheet-2008-REV2-qxp-33318-Pour-wrk.pdf

 

[RowCropRenegade]

Yeah Rob, I ruled out Icyene for the garn room. I thought it might be a more affordable option for my house. Being that it's open celled, I wouldn't have to worry about tighting up this old house too much. No duct work to move air.

Heaterman, the water I have is really hard, I'm having to redo my bathrooms now because of it. I'm not even close to water treatment yet, but it does still linger in my mind. I'm used to cleaning out 1000 2000 gallon poly tanks cause of algae, calcium deposits, rust etc. I'm just leary is all.

 

[RowCropRenegade]

Finished framing ceiling. Made a plywood floor for storage. Of course nothing stored over loading or garn area.

Decided on open cell foam. It's soy based with lifetime warranty so as soybean farmer I couldn't resist. 1.41 sq foot, comparable to Icyene. 1000 sq feet to do and he said he would throw in Rock wool for the garn. Not spraying foam near garn or flue.

I'm leaning towards sheet metal for enclosure around garn and for the walls. Run steel conduit for the electricity. I figured sheet metal will hold up against the handling wood. Anyone see any problems with this. Painted wood cedar outside, 5.5 inches open cell foam, barn siding sheet metal. That's an r40 in walls and r-50 for ceiling. Think the sheet metal will cook me and my wood in there?

I'm finishing up some framing, painting the two exterior doors and caulking up the door I put in today. Took me all day to do, working with old buildings make for some funky scabbing. Good news is that I had an outstanding crop and I won't finance a dime. Got the loan all set up, so I'm gonna buy another loader tractor. Grapple bucket too!

How is everyone grounding their garns? I thought about grounding all 4 corners in the lift holes on the bottoms.