Two-Stage Thermostats to Control Wood Boiler and Oil Boiler Second Stage?

[velvetfoot]

I've been running the oil boiler/baseboards lately to run down the oil tank so I can better move it. I've been looking at the capabilities of my Ecobee SmartSi thermostats (2-one upstairs and one downstairs). They seem pretty flexible when it comes to staging.

Is it worthwhile trying to use staging? I read somewhere recently (maple1?) who talked about running his boiler until the building started to lose heat, rather than to some fixed temperature value on storage. Saving wood was the motive. It seems like this would allow both systems to run at the same time, though I'm not sure, so that even though the wood storage couldn't keep up, it would still contribute. Not sure this will at all work. I have to look at the stickies.

In any event, I think about this stuff a lot now, and I've started down the gassifier road.

 

[henfruit]

The ranco two stage is a nice unit to control the oil boiler and the circulator between the tank and the house system.

 

[velvetfoot]

Is this it? http://www.pexsupply.com/Ranco-ETC-211000-000-Two-Stage-Temperature-Control-w-Sensor-120-240V-Input

Seems pretty nice rather than fooling around with mechanical aquastat settings. I was thinking about using room thermostats though.
Does anyone continue running their storage tank below the point where the room temperature isn't increasing to supplement the oil boiler?

 

[henfruit]

That is the one I use. You will want to set the tank cut out temp where the output is not produce enough heat to satisfy the heat load.