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  1. stenny New Member

    joined: May 6, 2012
    3 posts
    I want a boiler that can use all 3 so I can use coal and wood when I am home and when I can stoke it and use pellets during the night or when I am not home to keep my house warm right now I have electric baseboard and it's old and costs a lot of money to keep my house warm. I am looking to use the electric baseboard as a 2nd heat source incase I don't have wood, pellets, or coal. I would like to know where I can buy a boiler so. I can get it then install it and pipe my house for the radiators and stuff
    #1

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  2. Clarkbug Minister of Fire

    joined: Dec 20, 2010
    625 posts
    Upstate NY
    Someone smarter than me may know, but I think you will have a hard time finding a unit that does both pellets and wood/coal without some work to make a switch-over. You can get a coal/wood unit easy enough, but due to the necessity of a system to stoke with pellets and control accordingly, I dont know that you can find a three-in-one unit.Varmebaronen makes a combo unit that will burn pellets on one side and cordwood on the other, but I dont know how its efficiency is. IRLEH makes a unit that will burn biomass/wood/coal, but I dont think it does pellets.

    It sounds like you currently dont have any type of hydronic heating system in your house currently, so you would have to install all the piping, which could be an expensive endeavor, depending on the size/configuration of your house... You may want to look at underfloor radiant, which might be the least disruptive if you can get to the bottom of your floors, and then you could even supplement that with something like a water heater when you are away.

    If you are just wanting to heat with wood/coal while you are home, would a wood stove or wood/coal combo unit work for you in your main living area? Lots cheaper to install, provides great heat when you are there, and the electric could stay as your backup source for when you are away.
    arrowe44 likes this.
  3. stenny New Member

    joined: May 6, 2012
    3 posts
  4. http://www.varmebaronen.com/html/viking_bio.html There are some boilers that have a separate chamber for an oil burner. Maybe a pellet burner could be installed instead.
    http://www.newhorizoncorp.com/products/wood-boilers/biomass-combo-boiler/
    Possible Fuels Seasoned Wood, Oil, Gas, Briquettes, Corn Cobs with Kernels, 50% of Coal, Saw Dust, Wood Chips (50%), any kind of pellets
  5. heaterman Minister of Fire

    joined: Oct 16, 2007
    2,400 posts
    NoLoMich
    There may be such an animal out there but, in a nut shell........I would probably steer clear of such a beastie.
    It is extremely difficult to design a combustion chamber that is efficient with multiple fuel sources. Many have tried, no one has done it. That is true more now than it ever has been due to efficiency and emission rules.

    Better to have two separate units that operate with a specific fuel source. At the very least you'll have some redundancy in your system.
  6. stenny New Member

    joined: May 6, 2012
    3 posts
    Would I be able to plumb the water pipes for my boiler to another boiler so I could use one and if that one doesn't have a fire goin the other kicks on?
  7. maple1 Minister of Fire

    joined: Sep 15, 2011
    1,955 posts
    Nova Scotia
    Yes.

    Heaterman in his last post sounds like my installer did 15 years ago - I wish I had listened to him back then. I am currently planning on replacing my wood/oil combo boiler with separate wood & electric boilers. Having said that, I would also (and was) seriously consider a Biomass combo boiler for wood & oil - they seem to be very well designed, from what I have read at least.

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