Boiler recommendation

[happycloyd]

Hi All. Joshua here - just joined and excited to learn!

I'm sure this has been asked many times but each thread I see has their own reqs so I thought Id post mine to pick your brain - pretty overwhelmed with the many choices I see so I'd like to filter down to what makes sense in a gasification boiler for my setup.

I am building a well insulated small house - 700 sq/ft bottom floor with a 350 sq/ft loft in building zone 5 - 6500 ft, pine forest of N. Arizona near Flagstaff.

Specs:
- The boiler would be outside, near house.
- Wood is 100% ponderosa pine - drying it is no problem
- Don't need domestic water heating
- Some ability to be auto programmed by temp (do they all do this?) dont need wifi etc. Temps in AZ drop at night but day time is nice so stove would for many months be only used in eve, morning and running a low warm at night. I'd want to be able to program it that way or connect some smart thermostat to trigger it

Not sure what other specs I should be looking at? Obviously Id like to fill it less times as possible maybe 1x a day?

Id like to not blow all my cash so if there are features I don't really need... But I am not sure which features are the $$$ ones.

Many of the stoves I see or discussed are for large homes - what well loved models would you recommend I look at? Companies that are localish would be nice too - maybe I can go pick it up myself.

Thank you for your recommendations

 

[salecker]

Hi Joshua
I had an idea what i was going to do for my system...
Then i found this place and realized how big the mistakes i was going to make.
Read Read and keep reading
My system ended up being an Outside Econoburn that i put in it's own building.I have 1000 gallons of insulated storage in the building. It's 125 ft walk from my side door of the house.The Econoburn has been a tank,well built,simple and made in the USA. It's going on to it's 14th year and don't see any reason for it not to do another 14 years.
Are there better boilers?,probably but the one i was going to go with was defiantly a bad choice.
There are new boilers out with more bells and whistles that may do better in some circumstances.But i live in rural Yukon Territory where there are no heating techs,and service calls come with 200 miles of travel costs.So simple is the key for me.I have had the controller die on me,but the way my system is set up i can run the boiler off an extension cord till i get the parts required.
Good luck. Read and Read to learn as much as you can.A hydronic heating system is not cheap to get set up.I did all my own plumbing and setup the owner of the company that i bought the boiler from was very helpful.When my X was bitching to him about the costs and how long it was taking me,his reply to her was that i had saved the 50K that he would have charged to do what i had done.

 

[salecker]

Hi Joshua
I had an idea what i was going to do for my system...
Then i found this place and realized how big the mistakes i was going to make.
Read Read and keep reading
My system ended up being an Outside Econoburn that i put in it's own building.I have 1000 gallons of insulated storage in the building. It's 125 ft walk from my side door of the house.The Econoburn has been a tank,well built,simple and made in the USA. It's going on to it's 14th year and don't see any reason for it not to do another 14 years.
Are there better boilers?,probably but the one i was going to go with was defiantly a bad choice.
There are new boilers out with more bells and whistles that may do better in some circumstances.But i live in rural Yukon Territory where there are no heating techs,and service calls come with 200 miles of travel costs.So simple is the key for me.I have had the controller die on me,but the way my system is set up i can run the boiler off an extension cord till i get the parts required.
Good luck. Read and Read to learn as much as you can.A hydronic heating system is not cheap to get set up.I did all my own plumbing and setup the owner of the company that i bought the boiler from was very helpful.When my X was bitching to him about the costs and how long it was taking me,his reply to her was that i had saved the 50K that he would have charged to do what i had done.

 

[salecker]

Our internet was screwy yesterday
Sorry for the double post
Mods please delete if possible.

 

[brenndatomu]

Hi All. Joshua here - just joined and excited to learn!

I'm sure this has been asked many times but each thread I see has their own reqs so I thought Id post mine to pick your brain - pretty overwhelmed with the many choices I see so I'd like to filter down to what makes sense in a gasification boiler for my setup.

I am building a well insulated small house - 700 sq/ft bottom floor with a 350 sq/ft loft in building zone 5 - 6500 ft, pine forest of N. Arizona near Flagstaff.

Specs:
- The boiler would be outside, near house.
- Wood is 100% ponderosa pine - drying it is no problem
- Don't need domestic water heating
- Some ability to be auto programmed by temp (do they all do this?) dont need wifi etc. Temps in AZ drop at night but day time is nice so stove would for many months be only used in eve, morning and running a low warm at night. I'd want to be able to program it that way or connect some smart thermostat to trigger it

Not sure what other specs I should be looking at? Obviously Id like to fill it less times as possible maybe 1x a day?

Id like to not blow all my cash so if there are features I don't really need... But I am not sure which features are the $$$ ones.

Many of the stoves I see or discussed are for large homes - what well loved models would you recommend I look at? Companies that are localish would be nice too - maybe I can go pick it up myself.

Thank you for your recommendations

Sounds like you will want to put in a small boiler with storage (a seperate highly insulated tank that gets charged with hot water when the boiler runs, and then your house pumps hot water from there as needed) If done right you may be able to get away with only building a fire a few times per week.

 

[EbS-P]

New Well insulated, small. I get the desire for radiant heat but are you really sure this how you want to go? Is the property off grid? Living somewhere where it warms up enough most days to make my heatpump pretty efficient I’m wondering if that might not make sense pair with a med/small stove inside?

Are you willing to design your own system or looking for a turn key solution?

 

[hobbyheater]

The problem that I see is that you are going to have a small load. That's going to eliminate an outside boiler. You are going to need a inside boiler with storage so you will need a building to house the boiler and storage. There are only 3 boiler that make it for EPA phase 2. Garn which has it own storage. For Froling and Vedolux you have to add storage so they all come out to around the same cost.

 

[brenndatomu]

There are only 3 boiler that make it for EPA phase 2. Garn which has it own storage. For Froling and Vedolux you have to add storage so they all come out to around the same cost.

Heatmaster G series is also approved for indoor and outdoor use too...and has some onboard storage, but not enough for this situation (IMO)

 

[hobbyheater]

This is a Garn

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This is the Garn Junior

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The Garn Junior with radiant in floor heat would be a great combination ,

 

[Highbeam]

Be open to other, cheaper, more efficient, simpler ways to heat this home. There’s a handful of reasons that wood boilers are not common in the west.