custom switzer

[gfirkus]

.Here are some pics of my custom 1400 gallon boiler. It was made to fit in the back of my 14'x28' boiler room. It is 6' long and 77" dia before insulation. It is all set and insulated, just waiting to start the piping and electrical soon. I'm hoping to get a fire in it by end of sept.

 

[hondaracer2oo4]

Looks great. Simple firebox inside of a water jacket?

 

[sportbikerider78]

Holy cow! How do you insure that house with that inside an attached garage?

 

[velvetfoot]

Awesome!

 

[TCaldwell]

is this a diy or is gary and his son in law doing the install?

 

[gfirkus]

Yes to the first ?. The fire box is 3' deep, I guess I never measured the width or height. Its quite large. There is a 6" pipe out the fire box that goes to the back of the boiler and then goes to 2 passes of 9- 2" pipes. My ins. co. said that it is fine as long as --1. It is a secondary heat source. 2. Proper clearances are held. 3. It is installed properly. It's a diy, but I'm having a plumber make all the connections for me. This year Gary incorporated an electronic control box into the system to control the draft inducer and doors. It seems pretty slick. The reasons for this particular boiler -- I wanted a pressurized boiler with storage, It's very simple, I haven't heard any bad comments or reviews about this system, Gary has been building these since 1982 I believe.

 

[TCaldwell]

I believe this is a gasifier, with a insulated secondary burn chamber behind the primary chamber? how about a pic of the new control box.

 

[Karl_northwind]

Check wisconsin code. it is very clear about no solid fuel burners in garage spaces. Believe me, I would if it was safe and legal.
Wi SPS 323.045 (B): Solid-Fuel-Burning appliances may not be installed in a garage unless listed for that application.

Unless you turn that space into "not a garage" should you ever have an "incident" you can expect an issue with the insurance co. if they find out it's installed in a non-code compliant manner, expect them to not be your friend. I'll bet there is small print in the solid fuel rider on your policy that if it's installed not per local codes you will be SOL. I don't mean to come down on you too hard, but they will look for any way out. I had a family member go thru that BS a couple years ago. Don't chance it.

 

[gfirkus]

Thanks for the info Karl. I'll have to look into it. I suppose I misinterpreted the "local codes" part. I don't remember you mentioning this last year when I met with you about possibly purchasing a GARN to fit in that space.

 

[Vinced]

I also live in Central Wisconsin and have an outdoor wood boiler and a free standing Lopi wood stove in my house. My insurance said no way to a wood furnace or boiler in the house or my 30'x40' separate shop. They said the outdoor wood boiler had to be 40ft from any building. My Lopi free standing wood stove in my house has been inspected with pictures taken by the insurance company about every 5 years. They say has long has its installed to code and not my primary source of heat it is alright, but they watch it closely. I have Country financial for my insurance company.

 

[Highbeam]

The garage thing isn't a local code, it's the national fire code. The real question is "what's a garage"? That just looks like a boiler room with an overhead door right?

 

[Karl_northwind]

Our conversation revolved around turning the space into a boiler room with an overhead door. if you can't fit a car into it (either because of size or entrance barriers ) it's not a garage.

 

[gfirkus]

I haven't had a chance to positively verify with insurance yet, but at least I learned the right verbiage to use when talking with them. It was never to be a storage area for anything besides a boiler and some wood. All the clutter in the pics, including the upper storage will be gone. I just took some quick pics while setting up.

 

[Wook660]

Nice! We went with Gary's new electronic control box setup and it's been working great!

 

[Buzz Saw]

In the picture with the board that has as your valves & copper piping, did you buy that prefabricated of did you do that yourself?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[gfirkus]

In the picture with the board that has as your valves & copper piping, did you buy that prefabricated of did you do that yourself?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Gary made that along with the manifolds I needed for my infloor.

 

[Wook660]

Yeah, Gary prefabs them at his shop for your specific application to save time when he does the final install at your house.

 

[gfirkus]

The insurance ok'd the setup today. My agent had contacted their regional claims advocate to double check the situation.

 

[Zef_66]

Looks good! I pick up my 1050 on Monday from Gary. Can't wait to get mine installed and fired up!

 

[gfirkus]

Looks good! I pick up my 1050 on Monday from Gary. Can't wait to get mine installed and fired up!

I'm still working on mine. Between work and family stuff I've been extremely busy since august. I still need to find some time to go bow hunting yet!! Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll have it going.

 

[JRHAWK9]

I also live in Central Wisconsin and have an outdoor wood boiler and a free standing Lopi wood stove in my house. My insurance said no way to a wood furnace or boiler in the house or my 30'x40' separate shop. They said the outdoor wood boiler had to be 40ft from any building. My Lopi free standing wood stove in my house has been inspected with pictures taken by the insurance company about every 5 years. They say has long has its installed to code and not my primary source of heat it is alright, but they watch it closely. I have Country financial for my insurance company.

Really?? We had Country Financial up until last year and when I contacted my agent about putting a Kuuma wood furnace in the basement and installing an interior-ran chimney all he said was, "have it professionally installed" and you'll be fine. I had the chimney professionally installed and also the ductwork. I installed the furnace myself, which was just basic wiring.

We have since switched to Acuity and when we disclosed we had a wood furnace they mentioned we may be contacted by someone to come out and look at the installation. It's been 6+ months or so since then and nobody has contacted us about it.

 

[TCaldwell]

Wook, how does the control box work to regulate the fire?

 

[Wook660]

Wook, how does the control box work to regulate the fire?

Well to be honest, there is a lot going on inside that box that's over my head, but I'll tell you what I know.

There are two thermocouples in the pipe right after it leaves the boiler before the fan that feed to the control box. The control box controls the speed of the fan which is infinitely adjustable, meaning it isn't just on off or high low, it changes speed depending on temperature. There are three doors on the front that are constantly adjusted depending on temperature, one for the main fire box door, one at the small lower firebox door, and one on the side that feeds air directly to the back of the fire box.
The control box also provides power to the zone/circulating valves. If you put too much wood in and bring the water temp up too much, it has to dump the excess heat so it overrides you thermostats (don't do that in the summer, doh!)
It also controls if equipped, when your oil gun backup kicks in. There are three controls on the front of the boiler to adjust temperature settings for when to dump the heat, kick in the oil, (drawing a blank on the third, at work right now)

The box also houses the readings for the thermocouples and on off switches for the boiler.

So I'm not sure if this all helps, and a very basic overview, but it works and works well.

 

[Zef_66]

I'm still working on mine. Between work and family stuff I've been extremely busy since august. I still need to find some time to go bow hunting yet!! Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll have it going.

I've got mine home and in the basement. But haven't touched it since. And this weekend is moving weekend from the old house to new house. So I'm right there with you on the time schedule.

 

[gfirkus]

I had the first fire today. It took about 5 hrs and 3 wheelbarrows of wood to take 1400 gallons from 55 to 210. Once the water temp got to 120 or so stack temps went up to the 350 range. Then the draft inducer slows down to keep it burning in the "sweet spot". I'm impressed with Gary's setup.