Econoburn installed outside?

[adenowski]

Did anyone install an Econoburn or similar gasifier unit outside in a shed or something and then pipe it to the house? Need to install a new boiler this year as my old P.O.S. OWB (homemade, by my dad) is falling apart(like rusting). 14 years old, so not too bad, it got it's workout, but it's not efficiant.

I would put water storage in the basement, cuz there is room for that.

Anyone have pictures or a place on where to get more info on the installation?

Thanks,

Anthony
Northeast WI

 

[Chris S]

I recently completed the install of an EKO 40 in a 10x 7 boiler room, on the side of an outbuilding.
Piping to the house is 1" ecoflex , which is undersized in this application, 1 1/4" would have been better

The nice thing about the installation is that the wood, is away from the house , and a shorter chimney was needed in this case.
The bad thing about the installation is that the wood , boiler and tending is away from the house. Still, having burned in my basement, a 60, or 100' walk to the boiler would still be my first choice.

Chris

 

[sdrobertson]

I had a OWB for several years and when I upgraded..I put up a pole barn where the lines came up from the ground. Wood storage (7+ cords), four 500 gallon propane tanks and boiler in one end of the building. Building is 24 by 40 and boiler portion is 24 by 13. No mess in house and allot warmer than standing out in the weather feeding boiler.

**EDIT** type in: "Start of Polebarn for boiler" in search and you'll find a post on the start of my project w/pics.

 

[adenowski]

Did you notice the wood consumption differance, since you got rid of the Central Boiler? I'm just thinking about installing a gasifier where the old OWB is and build around it, plus have enough room to have at least 2 full cord of wood in the building. I have other storage for the wood.

I can put water storage in our basement.

Question, when you hook up water storage and you have the water to air heat exchangers in. Do you pull the hot water from the storage at all times?

With an EKO 60 and storage, can you get a hole day's worth of heat without refire when its zero or below?

Thanks for the info

Anthony

 

[Piker]

There are a few different ways to run storage. The Simplest pressurized storage stickey at the top of the boiler room works very well. It draws hot water from the main loop supplied by the boiler while charging the tanks, and only off the tanks when the storage is up to temp and the boiler is shut down.

If you use storage with your heat exchanger, you have to make sure that your heat exchanger is large enough to satisfy the heat load of your structure with lower than normal water temps. The more oversized the exchange, the lower water temps you can use, the longer you will be able to run off the storage.

Getting a day's worth of heat out of your system will depend totally on heat load, boiler size/output, and storage size. Equation:

Stored Btu's = (number of gallons of water) x (usable temperature difference or 'delta-T') x (8.3)

cheers

 

[sdrobertson]

Wood consumption went down allot. I would guess that now I'm at about half of the OWB. It was hard to get it through my thick head that these are different from OWB's on how you burn them. Not harder, just different. Large unsplit kinda dry will not work worth a darn. It'll smoke more than your OWB and you get squat for heat out of them. Smaller diameter dry (really dry because what I thought was dry - wasn't dry enough) wood and its just plain amazing the heat output from a small amount of wood. Boiler in a outbuilding and water storage in the house would be in my opinion the best of both worlds. Mess out of the house and all the heat indoors so any standby losses are not lost.

On the hot water from the storage at all times...I originally had it running like the OWB - flowing all the time. What I found was that when the return line was still hot because the furnace wasn't calling for heat, I would totally screw up my stratification and my tanks would mix and I would loose all my high temp water to heat with. This was hard to get through my head as again, I was thinking OWB which ran water 24 hours and would fire up when the boiler cooled enough. Not a problem with a live fire but with the EKO, I wanted to run without a fire at times and just off storage. I ended up using a Bell & Gossett controlled circulator that would keep the water returning to the storage at about 125 degrees and would speed up and slow down to compensate. This was around 300.00 if I reminder correctly and was the simplest way for me to go that I could figure out. Its working great as I keep 190 degree water going to the house and the cold water returning to the tanks at 125 stays on the bottom.

As for heating off storage...this is hard to compare but here is my take on it from my first winter: When I used the Central Boiler, I didn't realize how much BTU's I needed to keep the house at 75 degrees as I just threw wood in the boiler and burned away. What I found out was I needed all 2000 gallons because I work 12 hour days and am gone for 13 to 14 hours when I need to work. This is a two or three day period so what I needed was to go almost 2 days without a fire. During the coldest period I could go over 24 so this gave me time to build a fire and recharge the tank. Starting a fire is actually not that hard as you would think, but again, its different from the OWB (not hard, just different) as you really need to get coals and then comes the heat. Just chuck in the wood and smoke and no heat. The quanity of water just means how much "battery" you have to live off from.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I have my EKO in a cinderblock boiler room in the barn, and it works great. I think an indoor installation would be more efficient, because you wouldn't have standby heat losses through the stack and the boiler jacket, but it's worth whatever extra wood consumption I have to keep all the mess outside (but under a roof). Plus, my wood supply is stacked right next to the boiler--easy to get it from the pile out back into the barn and then into the firebox.

 

[Birdman]

This is my first year with my Tarm 40. I have it in my basement. No storage. Used 5 cord so far. House between 65-70 all year.. even through the -37 F snap we had. Anyways... I am glad i have it in my unheated basement and not an outdoor shed. I walk down my stairs... fill it up and thats it. NO going outside in the cold. Also... my basement is unheated.... yet the Tarm kept it cozy all winter just by being down there... it gives off some heat just by being there. Nice to fill up the Tarm in my skivvies. Whoa... was that too graphic?

 

[Piker]

My favorite place to install the Econoburn is inside one of the structures it will be heating. Just makes more sense from an efficiency standpoint.

That having been said, I also understand the point of view of not wanting the mess in the house. For us, the mess is minimal in an unfinished basement. A little dust and debris is worth the ease of firing the boiler without having to trudge through the snow to do so. I keep pretty good tabs on the dust by vaccuming once a week. So far it's not an issue in the least. I would never recommend installing a boiler in a 'finished' room with furnishings of any sort. Nice thing about hot water heat is that you don't have the air blowing the dust around (unless you are using a heat exchanger / forced air setup), and any mess is pretty well contained to the basement.

cheers

 

[Birdman]

I have a walk out basement.. double door opening.. drive the wood right up to the door and stack it in there. Also have 3 kids... good cheap help when it comes to cutting( 80 acres) and processing wood. Now I just have to show the oldest one how to fill the Tarm and I will be all set until they leave! I must agree... this would not be good in a Finished area... my basement is unfinished. HOwever... looking down the road... I would like to build an attached garage to hold 2 cars and a room above for the kids... and some extra space in the garage for a Tarm room with wood supply area. But.... only if it is attached garage! Does anyone out there havethis setup? It seems like it would be pretty easy to make and what an easy way to put wood where you want it. Drive it right into your garage. Forks on a bucket... you could even just stack it on pallets.. let it dry outside.. strap it up.. then fork it in.

 

[DaveBP]

Birdman
I have a walk out basement.. double door opening.. drive the wood right up to the door and stack it in there. Also have 3 kids… good cheap help when it comes to cutting( 80 acres) and processing wood. Now I just have to show the oldest one how to fill the Tarm and I will be all set until they leave! I must agree… this would not be good in a Finished area… my basement is unfinished. HOwever… looking down the road… I would like to build an attached garage to hold 2 cars and a room above for the kids… and some extra space in the garage for a Tarm room with wood supply area.

You have to be careful putting a wood stove in a garage with automobiles. Gasoline tanks and wood fires set off alarms with some building codes and some insurance policies.

 

[Birdman]

Absolutely. Just like you have to be careful installing it in a walk out basement... with an oil boiler and a tank full of oil near it. All codes should be adhered to... no matter where you install it. And if you live in an area... where the code enforcement is very little or none.... be smart and ask someone who knows... that includes people who own their property and have no insurance as well. Wow.. do these people actually exist?... people who build their own house... have no mortgage.. don' t want insurance on their house.. don't deal with banks... pay for things with cash.. and live in places where there is little or no code enforcement.. .and do things themsleves for as much as they can? YUP. Not many but there are some.