EKO 25...

[JimmyJames]

Will and EKO 25 run well without storage? I will eventually add storage as I have the money available to do it but I was curious what kind of burn times I will get and is it good the let this particualr unit idle when heat demand is low.

 

[stee6043]

Lots of info here on the EKO's. And yes, any boiler will function without storage. They just won't be as efficient as they were designed to be.

Substantial idling is less than desirable in terms of wood consumption but overall I don't think it would damage the boiler. Your chimeny will dirty more quickly, your HX tubes will need more cleaning, etc and so on.

Ultra long burn times aren't something you'll see many people brag about on this board. That's more of an OWB trait. How long a load lasts in a high efficiency boiler will depending almost entirely on your heat load.

 

[Jeff S]

A friend of mine bought the Biomass 25 and decided he would try it without storage,long story short,his boiler would go into idle mode for such long times that his fire would go out.Since then he added storage giving his boiler a load to push against making life so much easier.So yes you can run without storage but be prepared to start more fires.

 

[ihookem]

I have an EKO 25 with no storage. It works fine this way. I load up a bit in the morning, and it idles most of the day. Most of the wood I put in is wasted. When I get home though I don't have to start the fire. It seems to take a long time to get a cold boiler going again. I have noticed a hot boiler gassifies easier, stays gassied and keeps the boiler the same temp which I like. When I get home from work I'm at 140-145 degrees. I load up and run it hard from 4-5 pm till 9 pm. Then load it at 9pm, go tp bed. It is on rest most of the night. This wastes so much wood I would be just as well off getting regular wood boiler. It works but my house is soooo efficient. I put 750 ft. of 1/2" pex under the floor this winter. This keeps the heat load much more even. I am down to coals in the morning when I would still have some wood left in the morning before I had hydronic. I think this helps just a bit on efficiency compared to forced air with heat xchanger and the house is several degrees warmer, especially the floor. Here is what I did. I don't know if I should have but gave it a try. All winter I had my settings on 3/4" and 6 turns out. This was less inefient. It was left on that way cause in the shoulder season I like fast heat , get the house warm and do it againin in a day or two. Since I got staple up I turned it down to 2 turns out and 1/4" opening on air settings. This made it smoke a bit more but took less wood. I think less air is a nice tweak for a steady smaller BTU output. Hope I didn't confuse ya.

 

[rkusek]

Slowing down the fan speed should also reduce idle time. I ran 70% all winter and actually 60% the last few burns I did in March. A couple years ago I tried running at the lowest setting (50%) and it seemed to do a lot of the huffing & puffing but wood may have been an issue. Running w/o storage is doable but not optimal.

 

[JimmyJames]

Thanks for the information. I am torn as to what I should do. I would like to have a gasification boiler with storage but I dont have the money for storage up front. I have also been looking at the Kuuma Vapor Fire 100 forced air gasification furnace. It gets great reviews and looks like a good unit.

 

[Nofossil]

I have an EKO 25 that I ran the first year without storage. More and smaller fires, and more frequent partial reloadings, but worked fine. I plumbed the system so that I could add storage later, which I did before the next heating season. Better to have the gasifier without storage - you're still better off than with a conventional boiler, and you can always add storage later when it works out for you.

 

[ihookem]

Don't be torn,,, us guys might make it look like A big deal . We over think everythig on this sight. How else could loading a wood stove a few times a day end up being this big of a websight!