Some background :
My self and my wife built a new home this summer, we made the decision to burn wood right from the get go. Originally we were going to go with a wood oil or wood electric combo forced air furnace. That is what we had been using and it was working great. After looking around at some options and wanting radiant heat in the basement we decided a boiler was the best option. After researching boilers I got hooked on gasification.
I ordered an empyre eliete 200 in June and did not receive it until mid November after some seriously high electricity bills from running construction heaters I received the boiler and fired it up.
Originally the house was designed to have the boiler and wood storage inside in the basement. thankfully we put the boiler out in a shed. Quite possibly the best decision we made. Not only is the mess outside but to smoke stays outside too.
So right away when I received the boiler I did an inspection of the fire box and the secondary burn chamber. First thing I noticed was some broken fire bricks. The second thing I noticed was the weld quality of the seams of the fire box. The welds look like bubble gum. ( befor you ask I am qualified to tell you that the weld quality is terrible on my boiler)
After my inspection and an ever increasing hydro bill I had to fire the boiler which is connected to my radiant floor loop and an air handler. I purchased the profab eso which has a danfoss tempering valve to keep the boiler at 140 f or above befor sending water to the main loop. From the eso I ran a 1 1/4 main loop to the house and set up a manifold to pull from. 3 speed circ pumps and a variable speed air handler. Our home is 3000 square feet all in 3 levels open concept. Insulated with 5 1/2 inches of wall tite Eco purple spray foam top to bottom an ICF basement and 6 inches of blue foam under the pad with 1 inch of thermal break from the footings.
The Review
After my first month and a half of headaches I am starting to get the hang of this stove. Everyone talks about bridging or when the fire fails to burn in the secondary burn chamber or the logs hang up in the fire box and burn a chunk out of the center. It seems to happen a lot. I checked my wood its at 20- 25% moisture I cut it 26 inches long for the 28 inch fire box, I palace every log in the fire box with care and love. Then I go to work and come home to a cold boiler twice a week at least. I can tell you it's all about planning and placement making sure the logs will fall down to the nozzles to allow then to get turned into usable heat. All and all this is not a stove you can just fire some wood into and walk away from.
Cleaning and pro former( that white dust in a box pro fab sent me with my boiler) so I can't stand putting the pro former into the stove twice a day, simply because no one will tell me what it is and how it works. But I have been doing it. Not sure if it helps or not. As stated in the manual I clean the ash once a week and the heat x tubes biweekly. To do the heat x tubes you get down on hands and knees and run a brush through each tube four or five times. All in all its not that bad a bit dirty and I know I would be cursing if it was inside my new home and I had to do it. But out side in the shed I some how always end up with soot everywhere. Takes about 20 minuets to do the job right
Smoke free loading my but. So unless you open the door over a five minute span it smokes like crazy. Again I can't say how happy I am that I did not put the boiler in my house. And once it is open when you slide the wood in the baffle at the door kicks in and the smoke rolls out. The best time I have found to load is when the boiler is in the middle of a burn cycle and everything is hot embers in the fire box.
Burn time. When the wood does not hang up I load it twice a day with about 5 or 6 logs. To give you an idea of wood volume used I burn a pile 6 foot 6 inches long by 3 feet high by 4 feet wide every two weeks or one pick up load. You guys can figure out how many chords/ cubic meters that is on your own. We are burning seasoned jack pine not split.
Creosote. Well it's a monster in that department just drips in the primary chamber and the secondary is caked with a black flaky layer. Chimney is evenly coated with the black fluffy stuff.
Water temps and btu output
So I am running at 175 on the controller and it will fall about 5 degrees befor restarting the blower. If both my floor and air handler call for heat at once the temps will drop right off to the low 150 's. Befor the stove can get relight and start to recover. Probably a good reason to add storage but the "dealer says". "These stoves do not require it"
Future plans
Install the electric back up elements in the stove which I ordered in June that have not showed up yet. Add storage for heat. Build a monster wood shed and stack wood according to size to simplify loading. As well hook up my domestic hot water.
All in all I will keep the stove and deal with the gremlins for now.
My self and my wife built a new home this summer, we made the decision to burn wood right from the get go. Originally we were going to go with a wood oil or wood electric combo forced air furnace. That is what we had been using and it was working great. After looking around at some options and wanting radiant heat in the basement we decided a boiler was the best option. After researching boilers I got hooked on gasification.
I ordered an empyre eliete 200 in June and did not receive it until mid November after some seriously high electricity bills from running construction heaters I received the boiler and fired it up.
Originally the house was designed to have the boiler and wood storage inside in the basement. thankfully we put the boiler out in a shed. Quite possibly the best decision we made. Not only is the mess outside but to smoke stays outside too.
So right away when I received the boiler I did an inspection of the fire box and the secondary burn chamber. First thing I noticed was some broken fire bricks. The second thing I noticed was the weld quality of the seams of the fire box. The welds look like bubble gum. ( befor you ask I am qualified to tell you that the weld quality is terrible on my boiler)
After my inspection and an ever increasing hydro bill I had to fire the boiler which is connected to my radiant floor loop and an air handler. I purchased the profab eso which has a danfoss tempering valve to keep the boiler at 140 f or above befor sending water to the main loop. From the eso I ran a 1 1/4 main loop to the house and set up a manifold to pull from. 3 speed circ pumps and a variable speed air handler. Our home is 3000 square feet all in 3 levels open concept. Insulated with 5 1/2 inches of wall tite Eco purple spray foam top to bottom an ICF basement and 6 inches of blue foam under the pad with 1 inch of thermal break from the footings.
The Review
After my first month and a half of headaches I am starting to get the hang of this stove. Everyone talks about bridging or when the fire fails to burn in the secondary burn chamber or the logs hang up in the fire box and burn a chunk out of the center. It seems to happen a lot. I checked my wood its at 20- 25% moisture I cut it 26 inches long for the 28 inch fire box, I palace every log in the fire box with care and love. Then I go to work and come home to a cold boiler twice a week at least. I can tell you it's all about planning and placement making sure the logs will fall down to the nozzles to allow then to get turned into usable heat. All and all this is not a stove you can just fire some wood into and walk away from.
Cleaning and pro former( that white dust in a box pro fab sent me with my boiler) so I can't stand putting the pro former into the stove twice a day, simply because no one will tell me what it is and how it works. But I have been doing it. Not sure if it helps or not. As stated in the manual I clean the ash once a week and the heat x tubes biweekly. To do the heat x tubes you get down on hands and knees and run a brush through each tube four or five times. All in all its not that bad a bit dirty and I know I would be cursing if it was inside my new home and I had to do it. But out side in the shed I some how always end up with soot everywhere. Takes about 20 minuets to do the job right
Smoke free loading my but. So unless you open the door over a five minute span it smokes like crazy. Again I can't say how happy I am that I did not put the boiler in my house. And once it is open when you slide the wood in the baffle at the door kicks in and the smoke rolls out. The best time I have found to load is when the boiler is in the middle of a burn cycle and everything is hot embers in the fire box.
Burn time. When the wood does not hang up I load it twice a day with about 5 or 6 logs. To give you an idea of wood volume used I burn a pile 6 foot 6 inches long by 3 feet high by 4 feet wide every two weeks or one pick up load. You guys can figure out how many chords/ cubic meters that is on your own. We are burning seasoned jack pine not split.
Creosote. Well it's a monster in that department just drips in the primary chamber and the secondary is caked with a black flaky layer. Chimney is evenly coated with the black fluffy stuff.
Water temps and btu output
So I am running at 175 on the controller and it will fall about 5 degrees befor restarting the blower. If both my floor and air handler call for heat at once the temps will drop right off to the low 150 's. Befor the stove can get relight and start to recover. Probably a good reason to add storage but the "dealer says". "These stoves do not require it"
Future plans
Install the electric back up elements in the stove which I ordered in June that have not showed up yet. Add storage for heat. Build a monster wood shed and stack wood according to size to simplify loading. As well hook up my domestic hot water.
All in all I will keep the stove and deal with the gremlins for now.
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