Energy Kinetics system 2000/ gasification boiler integration any thoughts?

[boilERIK]

Hello,
This fall I installed a Econoburn 200k boiler. My heating prior to that installation was comprised of a energy kinetics system 2000 oil boiler with super store hot water. The boiler heated one zone of baseboard and one zone of radiant panels. I added a zone on in-slab radiant heat in the new kitchen addition at the same time as the wood boiler was installed. I am not running storage. After the initial installation I found that the system 2000 heating control would keep the zones open for up to 20 minutes after the thermostat stopped calling for heat. This feature seemed to work well with the lo volume cold start nature of the system 2000 when it was not tied in series to the wood boiler which was maintaining a constant temp of 165. Once a zone opened it would frequently drive the room temp to as much as 15 deg over the set temp particularly in the radiant panel zone. I alleviated the issues with thermal purging from the system 2000 by removing the controller and installing a bypass board which removed all the digital control of the system. This has kept the zones at the desired temp with no overshot but now the oil boiler only functions when the system temp drops below 140. the bypass board removed high low temp set on the oil boiler and it only heats to 140 and then shuts off. do any of you have any experience with energy kinetics system 2000 boilers and how did you integrate a wood boiler into the system?

 

[arrowe44]

I am on third sys 2000 boiler (long story) with EKo 40 and 550 gal storage. Made many expensive upgrades to save oil and wood usage. Still have energy management board hooked up so when on oil which is very little boiler works normal. Still does the purging cycle but doesn't overheat any of radiant zones because of modifications to total heating system. Most all of system was DIY over last 5 yrs except warranty work for boiler guarantee. Radiant slab is heated with lower temp water than main living space thru add on outdoor reset controller.

 

[boilERIK]

Your setup sounds similar to mine. I have an add on outdoor reset control which manages the radiant as well. Maybe I should put the energy management board back in. I haven't had it installed since the fall and I wonder if the purging would be less of an issue in the colder months. it would be nice to have the oil working on the normal hi low settings instead of just the 140 deg aquastat cut off. What are the expensive upgrades you have done? I am trying to figure out how to build out my system from the very basic initial install.

 

[arrowe44]

Because of the nonpex I used in radiant heating circuits I had to separate boilers from radiant loops per kinetics warrantee on this boiler. They sent the design to local installer selling their boilers that included use of hx and another storage tank. I had them add outdoor reset and changed from 4 heating zones to 7 to even out heating fluctuations in really cold weather. That added 5 more circulators and 4 more zone valves including ones for wood boiler