Good hydrometer?

[SUPPLYGUY]

Looking for a hydrometer for testing wood.
I would love to go gasification this year but im not sure my wood is going to be ready. It was cut this winter split and stacked this spring. The other question I have is biomax 40 or 60 140k or 210. My load seems to be somewhere in the middle. Is it better to undersize or oversize?
thanks

 

[Eric Miller]

Do you mean Moisture Meter? If so, I got this one from NorthernTool and I am quite pleased with it: http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200349264_200349264

I've seen others report that they obtained one from Harborfreight considerably cheaper then I paid for mine. I just checked and they do have one for $15 but I have no personal experience with it.

I cannot offer much useful advice in response to your sizing question; I am in the planning stages on my system and do not have any practical experience. However, I think I would rather oversize as long as the system included a storage system. If you have done a heat loss calculation and know how much capacity you need, then you should get the smallest system that meets that need. If you are in the middle between two system then that would indicate the smaller system does not meet that need.

 

[Eric Johnson]

The Biomax 60 is 205 K btu/hour. That would make the 40 around 140.

The sizing question is a tricky one, IMO. If you add adequate heat storage at some point, it becomes simply a matter of bigger boiler = less frequent loading. Without storage, a bigger boiler will spend more time idling, which cuts into efficiency and can cause other problems, including smoke at some points in the cycle. Going too small, on the other hand, means you're going to have a heating system that can't keep up during extended cold snaps, and that's no fun at all.

I'm oversized at the moment without storage, but I've also learned how to avoid excessive idling, so it's a manageable situation that worked well all winter long. Not much you can do if you're undersized and it's below zero, however, except put on a sweater and hope it warms up.

 

[heaterman]

Looking for a hydrometer for testing wood.
I would love to go gasification this year but im not sure my wood is going to be ready. It was cut this winter split and stacked this spring. The other question I have is biomax 40 or 60 140k or 210. My load seems to be somewhere in the middle. Is it better to undersize or oversize?
thanks

How did you determine your load?

 

[SUPPLYGUY]

Thanks guy's that moisture meter looks good. I want to keep an eye on my wood and see how long it's going to take to dry out white and red oak. I think it holds moisture longer than other wood. I have a 140k wood boiler now that falls behind on those cold snaps. It sounds like the larger boiler with storage is the way to go. Thanks again for all the advice. I hope after some burn time I can start helping out.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think you can rely on output ratings for conventional wood-fired boilers. The output ratings may be vastly overstated under actual battlefield conditions, or there may be some other factor in your system design that is diminishing your supply of heat.

Anybody with more experience have any thoughts on that?

As heaterman suggests, the best approach is to determine your actual heating needs. You can download a free calculator from http://www.heatinghelp.com

Run that calculation for your house and you'll have a good idea what size boiler you need.