Here she is boys!!!

[infinitymike]

The WOOD GUN E100 showed up yesterday!

So as you can see I still have some work to do.

Thats the inside of my 2 car garage and that wall is the side of my home office.
I stripped that wall so I can Insulate it better and put 5/8" fire rated rock on it.

I will push the unit over to the wall keeping at least 12 " or so,
it depends on the exhaust stack, I aiming to shoot it straight up through the roof between to rafters.
From the top of the fly ash collector to the roof is 9 feet plus the 2 feet i will go past the roof.

Any comments on running it straight up? Should I put a tee for a clean out?
The manual doesn't recommend a tee right off the top of the fly ash collector. Which is where my first thought was to put it.
They suggest if a tee is used to go up a few feet.

Should I go up a few feet then 90 over for a foot or two then go 90 again and straight through the roof.

Any thoughts on the fact that it is in an uninsulated garage?

Also any concerns about it being in a garage, period.

I completely emptied both bays and there are no gas cans or small engines to worry about.
However I do keep my Harley in there and planned on putting the old 65 impala ss that hasn't run in 10 years back inside before it melts in the driveway.
Any worries about gas fumes or the such?

What about the piping? I plan on jumping right into the basement but the will be exposed piping until then. I guess I should insulate that. Right?
Also my OB that Im hooking up in series with is on the complete opposite side of the house.
Should I insulate the pipe all the way there as well.


Anything else i should know?

Any other thoughts in general?

 

[smokinj]

If your using your garage as a garage this would make it against code.

 

[hiker88]

I've been following this site for awhile and I remember your first post on the subject. I admire your willingness to jump right in. I'm still in the "I'd like to" stage.

The only thing I can offer is that your plan wouldn't pass code here in Maine. In Maine, it has to be physically impossible to get to the boiler from the same space a vehicle can access. I know this because my neighbor put a wood boiler in an enclosed room in his garage, but the enclosed room has a door you can access from the garage. It didn't pass, he has to put up a wall separating the side of the garage you can fit a car into from the other side. So, I'd check on that and then the real experts can help out with the rest.

Please keep posting! I hope to put up steps from my project sometime...

 

[stee6043]

I guess first I'd say check out what the first two guys have said. I've heard of folks walling off the boiler in their garage and adding an exterior door to essentially do what hiker said above. And for what it's worth there are lots of folks that install these boilers without permits. The real risk in doing that and not having an install that meets code is your insurance situation. Should you ever experience a loss and need to make a claim an insurance company will find ANYTHING they can to deny a claim. Imagine losing your entire house to a fire and getting $0.00 from your insurance company.

Second - a straight smoke pipe is usually preferred to one having several turns. If you can run straight out I'd say go for it. You may want to consider measuring your draft once you get a pipe through the roof. If it's too high or low you might need to work with a barometric damper or other device to control it.

I'd definitely consider insulating any pipes that are not within the house you intent to heat. Once inside the house any heat lost from the pipes will essentially be heating your home. That's the ultimate goal so no real loss...

 

[infinitymike]

Well be vwery, vwery quiet Im hunting without a permit. is it rabbit season or duck season

But I may consider walling off the garage.
But even with a wall, if I dont have a permit I assume the insurance company would still have a problem.

Everyone has a problem when you tryin to save money unless its them. >:-(

 

[smokinj]

No thats not the case....Now if that garage was to turn into a shop your good to go....Cant have cars in there or easy access to drive one in.

 

[skfire]

Congrats..

Make sure you check with the local Fire Marshall, especially if you are in Nassau county..Suffolk a bit more forgiving..(they mayl give you a list of requirements and no-nos!!)
I design fire protection systems and the FMs do NOT play...
Btw Garage...NO GO with cars, Unless you completely fire rate/seal(yes, fire caulk openings/sleeves) and they may say no to anything with ignition within the area.

Good luck..take your time.

SK

 

[Gasifier]

InfinityMike,

First. Congratulations! I remember how excited I was when mine came. Looks like you got the stainless one as well. Good.
Second. Take your time with install! You will be glad, and how much $ saved over the next few weeks? Stop and take your time.
Third. You do not want that boiler in a building that is not insulated. Boiler is only insulated on sides and top. Don't take the chance/loose eff.
Fourth. Look at clearances in you manual. You want room all around the boiler, especially 4' in front and 3' behind for cleaning/maintenance.
Fifth. You might as well wall off a section of your garage, insulate walls/ceiling, then double sheetrock walls/ceiling with 5/8" rock for fire protection.
Sixth. You should be doing it to code. But, make sure you protect your home/loves ones with double 5/8" sheetrock. Pain, yes. Need it? Absolutely!
Seventh. Watch your back. Don't hurt yourself. That thing weighs 1300 lbs. It is *@%&ing; heavy.
Eight. Remember about air needed for boiler. Needs to have good air supply.

Take your time and have fun with the project. You will be glad you did in the long run. You will be sorry if you don't very soon.

 

[bpirger]

If you look around here, there's a thread about a fellow with ash buildup in his wood gun chimney stack....that may help with some ideas regarding the stack direction.

There's another thread from Spring/Summer 2010 regarding placing the boiler in a shop where you might get saw dust, gas fumes, etc. I didn't put the Garn in the shop area (attached to the house) becuase of fears of such things. Someone working on something, gas spill, firing roaring..... Many folks put it outside in a building.

 

[Pat53]

Well be vwery, vwery quiet Im hunting without a permit. is it rabbit season or duck season

But I may consider walling off the garage.
But even with a wall, if I dont have a permit I assume the insurance company would still have a problem.

Everyone has a problem when you tryin to save money unless its them. >:-(

I wouldn't even dream of running that unit knowing that if it burns down your house you lose everything. it doesn't always happen to the "other guy" ..

 

[maple1]

I would consider walling off half of the 'garage' and turning it into a 'shop'. If yours is like most, the last thing it is used for is an actual car garage, or at least a good part of it. That is, if putting it right in the basement is out of the question.

Nice looking unit - likely almost like having presents under the tree but not being able to play with them yet.

 

[stee6043]

In my opinion installing without a permint and installing "not to code" are two very different things. Perhaps I'm just naive.

 

[dogwood]

Gas fumes from a can of gas in your garage or other source, or a leaking gas line in your car would not mix well with the fire in your furnace. Add that disaster to no insurance payback on your loss, and potential injury from fire to your loved ones, you can see why your boiler room has to be completely walled off from your garage. All codes are a pain, but that particular one you just can't ignore. Its there for good reason. A building inspector will make sure your installation is safe, legal,and up to snuff. Don't be aftaid to deal with them. I always am, but deal with them anyway.

Are you from Nassau or Suffolk? I grew up in Jericho and still have family in S. Huntington. Good luck with your install. I just finishing framing the boiler room in my garage.

Mike

 

[infinitymike]

Man, I Never thought I would raise such a ruckus.

Other then the bike it was only used to store a bunch of junk.
The impala hasn't run nor does it have any gas in it for 10 years it needs a total overhaul.
I spent 3 days and threw out everything that wasn't nailed down or put it in the shed.

once the rust bucket gets in there I will have room on the side of the garage to put a little shed to store the bike.

So there will never be any gas, any saw dust or any room to do much else except store some wood to burn.
I have a shop in the basement with a bilco door entrance for the wood working projects.

I was always intending to get a permit until I was in the town hall 2 weeks ago inquiring about it.

Nobody knows what to do about this.
The plumbing dept. and building dept. both said I don't need a permit to change out an oil burner to a new oil burner
but to a wood burner they didn't know.
Of course they never heard of this type unit, and "we'll have to look into that"


I really didn't think it would be this difficult and thats why I went and bought the unit before looking into a permit.

So now instead of causing a big issue at the town hall I figured I would install it with out a permit and do everything to code.

I am going to use a licensed plumber/boiler installer.
Same goes for the electrician.

Embarrassed to say but I never really thought about the insurance issue.

At a stand still for now.

Yeah it really is like Christmas without batteries.

 

[flyingcow]

The insurance company OK'd the "reclassification" of my garage to a "wood storage facility".

 

[jebatty]

Congrats! You deserve every compliment that can be offered.

Unless there is an impediment in the cyclone ash collector which would prevent ash falling from the stack, I would not put in a T but plan on brushing the chimney top down. Sounds like you would have easy access to do that. The WG will throw off lots of heat from its uninsulated sides, probably enough to easily heat the garage, maybe too much. Find a way to use that heat. Although WG apparently is designed for use without storage, consider it anyway and leave space for future storage. I volunteer for an organization with a WG E500, and it just added 4000 gal of pressurized storage and put it on line. Tank was up to 165F yesterday. WG purrs, can burn through a load at full tilt, no cycling, and storage will provide up to several hours of additional heat after the WG has burned out. 56,000 sq feet being heated. Sweet.

 

[maple1]

Frankly, I'd worry more about insurance issues than permit issues. Try ringing up your agent and see what they say.

 

[stee6043]

Man, I Never thought I would raise such a ruckus.

Other then the bike it was only used to store a bunch of junk.
The impala hasn't run nor does it have any gas in it for 10 years it needs a total overhaul.
I spent 3 days and threw out everything that wasn't nailed down or put it in the shed.

once the rust bucket gets in there I will have room on the side of the garage to put a little shed to store the bike.

So there will never be any gas, any saw dust or any room to do much else except store some wood to burn.
I have a shop in the basement with a bilco door entrance for the wood working projects.

I was always intending to get a permit until I was in the town hall 2 weeks ago inquiring about it.

Nobody knows what to do about this.
The plumbing dept. and building dept. both said I don't need a permit to change out an oil burner to a new oil burner
but to a wood burner they didn't know.
Of course they never heard of this type unit, and "we'll have to look into that"


I really didn't think it would be this difficult and thats why I went and bought the unit before looking into a permit.

So now instead of causing a big issue at the town hall I figured I would install it with out a permit and do everything to code.

I am going to use a licensed plumber/boiler installer.
Same goes for the electrician.

Embarrassed to say but I never really thought about the insurance issue.

At a stand still for now.

Yeah it really is like Christmas without batteries.

I had the same experience with my township. The building inspector was 80 years old and his first response was "I don't think they make boilers for houses". And so the saga began.

You've still made a great investment. And it's going to work famously. Even if you have to throw a few hundred extra at some silly walls you're going to win in the long run. You could always start with the plumbing inside the house until you figure out the exact arrangement for the boiler...

 

[infinitymike]

Thanks guys,

Thanks, I did need some encouragement. Started getting real overwhelmed with this thing.
Was getting real pissed off.

For a while I was back to saying "screw it it stays in the garage with no walls no permit no nothing"
And if it burns the house down OH WELL.

But I calmed down a little and was out early this morning measuring and measuring and
I think I can build a room in the garage and still not kill the garage

 

[stee6043]

Excellent. I think you'll be very happy with this type of arrangement. One idea - fireproof the whole mini room like crazy and super insulate the exterior walls. But perhaps go light on the insulation of the "new walls". This might make for a nice and warm garage if all the exterior walls and ceiling are insulated.

Do you have electrical in that corner? Where do you figure you'll run your boiler lines into the house? One cool thing about this setup is that you could easily park a generator outside that service door to run your boiler in the event of an extended power outage. Maybe even throw an exterior plug in the wall during construction?

 

[smokinj]

Door to the outside and one into the garage and you got a very nice set-up. Enough space for a cord of wood too! ;-)

 

[jatoxico]

Hey Mike, Looks awesome. Don't know a thing about the install of these units but design 2 looks like a keeper. I think we've all done that thing where you rush through a project to get to the endpoint then wish you had done things a little differently.Take your time, do it right and keep everyone safe you'll be glad you did. Gonna be great when you're done.