In need of insulated hot water storage for gasification system

[carlsyoung]

I bought a house with a wood gasification boiler. The system does not have a hot water storage tank. I would like to get the system set up properly with an insulated hot water storage tank. I live in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan in Petoskey. Does anyone know someone who does this kind of work that is in northern Michigan. I have an Eko orlan 80 that is set up to heat my house and 2 pole barns.

thanks

 

[BoiledOver]

For the purchase of decommissioned propane tanks, Fischer Propane in Wellston has been a good source. They have a refurbishing center there that has rejects in various sizes, not up to snuff for high pressure but overly adequate for hydronic heating.

As far as someone who would get that stuff up and running, any good welder could do the job. Certification to please the Home Owners Insurance agent will be something else to consider.

 

[Bad LP]

I bought my tanks direct from TARM because of the ASME rating factor. I know some outstanding fabricators/welders but was not willing to roll the dice on my home owners insurance. Probably unnecessary but being forced to do it twice or even worse, a claim being denied would be a disaster.

 

[rockwall]

I have an 820 gallon tank from American Solartechnics and couldn't be happier. Great heat bank, really easy to install and excellent service. Check out his website.

 

[JohnDolz]

I bought my tanks direct from TARM because of the ASME rating factor. I know some outstanding fabricators/welders but was not willing to roll the dice on my home owners insurance. Probably unnecessary but being forced to do it twice or even worse, a claim being denied would be a disaster.

I have had great luck with re-purposed propane tanks but honestly if I had to do it over again I would take a much more serious look at European manufactured accumulator tanks (i.e. the ones from TARM). After all is said and done the additional cost would not have been nearly as big an uptick of the total project cost as I originally thought. One key though is having enough height, not sure I would have had that.

 

[Bad LP]

Yes John, the cost of the project is not a small number by any stretch of the imagination. Tank options are all over the map when you start looking and some of those options are scary when it comes to costs. I found a set of tanks that were just a little more money and larger that would have worked great but shipping added another 800.00 to them. TARM was a Saturday morning drive away and I was home before 2:00.

Believe me, I'm no dummy when it comes to making something from nothing and like I wrote, I know many fabricators from working in many precision metal fabrication shops. Re-purposing a propane tank is an easy project but not having the rating after modifications was just not something I wanted to gamble on.

 

[JohnDolz]

Completely understand, right or wrong I didn't feel there was a risk with the tanks not having the rating (figured worst case is water damage in an unfinished basement that wouldn't be covered anyway because I don't pay for water damage coverage) - was definitely concerned about the boiler and made sure it was permitted for the Insurance concern you expressed. I have 2 horizontal tanks that are 4 piped. Monday morning quarterbacking would have done it 2 pipe at a minimum, would have tried to make it work with vertical tanks and preferably tried to make it work with the pre-engineered accumulator tanks. I am using boiler controlled mixing valves tied to Outdoor reset to leverage low flow temps and the accumulators (similar to TARM's) are really designed for those purposes. That being said, I am THRILLED with my system so no real complaints. Just that if I had to do it over again I would (if I could fit them in) probably spend the extra $'s and go with the accumulator tanks.

 

[Sparky]

I built my own tank using plywood and 2x4 framing. My first one was 4x8x4 feet and held about 600 gallons. Wasn't really big enough so I rebuilt it to 8x8x4 so I have about 1200 gallons. I used EPDM for a liner works great. It cost about 2K including the coils I made. I have 3-120 foot coils for the heat and 1-60 foot coil for domestic hot water. System works great. Not as fancy as pressurized system and not really sure about stratification all I know is I burn at night and it holds enough heat to keep my house (2400 sq feet) warm all day. Hope this helps.

 

[velvetfoot]

I used EPDM for a liner works great.

Where did you get this?

 

[Sparky]

I bought the EPDM from a roofing contractor it cost about $1.00 sq foot


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[peakbagger]

I would suggest you contact Tominmaine for tank liners, I expect he has built and repaired more unpressurized tanks and lined them with more materials than anyone. I believe he has had some less than great experiences with EPDM. I would suggest if you want to build the tank walls, you are way better off buying a custom sized PVC liner from him.

 

[Sparky]

My first tank I had a liner built by tarp rite out of Canada. I was easy but after about 3 years of use I decided to build a bigger tank. When I disassembled the tank the liner was good except the upper part where the water didn't touch was brittle and so I was a little reluctant to go back in that direction. Took a long time to get, more expensive than EPDM I believe the Tarm tanks use EPDM also. So it's been 2 years and so far really happy with the results.

 

[airlina]

After running my Econoburn 100 without storage for 4 years, I decided to add it a couple of winters ago. I had a old 500 gallon propane tank on my property that hadn't been used in a while and was able to purchase it cheap from the local propane supplier. My next step was to call Dale at Econoburn and he said they could weld the necessary fittings in place as well as insulate the tank with spray on foam at the same time. I am lucky in that I am located an 1 1/2 hour from the Econoburn factory which is in Brocton , NY so I delivered the tank to them and it was ready for install in short order at a very reasonable price. I have since found out that they have access to propane tanks as well to repurpose for storage. Also for those needing the rating they make ASME rated 220 gal. and 350 gal. storage tanks. As you can see from the photos they do a nice clean job and provide great tech support for the installation that I was able to complete with my limited experience (the tv above the tank doesn't come with the deal!) Gotta go load the boiler, Bruce

 

[JohnDolz]

After running my Econoburn 100 without storage for 4 years, I decided to add it a couple of winters ago. I had a old 500 gallon propane tank on my property that hadn't been used in a while and was able to purchase it cheap from the local propane supplier. My next step was to call Dale at Econoburn and he said they could weld the necessary fittings in place as well as insulate the tank with spray on foam at the same time. I am lucky in that I am located an 1 1/2 hour from the Econoburn factory which is in Brocton , NY so I delivered the tank to them and it was ready for install in short order at a very reasonable price. I have since found out that they have access to propane tanks as well to repurpose for storage. Also for those needing the rating they make ASME rated 220 gal. and 350 gal. storage tanks. As you can see from the photos they do a nice clean job and provide great tech support for the installation that I was able to complete with my limited experience (the tv above the tank doesn't come with the deal!) Gotta go load the boiler, Bruce

Looks good! I opted to build an insulated "room" around insulated tanks. My thinking was that is something ever leaked it would be a whole lot easier to work on.

 

[velvetfoot]

After running my Econoburn 100 without storage for 4 years, I decided to add it a couple of winters ago. I had a old 500 gallon propane tank on my property that hadn't been used in a while and was able to purchase it cheap from the local propane supplier. My next step was to call Dale at Econoburn and he said they could weld the necessary fittings in place as well as insulate the tank with spray on foam at the same time. I am lucky in that I am located an 1 1/2 hour from the Econoburn factory which is in Brocton , NY so I delivered the tank to them and it was ready for install in short order at a very reasonable price. I have since found out that they have access to propane tanks as well to repurpose for storage. Also for those needing the rating they make ASME rated 220 gal. and 350 gal. storage tanks. As you can see from the photos they do a nice clean job and provide great tech support for the installation that I was able to complete with my limited experience (the tv above the tank doesn't come with the deal!) Gotta go load the boiler, Bruce

Very clean boiler room! And you can watch TV while hanging around down there!

 

[airlina]

The added bonus is my insulated tank looks just like a giant twinkie !