In Search of expert in the Midwest

[Sukhoi29SU]

I'm in the process of designing / planning an entire home gut remodel plus large attached garage addition with basement workshop below spancrete- and I'm wondering if there are any experts in the Midwest that I might be able to hire to look at my plans and advise me how to best heat / cool the home. I currently heat the house with two wood burning Avalon Olympic stoves, and a propane furnace forced air. I'm considering getting rid of the forced air system which would permit me to raise the ceilings in the lower level, and putting Radiant heat in the house fueled by a gasification wood boiler out in the garage addition. There are so many options, and as much research as I've done - I still feel like there is a lot I don't know. I don't know if it's realistic to have a wood boiler out in the addition and have the ability to run radiant heat into the floors and some wall registers from that far away.

I live north of Rockford, IL right on the Illinois / Wisconsin border. (Rural South Beloit, IL)

Thanks in advance

Dan

 

[eauzonedan]

I would recommend Karl Schwingel - who did my design. Knowledgeable in wood and solar. He’s up near Stevens Point in Cheezeland. Good People! Good Luck.

[email protected]

Dan

 

[Sukhoi29SU]

I would recommend Karl Schwingel - who did my design. Knowledgeable in wood and solar. He’s up near Stevens Point in Cheezeland. Good People! Good Luck.

[email protected]

Dan

Thanks, Dan

Bayfield County, WI? My family has a place up on Middle Eau Claire Lake - I've been going up there for years. Are you near there?

 

[eauzonedan]

Just upstream and on a frog pond off of The Upper (Devils Lake). Folks were on The Lower and had friends on The Middle so know it well. Transplanted from Aurora IL. PM me if are up and want to check out Karl’s work. Dan

 

[Sukhoi29SU]

Just upstream and on a frog pond off of The Upper (Devils Lake). Folks were on The Lower and had friends on The Middle so know it well. Transplanted from Aurora IL. PM me if are up and want to check out Karl’s work. Dan

Thanks again for the recommendation. I met with Karl today. Very knowledgeable.
I like the idea of these wood boilers - but they sure don’t seem to be very efficient. He mentioned upwards of 10 cords of wood per season, 3 wheel barrels of wood per day to fuel a Heatmaster wood boiler that would heat my house... when you think about that combined with the expense of the material and installation - it might be tough to justify. I might just keep feeding my Avalon Olympic wood burning stoves and force myself to be content with propane furnace / forced air...
I won’t be able to gather 10 cords of wood per season with my busy job. I’d say I burn maybe two cords of wood in my wood burning stoves.

 

[salecker]

What boiler were you looking at?
I use about 8-10 cords a year in a very cold climate.That heats my house and the building that i have the wood boiler in.

 

[Sukhoi29SU]

What boiler were you looking at?
I use about 8-10 cords a year in a very cold climate.That heats my house and the building that i have the wood boiler in.

I think he mentioned the G200.

I think I’d be looking at installing one of these in an approx. 1650 sq ft workshop that sits under span Crete with 1650 sq ft attached garage above. The house is about 2500 sq ft main level and another 1900 sq ft walkout lower level.

I’ve explored the idea of running radiant heat through the poured concrete floors of garage and work shop, and putting partial in floor heat into the house but utlizing less costly European style hydronic registers for heat in the bedrooms and certain other rooms.

After hearing how much wood is required to burn, however, I’m considering propane boiler for the hydronic heat, supplemented with my wood burning Avalon Olympic stoves in the house.

If I was to get rid of the forced air system all together in exchange for the hydronic system, though, I’d lose my ability to run the furnace fan and move some of the hot air from the stoves through the house.

Perhaps I just need to stick with this forced air system and find the most effective way to move the heat from my stoves through the house and into the rooms furthest away from the stoves; which in the past has been difficult but after the remodel and with an air tight properly insulated house- I should be in much better shape.

I’m an airline and part time military pilot that is away from home quite a bit - and I don’t think I can count on my wife to be putting three wheel barrels full of wood into a boiler each day I’m gone. If I get the wood into the house and next to the stoves, she does a decent job keeping those fed, however.

 

[salecker]

Whats a G200?
I think if you look at a real gasification boiler your estimate for wood consumption will go down.

 

[Sukhoi29SU]

Whats a G200?
I think if you look at a real gasification boiler your estimate for wood consumption will go down.

A Heatmaster G200 is what he was recommending.

 

[eauzonedan]

Might be a good time to do some number crunching. If you have heated the space in the past - you should be able to pretty well nail your btu needs. Resistance electric approaches 100% efficiency. Good wood stove should convert maybe 70% of the fuels energy to useful heat. Early outdoor boilers less than 50% and a current gasser 75 to 85%. LP thinking maybe 85 to 90% efficient. Plug in current or future estimated costs per btu for each fuel - times your heat load and then adjust for efficiency and you can pretty well nail your fuel costs for each fuel. My original guess with $2 LP and oak cord wood at $100 a cord looked like about a 4+ to 1 btu cost difference for wood. Throw in a number for your hourly labor to process wood as well as initial purchase and construction costs and you’re there. For me it looked like 10 to 12 years to break even. Since this was to be my last house - that was OK. The last issue is how well it fits your life style. Running my Garn only takes maybe 10 minutes a day down to about 10 degrees and maybe twice that at -25. MORE storage is a big piece of hands off operation in any wood system. LOW temp emitters are also important as that multiplies effective storage. No free lunches..... just different ways of skinning the kitty. Good luck and enjoy the journey. Dan

 

[Karl_northwind]

I'm on it. I've been up to my ears in a huge project (1 mmbtu chip boiler, 3 cordwood boilers and 25,000 sf of greenhouses).

I based the wood consumption numbers on heating 6000 ish SF, of garage and house, lots of windows. haven't done a heat loss calc, as I haven't been contracted for design yet, and am not licensed in Ill, so it'd need to be done by the contractor of record.
it's going to require a lot of wood, probably less than 8-10 cords, but it's not out of line. the G-200 is a true gasifier, with a large water capacity and modulating burn. yes you need storage with a low mass boiler with 30 gallons of water, but with 200 gallons and a 5-1 turn down ratio, a g-200 would do fine for that application.
hoping to dig in a bit tomorrow morning.