Indoor wood/oil gasifier

[MyOutdoors]

My friend is looking towards an indoor gasifier to heat approximately 4,000 sqft. The home has 2 "linked" basements and 2 separate living quarters. Both areas currently use 1 oil boiler for baseboard heat. He is thinking of adding a indoor wood gasifier in the basement w/o the oil boiler and utilizing a flat plate heat exchanger to circulate through the oil boiler.( Much like you would when setting up an outdoor wood boiler)

He will not be able to add a storage unit, but is also planning on adding radiant heat to the first floors. Any advice or recommendations? Thank you in advance!

 

[willworkforwood]

Is there a specific reason for the plate HX to connect the boilers? Most gassers are pressurized, and can be connected directly with black/copper pipe and a circulator. I have mine set up that way - very straightforward and simple. And there is also a parallel install, where the boilers are not connected to each other, as another possibility.

 

[MyOutdoors]

Your right probably no need for the heat exchanger....I was thinking about the setup I had for my owb which was an open system. What is the best, most efficient and least costly way to connect the two? Parallel or in series. He's also looking at the attack 45 boiler vs tarm. Any feedback on those as well would help. There looks to be free shipping on the attack boilers for now.

 

[willworkforwood]

Your right probably no need for the heat exchanger....I was thinking about the setup I had for my owb which was an open system. What is the best, most efficient and least costly way to connect the two? Parallel or in series. He's also looking at the attack 45 boiler vs tarm. Any feedback on those as well would help. There looks to be free shipping on the attack boilers for now.

The most efficient install usually conflicts with the least expensive one. It's generally accepted that parallel is the most efficient, having no stand-by losses from the fossil boiler. But, this usually translates into just the heat going up the stack, since the radiant will be heating the dwelling. Personally, I don't feel that what's going up my OB stack is significant - if I'm splitting a little bit of extra wood to offset the stack loss, that's not a big deal to me ;-) Series is usually a less expensive install than parallel. The WB is piped into the FB, and the existing FB controls continue to service the loads, without requiring mods or new components. The exception to this are the folks who can DIY install, and who already have controllers or can build them for small $$. As far as the specific boilers, there are a number of Tarm owners on the forum, and at least one active member who owns an Attack - maybe someone is familiar with both and can offer a comparison. And, there are also other good gassers to choose from.