I have an oil fired boiler for hot water baseboard. I'm looking for a decent priced add on wood boiler. Any suggestions?
Looking for an add-on wood boiler.
- Thread starter RedNeck Wrangler
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There are two broad categories: indoor and outdoor. Most outdoor boilers have huge fireboxes and can burn for a very long time on a load. However, most of them are very inefficient and can emit large amounts of noxious smoke. They are banned or heavily restricted in some locations as a result. Lately, the manufacturers have started coming out with models that are cleaner and more efficient, but they are too new to have any long term data yet.
I assume that what you're looking at is the other category: indoor boilers. these can be subdivided into traditional boilers and gasifiers. Traditional boilers are less expensive to buy. Gasifiers use about 40% less wood and have virtually no visible smoke or odor during operation.
I'm more familiar with gasifiers. The big names for indoor models are Tarm, EKO, and Econoburn - I'm sure others will jump in and add any that I've left off, in a very polite and helpful way ;-)
Probably your choice will have a lot to do with what's locally available, since shipping is pretty expensive on these things.
I assume that what you're looking at is the other category: indoor boilers. these can be subdivided into traditional boilers and gasifiers. Traditional boilers are less expensive to buy. Gasifiers use about 40% less wood and have virtually no visible smoke or odor during operation.
I'm more familiar with gasifiers. The big names for indoor models are Tarm, EKO, and Econoburn - I'm sure others will jump in and add any that I've left off, in a very polite and helpful way ;-)
Probably your choice will have a lot to do with what's locally available, since shipping is pretty expensive on these things.
In my humble opinion this all can be boiled down to two basic questions: How much wood do you want to burn and how much money do you want to spend?
I've done a fair amount of reading both here and in books and at the end of the day if you want to burn the least amount of wood possible and you have the money to spend up-front (even if you have to borrow a pinch for short term) you will likely end up with a gassifier with storage. If you have endless supplies of free wood and want to spend the least amount of money on the front end you will likely end up with a non-gassifier without storage.
There is a lot of gray between the answers to these two questions. A lot. And perhaps I'm over simplifying. But if you like neat technology and love to tinker you might as well suck it up and buy the gassifer first thing! But heck, what do I know, I'm still a week or two away from receiving my EKO 40....
I've done a fair amount of reading both here and in books and at the end of the day if you want to burn the least amount of wood possible and you have the money to spend up-front (even if you have to borrow a pinch for short term) you will likely end up with a gassifier with storage. If you have endless supplies of free wood and want to spend the least amount of money on the front end you will likely end up with a non-gassifier without storage.
There is a lot of gray between the answers to these two questions. A lot. And perhaps I'm over simplifying. But if you like neat technology and love to tinker you might as well suck it up and buy the gassifer first thing! But heck, what do I know, I'm still a week or two away from receiving my EKO 40....
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