Looking for some gassers living near east side of Cincinnati...

[JCinohio]

Hey guys,

First post here have done a lot of reading, at times seems like too much. I am looking to replace an aging Propane forced air (90k btu) with a gassifcation boiler. I live near Winchester, OH and I am wondering if a current owner some where near by would be willing to come by for a couple good beers (IPA or Stout) or couple strong cups of coffee and chit chat about system design. I own a early 1900's brick house with poor insulation (on the list I assure you) with good access to firewood and plenty of dry storage on the property. I am leaning towards an indoor boiler located in my summer kitchen, there is a Central Boiler distrbitor local but currently feel I would rather put the savings of an indoor unit into water storage. If no one in the area I will continue my research and try and ask pointed questions.

 

[rwh442]

I live in SE Indiana about 1.5 hours away so too far probably to travel. But our weather is the same.

I have a Thermo Control 2000 conventional boiler in my detached 1600 sq ft garage, three roll up garage doors, fully insulated brick. Heated water is piped underground into the brick ranch house which is around 2000 sq ft. My detached garage tonight was 61 degrees - I think it is around 15 degrees outside now. My house thermostat is set to 71 degrees. I also have a propane furnace so I use a water to air heat exchanger.

Typical wood consumption is around 8 cords. Have used a little over 9 before and a little over 7 before. Just depends on the heating season.

This is what I want to point out. The heat in the detached garage comes entirely from the radiant heat off the boiler. I use no fans or heat exchangers in the garage.

If you were to put one of those in your basement or summer kitchen as you stated, heating only the house and improving you insulation issues you should use much less wood than me. The ratio of heat into the water vs. the radiant heat is on Thermo-Control's website and is about right - I think it is 75%. I think the unit holds 130 gallons so there is some "storage".

I am not arguing that this unit is more efficient than a gasser, most likely not. Just giving you more info to base your decision on.

 

[JCinohio]

I like the idea of radiant heat in the garge, but it a at least twice the distance and dont want to give up a parking space. That doesn't sound like bad consumpution for traditional though. Who did your install? Out of Cincinnati or DYI?

 

[rwh442]

I did the complete install myself. The hardest part for me was actually finding someone to cut the black iron pipe I needed to the dimensions I told them and still thread properly. It took me about 4 hardware stores before I found an "old timer" working that had a good machine and knew what he was doing.

 

[stee6043]

If you find yourself further north, say Grand Rapids, MI area, there are loads of gassers around. I'm sure many of us would be happy to trade beer for boiler conversation.

 

[JCinohio]

Don't think I will be jumping into one this season and if everything goes right I will be up in Michigan to race Gingerman... If I am heading that way you might be hearing from me. I did find a local distributor for WoodMaster and Empyre. Little bit of sticker shock on the Woodmaster and have heard about questionable build quality for the price, however that was from shoppers and not owners. The Empyre seem like they may have fixed their corrosion problem recently and 3g less for a 200kbtu, but only 800 between the 100kbtu. Installer seemed to imply WM required storage and the Empyre did not further increasing savings. I have the space in unfinished basement for storage and think it would be a good idea regardless of brand.

 

[MarkW]

We've got an office in Mason, though I'm not there often. If I do get down that way, I'll give you a shout. I'm still new with this but am learn a lot in this first season with a gasser.
Mine is going into a garage for next season, (new home build dependent) and judging by how well it heats my current temporary boiler shed from radiant, it would do well in the garage. Or radiant losses would do nicely in your unfinished basement,
Storage only needed depending on how you want to operate and perhaps a bit of improvement in efficiency w/o idling.

 

[bassJAM]

I bought a place in Batavia last year that had a wood stove set up in the basement. I'm still learning my system, and different wood stoves in general, but mine pumps the warm water up to a heat exchanger in my air ducts, and then my forced air system blows the warmed air though the house. Not sure what the technical term is for this.

After this past week I'm REALLY glad I never had to go outside to mess with the fire, I could go downstairs in shorts and a T-shirt to light it up and add a few logs! My system seems to be pretty efficient, I start a fire every evening and let it burn out sometime during the night. That provides enough energy to keep the house until the next evening. I'm guessing, based on using the system for half of last winter, and only half of this winter so far, that I'll use between 2.5 to 3 cords to keep my house warm. I think having my system inside helps a lot since it's only dealing with ambient temps in the 60's robbing heat as opposed to being outside.

For reference, I've got a brick ranch with 1800 sq ft, and keep the place at about 70 in the morning and the evening, and let it drop down to 65 when I'm gone and when we're sleeping. I think my system has about 500 gallons of water, but I haven't calculated for sure how much there is so I could be way off; it's possible it's much lower.

 

[JCinohio]

Hey guys sounds sweet I will start a conversation with each of you and exchange contact info, appreciate it.