Need Wood Boiler Advice

[sandman59]

I am planning on retiring my small indoor wood boiler with a larger outside boiler. After an upcoming addition project, my 20 year old ranch style house will be 2000 sq ft., not including the finished portion of the basement. I have a couple of choices, either go with an OWB or enclose a portion of my wood shed and go with a gasification boiler. I have narrowed my choice on the OWB to the Central Boiler Classis 4030 or a Cozeburn 250MS. Yesterday I went to see a Econoburn EBW150 in action and was very impressed with the entire boiler. The cost I was quoted was quite a bit over what I wanted to spend. I emailed my nearest EKO dealer for more information including the cost of the EKO 40.

Is the worth spending the extra money for the Econoburn or the EKO? In the case of the Econoburn, the payback for the entire system, including converting part of wood shed into a boiler room, will be an estimated 7 years. The OWB payback will be about 4-1/2 years. Any thoughts or opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Rich

 

[DenaliChuck]

Word around here is that the OWB's burn less efficiently which translates into needing more wood to produce the same heat as a gasifier boiler. A 4.5 year payback could require a lot more work collecting and handling wood.

DC

 

[Eric Johnson]

Welcome to the Boiler Room, Rich.

You can expect to burn about twice as much wood with a typical OWB compared to a gasifier, and produce a lot of smoke. As DC suggests, you need to factor your wood cost and/or effort (storage, gathering, cutting, splitting, etc.) into the equation. And, since OWBs are starting to be banned in some communities and (effectively) in some states, that's another thing to consider. You don't want your 4.5-year payback period to be cut short when the law forces you to stop using it.

I bet you can replace your indoor wood boiler with an appropriately-sized EKO or Econoburn, thus saving a lot of money on underground piping, standby heat losses, etc.

 

[sandman59]

Eric, thanks for the welcome. I really would like to have the boiler outside the house for the usual reasons...dirt, bugs, smoke, but also, I do not have a walk-in basement. Every piece of wood has to be thrown down into the basement. I know the value of a boiler's efficency, but with the remodeling project, I only have so much in the budget for the new heating system. I am really having a tough time with this decision because I know what the right thing to do, but having problems with the cost. If the EKO 40 comes in less expensive compared to the Econoburn, it may be the solution.

On Ebay there are underground PEC piping with a quad wrap of insulation inside a 4" plastic field pipe. It is advertised at R-18. Has anyone used this particular product? It is about 1/2 the cost of the pipe I was quoted.

Rich