Hi all,
As the title implies we just moved to a new house and with that came a Lopi Liberty woodstove and a Central Boiler E-classic 2400. We've been using the woodstove with moderate success but I have never operated or even seen a wood boiler before.
From all of the documentation it appears that the boiler was purchased from and installed by the Somersworth Stove Shop (New Hampshire) around 2012 or 2013. The boiler is located about 100' away from the house and 30' away from a barn. The piping runs into the basement where it heats a 4th zone off the boiler (oil fired, fhw) via a heat exchanger. I'm guessing this will provide heat to the house as well as hot water via the built in coil, but not positive on the latter though. The house itself is 2 stories with a partially finished basement and 1 zone per floor. The piping also runs to a small Modine heater in a finished room in the barn.
We just recently closed on the house but it was listed back in November. Since then I don't believe the boiler has been run. It may have not even been run at all this past fall.
So my questions are...
1. I can likely crack one of the drain valves in the basement to see if the lines still have fluid in them, but since it's not being used should it be drained if it currently isn't?
2. What type of fluid do they typically run? I'm assuming it's not water given the heat exchanger and the fact that the lines in the barn haven't frozen. Or maybe it's already been drained.
3. We've heated with wood for the past 6 years (mostly with a BK Princess) and will continue to do so, but the woodstove in the living room would manage that fairly well, especially if we decide to upgrade to a new CAT stove. My thought here is we likely don't need the OWB for heating the house, but I want to evaluate it first. What would be your recommendations for checking the boiler, lines, etc. and subsequently starting it up to test it out? We only have about a 1/2 cord of wood leftover from the house purchase but I think that should be enough to run it for a couple days to test it out. I was also thinking it could be a good idea to call the installer and have them test fire the unit. Can these be fired in the warmer weather to test them out or are colder temps a must?
4. I know this is very dependent on wood condition, house condition, house size and climate, but how much wood am I looking at using every winter to keep this boiler running? To eliminate some of the variable I would likely burn wood seasoned for 1+ year (Cut in fall for next winter). 2 year seasoned wood is possible but would take me a while to get there. The wood would be stored in a covered shed adjacent to the boiler. The house was built in 2000, 2x6 construction and seems fairly tight. There's a few air leaks around doors and such but I'll be working on those this summer. It's 2400 sqft across all three floors but we would (do) keep the basement @ 50 or 55. The rest of the house would be upper 60s. The location is central NH, so highs 20-30 with lows single digits to teens. Obviously a few colder and/or warmer weeks in there every winter it seems.
5. What is the normal reloading frequency? I've read that these boilers will eat wood if overloaded without adding any direct heat to the house and that it's best to load them twice a day with smaller loads as opposed to once or less a day with larger loads.
There's a lot of questions here so I apologize. Thanks in advance for any and all input provided!
As the title implies we just moved to a new house and with that came a Lopi Liberty woodstove and a Central Boiler E-classic 2400. We've been using the woodstove with moderate success but I have never operated or even seen a wood boiler before.
From all of the documentation it appears that the boiler was purchased from and installed by the Somersworth Stove Shop (New Hampshire) around 2012 or 2013. The boiler is located about 100' away from the house and 30' away from a barn. The piping runs into the basement where it heats a 4th zone off the boiler (oil fired, fhw) via a heat exchanger. I'm guessing this will provide heat to the house as well as hot water via the built in coil, but not positive on the latter though. The house itself is 2 stories with a partially finished basement and 1 zone per floor. The piping also runs to a small Modine heater in a finished room in the barn.
We just recently closed on the house but it was listed back in November. Since then I don't believe the boiler has been run. It may have not even been run at all this past fall.
So my questions are...
1. I can likely crack one of the drain valves in the basement to see if the lines still have fluid in them, but since it's not being used should it be drained if it currently isn't?
2. What type of fluid do they typically run? I'm assuming it's not water given the heat exchanger and the fact that the lines in the barn haven't frozen. Or maybe it's already been drained.
3. We've heated with wood for the past 6 years (mostly with a BK Princess) and will continue to do so, but the woodstove in the living room would manage that fairly well, especially if we decide to upgrade to a new CAT stove. My thought here is we likely don't need the OWB for heating the house, but I want to evaluate it first. What would be your recommendations for checking the boiler, lines, etc. and subsequently starting it up to test it out? We only have about a 1/2 cord of wood leftover from the house purchase but I think that should be enough to run it for a couple days to test it out. I was also thinking it could be a good idea to call the installer and have them test fire the unit. Can these be fired in the warmer weather to test them out or are colder temps a must?
4. I know this is very dependent on wood condition, house condition, house size and climate, but how much wood am I looking at using every winter to keep this boiler running? To eliminate some of the variable I would likely burn wood seasoned for 1+ year (Cut in fall for next winter). 2 year seasoned wood is possible but would take me a while to get there. The wood would be stored in a covered shed adjacent to the boiler. The house was built in 2000, 2x6 construction and seems fairly tight. There's a few air leaks around doors and such but I'll be working on those this summer. It's 2400 sqft across all three floors but we would (do) keep the basement @ 50 or 55. The rest of the house would be upper 60s. The location is central NH, so highs 20-30 with lows single digits to teens. Obviously a few colder and/or warmer weeks in there every winter it seems.
5. What is the normal reloading frequency? I've read that these boilers will eat wood if overloaded without adding any direct heat to the house and that it's best to load them twice a day with smaller loads as opposed to once or less a day with larger loads.
There's a lot of questions here so I apologize. Thanks in advance for any and all input provided!
