New System-Eko and Storage

[sdrobertson]

My question is for those of you that have a gasifier and storage in place and have been operating them for a while. Is there something that you know now that you wished you knew when you built your system. I think I have most everything figured out from reading the posts and asking a few questions but I'm just waiting for the weather to break so I can start construction and I want the best system I can build from scratch. I have the EKO already and the building plan set with the storage ready to start so what I'm looking for is the "darn-it, I wish I would have...."

 

[sled_mack]

My original underground pipes (pex) were used with an OWB I put in. I was talked into no overly insulating them, since there was continuous flow and much more loss off the OWB anyway. Big mistake, I know now. Probably 30% of my heat goes to the ground.

 

[hkobus]

I guess you would have found most points on this forum already. My number one would be this forum, second is to make it as flexible as possible as it seems that as a group we are learning a lot as we are going and as others are joining the group. My system has no storage yet, but will next season. This season was the test setup in a wooden shed, it will get moved to the shop I will start building in the next few months.
Then I will get into the control system(currently manual other than the eko unit)and thinking about PLC and tying in the pool and so on.
Good luck and stay tuned for more knowledge from this forum.

Henk.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Mine has all gone pretty much according to plan, although I did re-route a bunch of copper and then wound up tearing it back out and replacing it with PEX. But that's really a separate issue. We didn't have this forum a year ago when I started planning my system, so I know a lot more now than I did then. I guess if I had to do it over again I would work harder to keep it simple. I spent some money on fancy stuff that I haven't out how best to use yet, and by the time I do, I'll probably find something that would work better. So my advice would be: keep it simple, get it working well, research your upgrade options, then make an informed investment in time and money. I guess that would extend to the storage, if you're not sure what you want.

 

[sled_mack]

I'll second Hogstroker's recommendation of keeping it flexible. I've got a few valves and cross-connect pipes such that I can change the flow path in a bunch of different ways. Mostly, because 3 years ago I had no idea what was going to work and not work. The flow paths have come in useful at different times, like cold startup. Routing the water to the house, then through the storage, then to the boiler, gets hot water to the house right away, and the leftover heat goes into the tank. Or, I can just go boiler to house to boiler, completely bypassing the storage. Or I can split the flow boiler to house and boiler to storage. Each is useful under some condition.

 

[Nofossil]

I wish I had radiant to start with.

I wish I had added more hx surface area in the tank, especially for DHW preheat (I have only a 50' coil).

 

[barnartist]

I wish I had used bigger pipe, and extra tee's in the plumbing for later add ons. More valves like Sled_Mack. Over all, I wish I had more money too for all of those things.