Newbie needs a boiler room

[yooper rich]

I have been lurking this site for a long time and would like to thank all you experts for this great source of information. We are building our retirement home, which will have a crawl space, in the U.P. of Michigan and I want to do things right the first time. Before finding this site I thought we would be heating with an OWB which is what my neighbor's and relatives have. I am now looking at gasifiers and need to decide on the best location for it. First, I am thinking we could make the attached garage a three car and put a boiler room in there. I think the insurance man would be ok with that. Second, we would build a separate boiler room/building near the house. The insurance man might like this option better, but it doesn't seem like the best idea. Third, we could install it in our 32 X 36 storage garage which is 120 feet from the house. Too far to walk in a blizzard.

If putting a separate boiler room in the attached garage is the way to go what size should the room be for the gassifier and perhaps a STSS storage tank?

Thank you, again, for the education on efficient wood heating.

Rich

 

[Eric Johnson]

Hi Rich.

I think it's against code to put a wood-burning appliance in an attached garage, so you should check on that. But I'm pretty sure you could put it into a separate area built onto or within the garage, so long as it can't be accessed directly through the garage and the air supply comes from outside. If you're building from scratch, that would be what I'd do. Just have a separate entrance to the boiler room.

The best place to put your storage would be in the crawl space, I think, though you could certainly put it in or near the boiler room itself. Unlike the boiler, the storage can be in the garage itself. One nice thing about that is that you could then heat the garage to some extent by simply pulling back some of the insulation around the tank. One of our members, jebatty, does that in his workshop/boiler room.

Anyway, welcome to the Boiler Room. I'm glad we've been of some help.

 

[leaddog]

I put my storage on the back of my house. I have 4-500gal propane tanks standing upright build against the back wall in a 5ftx16ft addition. This is working out great. The back wall was a west wall that was not that well insulated and now any heat loss tends to go into the house. But I must add there is almost no loss as it is super insulated but that makes a super insulated wall. The wall against the house has 3-1/2 in of foam pellets then 4in of walkin freezer panel then 12in of blown insulation. The other three sides have triple wall 4in freezer panels with 12in of blown insulation
My boiler is 100ft away in a shed.
This works out well as I'm only running heat underground when I run the boiler, The storage is right at the house so heat is where I need it, and any standby loss is in the house. I have a closed system which makes every thing work better and less need for hx, gives high boiler temp, and less worry of corosion problems, and the best part is lower cost for storage. 4 propane tanks only cost $1000, picked up here.
If you are building your house you can very easily fit it into your design.
leaddog

 

[yooper rich]

Thanks, I can enclose a room in the attached garage with a separate enterence from outside. There would also be a window in the boiler room.

 

[smokinj]

No local codes here on garage installs (insurance is ok with it) I was worried when seen this thread the frist i have heard of this.I called a local fire place shop frist they said no problem,then just to make sure i called my insurane agent no problem as long as the clearnce is there! Thought i was going to fire up the tools this weekend.

 

[flyingcow]

No local codes here on garage installs (insurance is ok with it) I was worried when seen this thread the frist i have heard of this.I called a local fire place shop frist they said no problem,then just to make sure i called my insurane agent no problem as long as the clearnce is there! Thought i was going to fire up the tools this weekend.

You might want to get that in writing(I have no local codes either), or at least keep records of the conversation and with who. Big no no is having any entrance from boiler room to garage. Some even might require fire rated wall, which is not a big deal. Usually double rock wall or fire rated rock. If I was to build a house over, I would have a breeze way/mud room with radiant floor. As I walk out of the house thru the breezeway, one door into garage, then another few feet down the hall another door to the boiler room with attached wood storage.

I put my boiler in an unattached garage, but I had to "reclassify" the garage as a wood storage building. Promise not to store any gas/fuel or equipment in it. It's quite full of wood and other non-fuel stuff.

Just my 2 cents

 

[flyingcow]

Yooper,
My boiler room(just the boiler in it, with chimney also) is about 12x7 with a high ceiling(10ft).

 

[smokinj]

No local codes here on garage installs (insurance is ok with it) I was worried when seen this thread the frist i have heard of this.I called a local fire place shop frist they said no problem,then just to make sure i called my insurane agent no problem as long as the clearnce is there! Thought i was going to fire up the tools this weekend.

You might want to get that in writing(I have no local codes either), or at least keep records of the conversation and with who. Big no no is having any entrance from boiler room to garage. Some even might require fire rated wall, which is not a big deal. Usually double rock wall or fire rated rock. If I was to build a house over, I would have a breeze way/mud room with radiant floor. As I walk out of the house thru the breezeway, one door into garage, then another few feet down the hall another door to the boiler room with attached wood storage.

I put my boiler in an unattached garage, but I had to "reclassify" the garage as a wood storage building. Promise not to store any gas/fuel or equipment in it. It's quite full of wood and other non-fuel stuff.

Just my 2 cents

yea after knowing the code I will chance it what iam thinking here let me know if this will work a wall across the whole back of garage double 5/8 with a another door leading in to the furance room? would this meet the code?

 

[smokinj]

dont forget that wood needs air to burn & a small ,tight room may not do the trick

i have cold air return and if needed put in vent

 

[yooper rich]

Thanks again. I did talk to the building inspector in the town where we are building and with my insurance agent where I am now living. The problem is when I mention the word gasifier they get a look on their face like I'm talking another language. However, they both seemed to be alright with a room with no enterence to the rest of the garage. The insurance guy said he would take pictures and I would still want something in writing.

 

[sdrobertson]

Look up "start of a pole barn" thread and it shows my setup. I have a unattached polebarn with a 13 by 24ft boiler portion that holds 4 - 500 gallon propane tanks, enough room for 7 cords of firewood, and the boiler. I'm pretty happy with this setup.