OWB info/guidance request

[moresnow]

In a nutshell I am posting this for a buddy of mine who is young, busy working, and has little spare time to research. I am old, not working, and spend a large amount of time with woodstoves/firewood and all that's related etc.

Anyway. I told him I would do some digging to see what I could find out for him. Tyler is well seasoned in freestanding stoves and all the related firewood burning life. He currently has a stove in the basement of his 1500-1800 sq ft ranch with full basement. He also has a stove in his 2 stall mancave/shop. He runs a BK Princess and a Drolet HT2000 respectively. The home has a 5 yr old forced air L.P. furnace and L.P. hot water heater as well.

Tyler has made up his mind he is going to purchase/install a OWB to service both the home and shed. Both are well insulated with good windows/sealing etc. He would like to utilize the OWB for DHW also. I was guessing a plenum mounted heat exchanger in the house and whatever exchanger is used for the shop.

Any words of wisdom on make/model/install procedure etc. that we should be considering?

 

[salecker]

Hi and welcome
Myself i have a dedicated boiler building with a gasification boiler and storage.
DHW from a boiler isn't free.Electric will be way cheaper especially when your living space doesn't require heat.My heating system is shut down from May to end of Sept. I would like to add a solar side to it to utilize my storage for a greenhouse durring the Off season.I beilive i would cut a couple months of burning wood off the current schedule.
The list of install-able OWB is pretty short,if you are doing a legal install.
Doing a proper heating system with a boiler and storage isn't cheap.I am sure i have over 50K in mine including my time.
My system takes all the flame sources out of my home,which is my fire insurance.There is a volunteer fire department,which no insurance company recognizes.
Read lots on here,thats what i did when i found Hearth.
If i hadn't found this site i would have bought a piece of crap water heater,and bad underground lines and my money would have been wasted.My first few winters would have been a constant struggle to maintain enough BTU's to heat the house and the ground with a poor water heater and crappy lines.
Instead my system has been trouble free and shows no signs of aging other than the soot from smoke rollout.

 

[moresnow]

Thanks for the reply. I believe the water use here would only be during burning season. L.P. otherwise. Lots of things to consider.

 

[Medic21]

Hi and welcome
Myself i have a dedicated boiler building with a gasification boiler and storage.
DHW from a boiler isn't free.Electric will be way cheaper especially when your living space doesn't require heat.My heating system is shut down from May to end of Sept. I would like to add a solar side to it to utilize my storage for a greenhouse durring the Off season.I beilive i would cut a couple months of burning wood off the current schedule.
The list of install-able OWB is pretty short,if you are doing a legal install.
Doing a proper heating system with a boiler and storage isn't cheap.I am sure i have over 50K in mine including my time.
My system takes all the flame sources out of my home,which is my fire insurance.There is a volunteer fire department,which no insurance company recognizes.
Read lots on here,thats what i did when i found Hearth.
If i hadn't found this site i would have bought a piece of crap water heater,and bad underground lines and my money would have been wasted.My first few winters would have been a constant struggle to maintain enough BTU's to heat the house and the ground with a poor water heater and crappy lines.
Instead my system has been trouble free and shows no signs of aging other than the soot from smoke rollout.

Ummmm....

our volunteer Fire Department has an ISO rating of 3 so, speak for your local only....

 

[Medic21]

Wood usage will drastically increase. Positives, the mess is outside along with the risk. Very easy to run.

cons would be price numberand wood usage.

look for stainless boilers and don’t skimp on the line set going to the buildings.

 

[andym]

Check out the Polar Furnace (boiler) and Heatmaster and Crown Royal. None require additional storage, but may see a modest increase in efficiency if added. There are other option also but these seem to have best reviews around here.

 

[salecker]

Ummmm....

our volunteer Fire Department has an ISO rating of 3 so, speak for your local only....

I live in the bush a population of 800 in the surrounding area rural Yukon.
there is a major difference i am sure.No insurance company i talked with recognizes the volunteer department here
My brother is the Chief of the volunteer fire department,and that makes zero difference to insurance company's.
Going into year 13 with my system,it's paid for just in insurance savings,not to mention the piece of mind of owning a heating system that functions great at -40C and colder.

 

[E Yoder]

One of the smaller gasification models would do well.
Go stainless for sure.
You won't have 50k in it if you'd just doing a flat plate for dhw and a coil in the duct, it's just a loop through the heat exchangers.
A hanging style unit heater in the garage will take care of that. Use good insulated pipe, you won't regret it.
The HeatMaster G series and several other brands qualify for a 26% tax credit, which helps.

 

[moresnow]

One of the smaller gasification models would do well.
Go stainless for sure.
You won't have 50k in it if you'd just doing a flat plate for dhw and a coil in the duct, it's just a loop through the heat exchangers.
A hanging style unit heater in the garage will take care of that. Use good insulated pipe, you won't regret it.
The HeatMaster G series and several other brands qualify for a 26% tax credit, which helps.

I'll have a look at the NeatMaster G series. Feel free to list the other brands worth researching.

 

[salecker]

At the moment the list is pretty short if you want an EPA approved boiler

 

[E Yoder]

I think Crown Royal has approved models. Central Boiler does also but the water jacket is mild steel last I knew.
I'm not sure on Polar.
That's all I can think of on outdoor boilers.

 

[salecker]

I know Econoburn is working on their EPA certification.
They got caught behind the corrona 8 ball when it hit.
The testing facility is in Canada where they had booked time to test and certify.