Hi All,
First time posting for me. Wish I found this place three years ago. You guys are the guru's of wood gasification.
Been cruising these threads for the past few weeks to the point where my wife thought it was some sort of online afair (I'm starting to agree).
I live in a 3,600 sq ft cape in north central CT with a heated 2 car garage (hydronic unit heater) and a soon to be finished 1500 sq ft basement (partial walkout). We're in the midst of building a two floor barn over a 36 x 50 slab of radiant heated concrete 6" thick. the second floor will most likely be heated with two unit heaters. also in the mix is my 500 gal hot tub (heavily insulated). The house and the barn are designed with 2x6 (R19) walls and blown in cellulose (R30+) ceilings. My thoughts are leaning toward simplicity. I've seen a GW in action and was very impressed with it's simplicity. Then I read of all the GW problems here. The Tarm my neighbor owns seemed very impressive until I realized my wife and kids would be very confused and would probably screw it up (no offense to my family but they leave all the technical stuff to me). Then I visited Tom Caldwell and his very well designed system run off a Garn 1900 (Thanks for letting Rich and I ruin your sunday). I love the Garn and told my wife all about the simplicty of it. The only draw back to the Garn is the SIZE of it. Does any one here have any thoughts or experience on the Seton Boiler with storage.
I'm leaning toward the purchase of a Seton 130 model placed in a small addition off my garage (or possibly the barn if its finished before next fall) with insulated pipes running to the barn (140'), the out door hot tub (80'), a home built indoor 1000 gal storage tank (80'), and my existing boiler (80'). I've also plan to move the hot tub off the patio to a new concrete slab with radiant heat capability. Probably wouldn't waste the btu's on the outdoor slab except to impress friends during cold weather parties. The final heat demand will be a @ 4' x 40' sidewalk and pavered steps with additional 4' x 10' sidewalk at top. Sure would love some radiant ice melt under those areas because of the NW exposure.
I'm not sold on any boiler or design yet so i welcome any and all advice.
thanks again TCaldwell for all your wisdom and the tour of your system. I hope you don't mind future calls or e-mails for advice.
First time posting for me. Wish I found this place three years ago. You guys are the guru's of wood gasification.
Been cruising these threads for the past few weeks to the point where my wife thought it was some sort of online afair (I'm starting to agree).
I live in a 3,600 sq ft cape in north central CT with a heated 2 car garage (hydronic unit heater) and a soon to be finished 1500 sq ft basement (partial walkout). We're in the midst of building a two floor barn over a 36 x 50 slab of radiant heated concrete 6" thick. the second floor will most likely be heated with two unit heaters. also in the mix is my 500 gal hot tub (heavily insulated). The house and the barn are designed with 2x6 (R19) walls and blown in cellulose (R30+) ceilings. My thoughts are leaning toward simplicity. I've seen a GW in action and was very impressed with it's simplicity. Then I read of all the GW problems here. The Tarm my neighbor owns seemed very impressive until I realized my wife and kids would be very confused and would probably screw it up (no offense to my family but they leave all the technical stuff to me). Then I visited Tom Caldwell and his very well designed system run off a Garn 1900 (Thanks for letting Rich and I ruin your sunday). I love the Garn and told my wife all about the simplicty of it. The only draw back to the Garn is the SIZE of it. Does any one here have any thoughts or experience on the Seton Boiler with storage.
I'm leaning toward the purchase of a Seton 130 model placed in a small addition off my garage (or possibly the barn if its finished before next fall) with insulated pipes running to the barn (140'), the out door hot tub (80'), a home built indoor 1000 gal storage tank (80'), and my existing boiler (80'). I've also plan to move the hot tub off the patio to a new concrete slab with radiant heat capability. Probably wouldn't waste the btu's on the outdoor slab except to impress friends during cold weather parties. The final heat demand will be a @ 4' x 40' sidewalk and pavered steps with additional 4' x 10' sidewalk at top. Sure would love some radiant ice melt under those areas because of the NW exposure.
I'm not sold on any boiler or design yet so i welcome any and all advice.
thanks again TCaldwell for all your wisdom and the tour of your system. I hope you don't mind future calls or e-mails for advice.
