My Adobe, kinda like a greenwood, leaks so much heat it keeps my boiler room at 150* now when it 40* out. In the dead of winter zero or so it gets down to 120* or so although it can hardly keep the water temp at 140*. Anyway the skin and especially the front are hot, the front sometimes over 400*, so it keeps the room hot. I am glad its not in the house as its so d--m smoky my wife would put me in it. I had one pipe-fitter estimate that it has to be loosing at least 50,000 btu. I think he may be low. What does anyone think I could use to insulate the boiler and still be able to get wood in it and open up the back for cleaning. I sure wish summer would get here so I'd quit burning but I surely like the warm floors, I miss them in the summer.
Re-insulating a boiler
- Thread starter muleman51
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You could try making a jacket for it out of polyiso. You would have to leave panels to get in to load and clean.
They make boiler wrap. It is foil faced insulation. Not sure what the temperature rating is on the stuff. Try your local heating supply shop. If the outside of the Adobe is that hot, most likely the inner insulation has become so degraded that it letting all that heat out of the boiler. I have seen two other Adobe's just like it. The insulation board has become so water loged and has been exposed and absorbed so much cresote that it is almost useless. I bet the boiler outer skins rot/rust out by next fall.
I am not real positive about the insulation thickness in the Adobe, but one option might be to use vermiculite cement.
This was used in the old Madawaska and Jetstream boilers with good results.
A friend of mine built a wood chip/ pellet burner that was an add on to his oil boiler. Instead of refractory, he used vermiculite cement
which functioned as refractory and insulation. The unit plugged in, in place of the oil burner.
I am very skeptical of its usability as a refractory, but it is an excellent insulator.
How you make the big slabs that are necessary for insulating an Adobe, I am not sure, but you might reinforce it with some hardware cloth.
My 2 cents worth.
This was used in the old Madawaska and Jetstream boilers with good results.
A friend of mine built a wood chip/ pellet burner that was an add on to his oil boiler. Instead of refractory, he used vermiculite cement
which functioned as refractory and insulation. The unit plugged in, in place of the oil burner.
I am very skeptical of its usability as a refractory, but it is an excellent insulator.
How you make the big slabs that are necessary for insulating an Adobe, I am not sure, but you might reinforce it with some hardware cloth.
My 2 cents worth.
i have adobe was given wrong directions when i bought it so last year my son rebuilt it we doubled the insulation on top and both sides along with the back then used 1/4 in steel for the skins and put fire brick all the way up both sidesand the back ,he then added a 30 plate heat exchanger,sothe 7 gal of water was only going from stoveout the back too the exchanger and then back to stove.this cut down on wwod usage as before the water was traveling over 500 ffet out of stove and then back,and the water temputure would drop from 180 down to 120 before it would begin to climb back thus useing a lot more wood./
I'd do something along the lines of what mosher did. Make sure you overlap the insulation in the corners to get a good seal and use some kind of sealant on the skins. Air tight is the key to making these things perform correctly.
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