Some questions about wood boilers

[McGrai37]

Hello everyone, I've been looking into tieing a wood boiler into my house's system and had some questions I was hoping to get real life advice on. I don't have a good grasp on the technical aspects of this so please bear with me.

We bought a 2200sqft center hall colonial last year that had an oil fired boiler. We installed a pellet stove insert shortly after our first oil bill. Currently we just run the pellets but the house is pretty chilly except the stove room. I was looking into buying an add on wood boiler that I would put in the basement. The existing chimney has an unused flue I could use. In my head it was as simple as throwing some logs in when I had the time. It doesn't sound that simple though so I wanted to ask just how involved it is. Are add on boilers typically pressurized? How hard is it to control the temperature? Am I correct that the temp has to be kept between 140-220?

During my research I kept bumping into owbs. I love the idea of them because while nervous is too strong a word, I want to be very cautious with any fire hazard. Having the fire outside would be great. I live in a small village though and even if there was no code against it (haven't checked yet) I want to be a good neighbor. A friend told me about his outdoor pellet boiler and how it doesn't smoke so I investigated their site, Central Boiler. If I went with a pellet boiler Id do an interior one but I came across their gasification E series that claimed very little smoke. However, I found a news article about neighbors complaining about smoke from this same model. If I went that route Id put it behind my garage and use that to run a chimney higher. It wouldn't clear neighboring (or my own) roof but it would come out around mid second story. Do these style of boilers really not produce much smoke?

Sorry for the length and any missing details. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[maple1]

Are add on boilers typically pressurized? Yes

How hard is it to control the temperature? As long as the proper controls are in place, not hard - it would come down to tending the boiler as needed. And supplying PROPER fuel.

Am I correct that the temp has to be kept between 140-220? It shouldn't go over 200, and if it goes below 140 it won't give you heat - simply put. So, 'has to' depends on how much you want it to contribute to the warmth of the house and if you can be there to put wood in when needed to do that.

Do these style of boilers really not produce much smoke? They still smoke - 'much' is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[velvetfoot]

The upstairs in our 2000 ft2 colonial didn't always get warm with just the wood insert. I put in a pellet boiler and the wife is much happier now-it's working great. I buy wood in log lengths, but it's still not cheap; I figured $100/cord without my labor and materials, but that price is going up I hear. You'll have to probably buy wood, I imagine.

The boiler project could cost big money. You might be able to get some money from NYSERDA, but it'll have requirements that you have to meet, like outside storage for pellets (I BELIEVE). Not sure if money is available for wood gasifier. You'll save money since you already have a flue to the basement, but chances are you'll need a liner for it.

You don't have natural gas in your village? If you don't have it now, you may have it in the near future; gas distribution is expanding, supposedly, and a village is a concentration of potential customers. Maybe the utility can clue you in on any expansion plans, or maybe the PSC can. Natural gas would be the best.

 

[peakbagger]

OWBs in general smoke, they don't have to as long as there is a load on them but when the load drops and the firebox is full of wood, the only option is for the damper to close and that generates incomplete combustion and lot of foul smelling some and bad reputation with the neighbors. The installation could be improved with a large thermal storage tank but then the utility of the OWB would be reduced. Basically unless you own a large lot and are willing to put up with the smoke and wont impose it on neighbors, don't do it and spend the bucks to do it right with an indoor gasifier and a thermal storage tank. An outdoor pellet boiler might not smoke as it would only feed fuel when there as demand, but it would need bulk storage to feed it.