Stand alone indoor boiler?

[igibson27]

I've been reading up on the site for awhile, lots of good info. I'm currently heating about 3900 square feet with forced air and fuel oil furnace. The house is a rebuilt/expanded farm house, I don't know insulation specs, it feels tight compared to the house I grew up in but I know it has some holes. I've never heated the whole house winter long but shunting heat to about half the house I still used 1000 gallons last year.
I'm leaning towards a furnace like the kuuma vapor or caddy, probably the caddy with electric back up. My back up would only be used to keep the house above freezing if I leave for a few days. I also keep my connected 3 car garage warm with a wood stove, I would like to quit doing that and just use one unit (garage sits under 30x40 kitchen/living room, I feel this is my greatest heating load as it's most exposed)
So my question is, are there any indoor boilers that don't require thermal storage, I would add it eventually but I'm not sure if I can swing the expense all at once.
My sticking points are:
-Already set up for forced air.
-Largest heat load could fairly easly be converted to hydronic heat, in conjunction with the garage?
-lastly I really like the idea of thermal storage and maximizing efficiency but my understanding is heat exchanger to forced air is less than desirable.
-Cost is a consideration.
Beyond that, I farm and have hundreds of wooded acres at my disposal, have ample room for thermal storage and my furnace room is directly accessible through the garage, so I consider wood heat to be a no brainer.
I also figure a furnace will pay for itself in 2-3 years so I'm not too worried about living with this choice for the next 10-15 years.
Sorry about the long post, thanks in advance.
Ian
Also, I just have one interior chimney and I've heard bad things about combination units, which is why I like the electric backup. My buried fuel oil tank also needs replaced so this would be a good time to get rid of oil altogether.

 

[BoilerMan]

Welcome to Hearth!

Depending on your cost of propane I'd look in that direction. A nice condensing LP/Nat furnace (vented with PVC) can be had in the 1500-2000 range. That would keep your chimney for wood, get rid of your oil tank, and likely be MUCH cheaper to operate than electric resistance.

TS

 

[igibson27]

Thanks for the insight, I really have no idea whether the electric back up would be a viable option, like I said I would be used on a very limited basis.

 

[rkusek]

Another consideration is a/c unless you live where you don't need it. An air source heat pump with electric resistance backup would cover those bases pretty well as long as you have decent electric rates. Kuuma or Max Caddy sound like good options from what I have read. I have the eko with an water to air h/x because I heat a barn too.

 

[woodsmaster]

Electric is the cheapest back up to install by far, unless u have to upgrade your service, and make long hard to get to runs with the wire. Not so cheap to use though. Since your only wanting to heat one building and have duct work in place a furnace is going to be much more economical to install. Only downfall to the furnace in my opinion is no storage. Maybe you'll have to load it in the middle of the night when its bitter cold out ? Boiler and storage is an awesome system, but is it worth the extra 5, or 10 grand it will take ?

 

[woodsmaster]

And to answer your other question, some boilers can be run without storage. You have to be a little more careful sizing your boiler and fires or you will have a big creosote generator. Storage makes it so nice.

 

[hobbyheater]

I'm leaning towards a furnace like the kuuma vapor or caddy, probably the caddy with electric back up -Already set up for forced air.

IMO the Kuuma Vapor is your best choice, with an electric Duct Heater for back-up.

So my question is, are there any indoor boilers that don't require thermal storage, I would add it eventually but I'm not sure if I can swing the expense all at once.

The Garn does not require Thermal Storage, it's built in and does not require a conventional chimney as it is certified for a horizontal flue, but it is expensive.

Beyond that, I farm and have hundreds of wooded acres at my disposal.

Start cutting and splitting your wood NOW. Gasification likes dry wood! Does not matter what you buy, Water does not burn!

Welcome to "Hearth".

 

[Tennman]

Our home is much like yours, it grew as the family and cash flow grew (common in the 1800's). Consequently some of our rooms are quite far from the furnace space because the house grew away from the original root cellar. Our primary heat was forced air propane until we added the wood boiler. Once the water temp into the Heat Exchanger (HX) gets down to ~140-145F the far rooms get cool (kitchen and family room). You don't have to run storage right away, we haven't for 4 seasons, but will this year. Be nice to have radiant (I suppose based on what I've read here) and more efficient, but with forced air we just heat the downstairs and let the heat rise. Upstairs stays a nice sleeping temp about 5-8*F cooler than the downstairs. We use propane during shoulder seasons but this year with storage shouldn't need to use propane hardly at all. I really like just hot water entering our home. Customer feedback on the Kuma here has been very positive. The first year was rough due to poorly seasoned wood and system debugging, but running without storage kept our house warm, particularly last winter which was terrible. I have no regrets doing our system in stages. But expect that once we start running with storage I'll wish I'd have done it sooner. Point is we've run a gasser boiler without storage and a HX in our existing duct work and saved a ton in propane costs.

 

[igibson27]

Thanks a lot for the input, I really appreciate it. I know I could price one but could anyone tell me off hand, roughly where the prices start on the Garn?

 

[maple1]

I think a Garn Jr. is in the $10.5k region?

Not sure though.

 

[igibson27]

I don't want start a contentious issue but what are the notable differences between the Kuuma and caddy? I've read a lot of good things about both on here.