thinking an indoor boiler is what i need

[jeepin in maine]

well i'm having the same results as most seem to have trying to efficiently heat the main floor from the basement with a woodstove.84+ down there, 68ish up here.since i already have a complete oil fired forced hot water set up in the house i'm thinking an indoor wood boiler piggybacking it is what i need.
being fairly new to this idea i'm gonna need some help.i'm looking for something thats not ancient and will heat somewhat efficiently.if this goes well i'd like to upgrade to a gasification boiler in a few years.being new home owners,we're on a pretty tight budget.any recomendations on a decent affordable boiler that will get us by for 2-3 years?something with a fairely long burn that can easily be tyed into my existing boiler is what i want.if the wood boiler goes out,the oil takes over on its own type of deal.
am i on the right track?

 

[Eric Johnson]

Sounds like a good plan to me. Most any indoor wood-fired boiler will do what you want if it's piped correctly. Then, once you've got the piping in place, you can pop another one in its place when you're ready.

Buying a used boiler can be a crapshoot, but I've seen some used Tarms on Ebay and most of them seem to be in New England. So you might want to start there. An alternative might be to buy a new, lower-tech rig. If I was in the market for a non-gasifier, I'd seriously consider a cast-iron boiler. You might want to click the banner at the top of this page to see a wide selection of different boilers.

As the price of oil continues to rise, the payback on all this stuff just gets better and better.

One thing you'll need is a decent chimney. You can't vent an oil boiler and a wood boiler into the same flue, so bear that in mind.

Any other questions, just ask. Plenty of really qualified people here to help you out.

 

[jeepin in maine]

i have a separate chimney that my wood stove is currently hooked up to.......its about 15 feet away.that will work?am i correct in thinking that to hook it up its simply a matter of routing the cold water line from the well into the wood boiler,then the outlet from the wood boiler runs to the inlet on the oil furnace,and from there everything functions as it does now?does the wood boiler require a separate transfer pump?thermostat?i currently also heat my domestic hot water with the oil burner and have a 40 or 50 gallon storage tank.
can anyone either give me a quick rundown or direct me to some info regarding how these operate?
thanks for the banner link and the ebay idea.jeremy

 

[Nofossil]

i have a separate chimney that my wood stove is currently hooked up to.......its about 15 feet away.that will work?am i correct in thinking that to hook it up its simply a matter of routing the cold water line from the well into the wood boiler,then the outlet from the wood boiler runs to the inlet on the oil furnace,and from there everything functions as it does now?does the wood boiler require a separate transfer pump?thermostat?
can anyone either give me a quick rundown or direct me to some info regarding how these operate?
thanks for the banner link and the ebay idea.jeremy

In my case, I plumbed them so that the wood boiler and the oil boiler are in parallel. Both draw from the 'return' manifold, and both pump water into the 'supply' manifold. That configuration requires two pumps, one for each of the boilers. It also requires a check valve on each pump so that the wood boiler doesn't pump water backwards through the oil boiler and vice versa. Advantages: I can remove / replace either unit without affecting the other. I'm not heating the oil boiler when I'm burning wood. Each unit is completely independent - failure in one does not affect the other.

There's a plumbing block diagram on my website - link is in my signature below. Lots of things I'm doing aren't relevant, but the left hand side of the diagram sounds like what you're looking at.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I forgot about the wood stove. If the chimney is in good condition and sized right for the boiler, it should work fine.

Since you already have a boiler hooked up to your heating system, putting another one right along side it (or wherever) shouldn't be too difficult. Like nofossil says, it should be fairly straightforward once you (or whoever) understands what needs to be done.

 

[jeepin in maine]

what are the downfalls to plumbing it in series versus parallel?
any opinions on these set ups?

http://cgi.ebay.com/WOOD-BURNING-ST...ryZ41987QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

(broken link removed to http://maine.craigslist.org/hsh/497210249.html)

(broken link removed to http://nh.craigslist.org/hsh/504577733.html)

(broken link removed to http://nh.craigslist.org/hsh/504577733.html)

 

[Nofossil]

what are the downfalls to plumbing it in series versus parallel?

Others may have more insights. For my part, I don't want to have to heat all the mass in both boilers when I want heat. I expect that they would both lose heat up the chimney even when they're not being fired. I also have isolation valves so I can replace or service either unit without interrupting heat to the house.

 

[jeepin in maine]

so the way yours are set up....you have cold water enering both boilers,and hot water entering the distribution log(for lack of a better term) from both/either as well?then you use a check valve where each enters the log to prevent back flow to the cold boiler....correct?

 

[Nofossil]

so the way yours are set up....you have cold water enering both boilers,and hot water entering the distribution log(for lack of a better term) from both/either as well?then you use a check valve where each enters the log to prevent back flow to the cold boiler....correct?

Precisely. Actually, the check valves are integral to the circulators (Taco 007ifc pumps). I never have more than one heat source active at a time, though.

 

[Tarmsolo60]

Every system is kind of unique as for where to tie into, but you tee the wood boiler supply and return into the same pipes as the oil boiler supply and return. make sure if you valve off the oil boiler your system still can vent excess air, has a feed water valve(can be the same one if not valved off with oil boiler), and expansion tank(might need upsizing due to added water in the system), and of course a circulator for the wood boiler.

 

[rreihart]

If its of any help, here's how I piped mine. The piping is probably a bit hard to see in the photo, but it is similar to the layout in the drawing. I don't have the storage tank hooked up yet. On the left side of the piping there are 3) ball valves that I will tie into. Please excuse the romex and the thrown together controls. It's still a work in progress.

 

[enthusiast]

i have fitted 5 or 6 of these gasification wood boilers.not the same make as the one in your picture,but as far as i know they all work on the same principle.
.you need to fit a 4 way mixing valve to the wood boiler.it allows some of the hot water out of the boiler back into the return.this will help ihprove fuel efficency and prolong the life of the boiler

 

[Eric Johnson]

Welcome to the Boiler Room, enthusiast. I believe you're our first Irish member.

That's BioMax gasification boiler in the picture. Similar to an EKO, but with negative draft an a curved refractory gasification chamber.

What types of gasification boilers can you get in Ireland? What types have you installed?

 

[enthusiast]

The boilers i have fitted are all the same type Rusztowania irleh imported directly from poland.Type in IRLEH.KOTLY.PL and you should find them.Everyone seems very happy with them.the cost of heating oil here is very high.
Also try kotly.com here you will find a wide range of boilers at very reasonable prices and all the associated equipment to go with them.