I am a few berrs in but my fiancé is out for her bachelorette party so lets see what I can finally put together...
first off, big thanks to hearth.com this all would have been much more difficult without the resources and people here. heck, i probably would have gotten a smoke dragon if i didn't find this site in time!
i had the option to put the boiler outside or in the barn 120' away from house or rearrange the basement a bit to accommodate it there.
GOALS:
get off the oil! went through 1000 gallons the first 12 months living in new house.
have a system easy to operate with simple controls that I could diagnose and repair myself
automatically turn over to oil backup
reload no more than twice a day for most of the coldest days of winter.
easy to clean.
EXTRAS:
not have a fire going full time
DHW in summer
keep wood mess out of house
use local boiler dealer
serious contenders were portage and main, woodgun and varms. easy to diagnose and repair ruled out higher end models with computers or even digital displays. i ruled out the P&M because where i would have to store my wood on property would be behind barn. i would want outdoor unit next to wood supply so i might as well put the unit in the barn. P&M are expensive but the best OWB i have seen.
Vedolux pros:
controls: fan timer, stack temp probe to shutoff fan at end of burn, overheat probe to shutoff fan. all off the shelf electronics behind the panel. easy peasy.
one full load yields half millions BTUs. not constant fire. cost effective. insulated well.
cons:
NEEDS storage. (those that have run both ways look at this as a pro...)
requires pricey loading unit. small firebox
WG pros:
easy controls. more industrial. no need to relight fires. big firebox.
cons: big, heavy, expensive. gives off a good deal of heat. harder to do DHW in summer without storage.
I was able to get a deal on a show model vedo37 with loading unit so I went with it in the barn. if i was set on putting the boiler in the house i probably would have went for the WG. it would give off heat to the living space and save room not needing storage. wouldn't bother with DHW in summer then. IMO a WG with storage omits the whole selling point of the WG and you would be better off with a different boiler. vedo with storage ended up pricing the same as a WG.
some specs:
2x 500gallon used propane tanks.
120' run to barn with 1-1/4" oxygen barrier pex. 6" all around insulation there with 1-2" in boiler room and 5-6" on tanks.
lk810 loading unit and bumble bee circulator to house.
6" class A chimney
thread on storage tanks: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/sending-500-gallon-tanks-verticle.107273/
cleaning them tanks: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...d-hole-in-bottom-of-tank.106945/#post-1396805
thread on spray foam: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/spray-foam-guys-were-here-some-pics.109080/#post-1461187
bumble bee: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/taco-bumble-bee.105857/#post-1383834
i am only heating DHW at this point, but for the past 8 weeks i have been very pleased. i am going 4-5 days between burns and it takes 7-8 cubic feet of wood to recharge. i don't know what it is like to heat with wood if you dont have storage, but storage is a breeze to work with. put wood in, light, walk away. i know that once the bottom of my tanks is up to 140* then it takes one more load of wood (3.2? cubic feet to reach full charge). stratification is awesome. i sized the storage such that in the cold of winter if high of the day is in the teens then i should need two loads per day. i park truck in barn after work and pull it out in the morning so this should only add 5-10 minutes to my routine. it is really that quick and easy. a reload before bed should be needed if in the single digits. my only complaint is that i wish that the firebox and door were 50% or so bigger.
i still need to get the x-300 temp monitor hooked up. this will allow me to pull up storage temp info from any computer. it also has relays that i can use to turn on the oil burner if storage temps fall below desired temp. this is probably the most complicated part of the system and it aint all that bad.
also need to get sheetrock up in boiler room (future man cave) and doors put on as funding permits.
payback period should be 3.5 years. i hope to use about 6 cord a year including 1 for summer DHW. house is 2400 square feet not including basement, 2x6 construction with lots of windows, on top of mountain getting hit with cold air blowing across the delaware valley all winter. so we shall see!
im sure i am missing some thing i wanted to say. oh yeah, pics to follow...
first off, big thanks to hearth.com this all would have been much more difficult without the resources and people here. heck, i probably would have gotten a smoke dragon if i didn't find this site in time!
i had the option to put the boiler outside or in the barn 120' away from house or rearrange the basement a bit to accommodate it there.
GOALS:
get off the oil! went through 1000 gallons the first 12 months living in new house.
have a system easy to operate with simple controls that I could diagnose and repair myself
automatically turn over to oil backup
reload no more than twice a day for most of the coldest days of winter.
easy to clean.
EXTRAS:
not have a fire going full time
DHW in summer
keep wood mess out of house
use local boiler dealer
serious contenders were portage and main, woodgun and varms. easy to diagnose and repair ruled out higher end models with computers or even digital displays. i ruled out the P&M because where i would have to store my wood on property would be behind barn. i would want outdoor unit next to wood supply so i might as well put the unit in the barn. P&M are expensive but the best OWB i have seen.
Vedolux pros:
controls: fan timer, stack temp probe to shutoff fan at end of burn, overheat probe to shutoff fan. all off the shelf electronics behind the panel. easy peasy.
one full load yields half millions BTUs. not constant fire. cost effective. insulated well.
cons:
NEEDS storage. (those that have run both ways look at this as a pro...)
requires pricey loading unit. small firebox
WG pros:
easy controls. more industrial. no need to relight fires. big firebox.
cons: big, heavy, expensive. gives off a good deal of heat. harder to do DHW in summer without storage.
I was able to get a deal on a show model vedo37 with loading unit so I went with it in the barn. if i was set on putting the boiler in the house i probably would have went for the WG. it would give off heat to the living space and save room not needing storage. wouldn't bother with DHW in summer then. IMO a WG with storage omits the whole selling point of the WG and you would be better off with a different boiler. vedo with storage ended up pricing the same as a WG.
some specs:
2x 500gallon used propane tanks.
120' run to barn with 1-1/4" oxygen barrier pex. 6" all around insulation there with 1-2" in boiler room and 5-6" on tanks.
lk810 loading unit and bumble bee circulator to house.
6" class A chimney
thread on storage tanks: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/sending-500-gallon-tanks-verticle.107273/
cleaning them tanks: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...d-hole-in-bottom-of-tank.106945/#post-1396805
thread on spray foam: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/spray-foam-guys-were-here-some-pics.109080/#post-1461187
bumble bee: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/taco-bumble-bee.105857/#post-1383834
i am only heating DHW at this point, but for the past 8 weeks i have been very pleased. i am going 4-5 days between burns and it takes 7-8 cubic feet of wood to recharge. i don't know what it is like to heat with wood if you dont have storage, but storage is a breeze to work with. put wood in, light, walk away. i know that once the bottom of my tanks is up to 140* then it takes one more load of wood (3.2? cubic feet to reach full charge). stratification is awesome. i sized the storage such that in the cold of winter if high of the day is in the teens then i should need two loads per day. i park truck in barn after work and pull it out in the morning so this should only add 5-10 minutes to my routine. it is really that quick and easy. a reload before bed should be needed if in the single digits. my only complaint is that i wish that the firebox and door were 50% or so bigger.
i still need to get the x-300 temp monitor hooked up. this will allow me to pull up storage temp info from any computer. it also has relays that i can use to turn on the oil burner if storage temps fall below desired temp. this is probably the most complicated part of the system and it aint all that bad.
also need to get sheetrock up in boiler room (future man cave) and doors put on as funding permits.
payback period should be 3.5 years. i hope to use about 6 cord a year including 1 for summer DHW. house is 2400 square feet not including basement, 2x6 construction with lots of windows, on top of mountain getting hit with cold air blowing across the delaware valley all winter. so we shall see!
im sure i am missing some thing i wanted to say. oh yeah, pics to follow...