What type of boiler to use?

[Glenner]

Hey guys I'm up in Northern Canada, It gets damn cold up here for very a long time!

I am currently building a 1200 sq.ft shop with a 1200sq.ft 2 bedroom home above on the second floor.
I need to figure out what type of radiant heating system and boiler to use.

The Shop Floor is a radiant heated concrete slab, and for heating the upstairs living area I would also like to use radiant heat via hydronic baseboards or running pex tube underneath the subfloor through the floor joists.
My question which one is better? Pex tube attached on bottom side of subfloor, or just use baseboards.

Then what type of boiler to use? I think an outdoor wood boiler would be way overkill for such a small place, and I would need a huge storage tank to allow the boiler have full burn cycles.
So I think an indoor wood boiler in the shop might be better. I am using wood because of all the timber from clearing the land. But I do need a backup system for when I'm away from home. So a Multi Fuel boiler, wood and oil unit might do the job?

Next Question: What brand and type of boiler?

I have been thinking about my heating system endlessly and need some input from others!
Any of your ideas or experiences with radiant heat are Welcome!

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

First of all gasification boiler, I wouldn't run anything else. You might want to also consider a Lambda controlled boiler, that way you can just toss the wood in, light it & walk away. Read the threads & you'll get up to speed fast. Welcome to Hearth, Randy

 

[woodsmaster]

For a wood boiler I would use the tubing under the floore rather than baseboard. baseboard usually requires higher temp water than the under floor pex.

 

[RobC]

Yucon sounds cold and snowy. Storing wood, at-least a couple weeks worth, loading and maintaining boiler sounds like an activity best suited for a shop or basement where your're out of the weather. Some also put a boiler in a wood shed between buildings or attached to one of the other buildings.
Welcome you've found a great place to ask questions. There are yellow "sticky" notes on top of boiler home page. Good reading.

 

[in hot water]

In slab, radiant is by far the most comfortable. Warm concrete is a joy to work on. For the home radiant floors in the bathrooms and kitchen, consider low temperature panel radiators for other areas. For sleeping areas radiators can be set back quickly and individually zoned with TRVs.

I heat 1800 square feet of shop, office and apt with an EKO 40 and @ 600 gallons of storage it controls just fine.

hr

 

[Glenner]

The temperature for today - 35 degrees Celsius and holding for a few more days. Its making me realize how reliable the boiler system needs to be!

Has anyone experience with combination wood/oil boilers? I want to use wood as primary and oil backup
And, Yes I will only go with a new gasification unit


thanks

 

[muncybob]

Man....that is COLD!! We expect around 5 to 9* F tonight so I guess we have nothing to complain about! Most people will tell you that the combo boilers are not the most efficient way to go and I would tend to agree. My boiler is wood and oil and I know the oil side is not as efficient as a dedicated oil boiler but we rarely use oil. It's intended purpose as back up only makes the efficiency of the oil very little concern to us. We have probably used less than 30 gallons since it was installed 9/09. I would def install your boiler indoors to take advantage of any residual heat loss rising into the living space above. Smoke may be an issue though so perhaps plan for some sort of exhaust to be as smoke free as possible. Our boiler is in our unfinished basement. We were going to install an exhaust fan of some sort but since getting over the "learning curve" with a new boiler we don't really have any smoke issues any longer.
One other thing I learned too late...and you will see it mentioned here many times is start getting your firewood now so it will be dry enough to properly burn when you finally get the boiuler up and running.