# Froling P4 for sale CHEAP....... well relatively cheap....



## AndrewChurchill (Mar 1, 2010)

http://burlington.craigslist.org/for/1617905271.html

Drop it another $5,000 and I'd be interested!


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## Nofossil (Mar 1, 2010)

Interesting. While $15,000 is a lot for a boiler, consider that this beast has automatic ignition and automatic bulk feed. With the included buffer tank, it's about as close to an oil boiler as you'll get in terms of unattended operation. I've seen one up close and personal - a very impressive piece of technology.

I could see my mother having one of these. I really couldn't see her using a Garn or even my EKO.


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## AndrewChurchill (Mar 2, 2010)

True.  However, my Harman has auto ignition and for $1500 I can add a 1500 pound hopper.  I could by two Harman's with bulk feed for the sale price of one Froling.


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## SolarAndWood (Mar 2, 2010)

How does the material handling work for a system like that?  Do you have skids of bags of pellets around and load 30+ at a time into the hopper?   $15K doesn't seem like a whole lot more than a wood boiler/storage setup and you can't put anywhere near 1500 lbs worth of btus in a propane tank.


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## Gooserider (Mar 3, 2010)

SolarAndWood said:
			
		

> How does the material handling work for a system like that?  Do you have skids of bags of pellets around and load 30+ at a time into the hopper?   $15K doesn't seem like a whole lot more than a wood boiler/storage setup and you can't put anywhere near 1500 lbs worth of btus in a propane tank.



There aren't to many places in the US that do it, although there are some, but in the EU I'm told that most people that burn pellets do bulk purchases, where they have a truck full of pellets pull up and dump a seasons worth right in the hopper - no bags or handling involved...  More or less the same level of convenience as having an oil company truck come by and fill your tank.  You still have to clean out the ashes periodically, but it approaches dinosaur burning for convenience...

Gooserider


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## SolarAndWood (Mar 3, 2010)

That is pretty compelling other than paying someone to come by with a truck full of pellets.


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## Chris Hoskin (Mar 3, 2010)

bulk pellets are normally a bit less expensive than bagged.  However, the whole bulk deal depends on being reasonably close to the pellet mill.


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## SolarAndWood (Mar 3, 2010)

My guess is the price of pellets is the reason this boiler is for sale.


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## Gooserider (Mar 3, 2010)

SolarAndWood said:
			
		

> My guess is the price of pellets is the reason this boiler is for sale.


Could be, though my impression from the add is that it looked more like a business trying to sell the unit - it looked more like professional add copy than something a private person would write about his own system, and there was no mention of having to uninstall it, or things like delivery vs. pickup...   My guess would be a business that got the unit in as inventory or some such and found it didn't move so they are trying to get out from under it...  BHSG could probably tell us since they are the Froling importer, but it isn't really any of our business other than morbid curiosity...

Gooserider


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## SolarAndWood (Mar 3, 2010)

My curiosity is if I can come up with a way to produce pellets that isn't any more effort than producing firewood.  I have two sources of sawdust that would be more than happy to have one of my dump trailers parked where they currently have dumpsters they pay to have emptied.


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## Gooserider (Mar 3, 2010)

SolarAndWood said:
			
		

> My curiosity is if I can come up with a way to produce pellets that isn't any more effort than producing firewood.  I have two sources of sawdust that would be more than happy to have one of my dump trailers parked where they currently have dumpsters they pay to have emptied.



Not going to say its impossible, but this is something that has come up before - along with threads on home-brew pellet making equipment, and all the indications I've seen are that pellets are MUCH more of a challenge than cordwood...  The sawdust usually needs to be reduced to a much smaller and more uniform size, and then needs expensive and high powered equipment to compress it into pellets.  I have severe doubts about doing small scale pellet production on a low cost / effort basis...

OTOH, if you can figure a way to burn that sawdust without further processing, you might have a really good deal.

Gooserider


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## SolarAndWood (Mar 4, 2010)

Cordwood certainly has a lot of advantages for the little guy.  Getting set up for pellet production has a lot of risk and cost for the advantage of a 1500 lb hopper with automatic operation.


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## AndrewChurchill (Mar 4, 2010)

I get my pellets delivered in bulk and I'm about 75 miles from the distributor who BTW is located in Canada.  I had 11 tons delivered and my back appreciated not having to bring 550 bags into the basement.


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## SolarAndWood (Mar 4, 2010)

How much cheaper is 11 tons in bulk than 550 bags?  Do you have a delivery/storage setup like they used to do for coal?


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## AndrewChurchill (Mar 4, 2010)

This year I saved $25 P/Ton in the past there was a larger savings (upwards of $100 P/Ton).  I built a pellet bin in the basement last spring.  You can see the completed bin here https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/37891/


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## SolarAndWood (Mar 4, 2010)

That is a pretty sweet solution.  How did you end up feeding the hopper?


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## AndrewChurchill (Mar 4, 2010)

5 gallon bucket.  Just scoop the pellets out of the bin and pour them into the hopper.  It's much easier than hoisting a floppy 40# bag of pellets into the hopper.  My boiler is sitting 18" off the floor just in case the basement floods.


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## SolarAndWood (Mar 4, 2010)

Cool thanks.  I am still in the brainstorming phase for central heat and have the house largely wide open at this point.  I could pretty easily incorporate a bin like yours that a truck could back up to and unload down a chute.  Seems that if you make the bin big enough you will always be in a position to wait for a good price on pellets.


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## AndrewChurchill (Mar 4, 2010)

My bin is capable of holding 15 tons.  If you make your own bin make sure it can be closed up tightly.  Otherwise you will have a lot of dust blowing around your basement and house.  They use compressed air to transfer the pellets from the truck as opposed to pouring them down a chute.


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## pybyr (Mar 4, 2010)

I've heard of people using the metal cone-bottom legged outdoor bins such as are used for ag feed for bulk delivery and storage of pellets; for those who have the space outdoors and don't mind the appearance, that'd seem like a handy solution, especially if you could have a feed chute from the bottom of the bin's cone to the place where your boiler is located.


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## SolarAndWood (Mar 4, 2010)

pybyr said:
			
		

> that'd seem like a handy solution, especially if you could have a feed chute from the bottom of the bin's cone to the place where your boiler is located.



This is kind of what I was thinking.  I have an old cistern adjacent to the planned boiler room that would be pretty easy to put a pitched bottom in.  It is also almost completely sealed on top with masonry, so sealing it the rest of the way to keep the dust under control wouldn't be too big of a deal.  It would probably also work well for coal which I can buy in bulk about 10 miles from my house.


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## timberr (Mar 4, 2010)

At work we heat with pellets, we have (2) Tarm pellet boilers. There is a 10 ton "grain" silo outside; it is a nice setup. Usually once a day pellets are transferred automatically with a screw auger from the silo to the boilers. In January we had 8 toms delivered at it cost about $10.00 less then the bag price, we are about 90 miles from the pellet plant. The original estimate was 20-25 tons per year, looks like it will be 8 tons/yr. Haven't used 1 gal. of propane since we fired the boilers up in October. Heating about 2,500 sf. ft of office space and 7,500 sq. ft of warehouse.


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## NP ALASKA (Nov 22, 2011)

Is there anyone out here that has one of the Froling P4 boilers?
I am really interested in hearing how things are going.

I have been trying to decide on a gasser...and while looking at the Froling gasser my wife noticed the P4. We currently buy our wood at 250/cord then I have to split it. I can buy pellets and most likely do better. Some say the pellets will go farther? Not sure about that.

Given my schedule, working full time, running a business after that("head maintenance man" she calls me) all while attending college. Not to mention 3 wonderful kids to raise along with 4 horses. The pellets may work out for me pretty well.

I have room in the garage for the unit and 500-800 gallon tank maybe more. This leaves room for a pallet of pellets and both trucks. Dont have room for a large pellet room but may modify for a silo later. Would it be easy to upgrade to a silo from the manual 280 pound hopper?

Would this unit plumb in to my existing oil boiler same as a gasser so that I had back up for or the other? I would think so. 

I was originally going to place the gasser in an out building, but after reading here for a while I have decided to make room in the garage. The loss was to great and living in the interior Alaska, I didn't want to leave a circulator running, taking heat from storage tank for no reason.

Any thoughts, recommendation's, are always welcome. I have been trying to get out of the OWB for so long I finally convinced her it was the right decision. She said ok to the gasser and then she noticed the P4. 40 pound bag here is 5.98 i figure the money may be about the same and the work much less.

Best regards, Morgan

I was just looking at the controls for this unit. It may be straight forward for most of you but I will be needing some help. I understand some of it, in regards to call for heat, differential setting boler fires, zone valve opens, 24V tranfomer etc. But plumbing in another pump and utilizing storage will be a slow process for me. Thanks in advance, most of the time I can read old posts and find what Im looking for. Great site....


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