# EKO-40 boiler proper wood usage



## Belanger (Apr 8, 2011)

I have owned the EKO-40 since April 2010 and have used since Oct. 2010. I have gone thur 17pulp cord of dry maple, ash and oak wood all stored inside.  This is what I used in an old non-efficient unit I replaced with this one.
I have 136' base board, wrap around water heater 40 gal. Looking for answers to usage and/or unit set up pictures attached


----------



## Backwoods Savage (Apr 8, 2011)

Welcome to the forum Chris. But Wow! That is a lot of wood to burn in one year. 

Others will chime in here but it may help to give the size of the house and what type of wood you are burning.


----------



## begreen (Apr 8, 2011)

Hi Chris, welcome. We have a boiler room forum here that should be able to give you a better response. Lots of Eko owners here.


----------



## Duetech (Apr 8, 2011)

Hi Chris and welcome to the forum. I'm a bit ignorant as to what exactly a pulp cord is if it is not a standard chord. Using oak, hickory bl. walnut and bl. cherry I usually only knock out about 5 full chords during the winter (Oct-Apr) and that is with a water/air exchanger in the oil furnace plenum, no storage and doing a lot of idling. My house is only 1700 sq ft but I do use my boiler via a sidearm exchanger for domestic hot water. It would help a lot to tell us what size home you have and what moisture content your wood is. Gasifiers ae very particular about dry wood. (15-25% moisture content). I would freak if my unit used that much wood and would go back to a wood stove.


----------



## EffectaBoilerUser (USA) (Apr 9, 2011)

Chris,

I live in northern Michigan (East Jordan) also and would be more than happy to make a visit to your location.

I am a previous owner/operator of an EKO40 boiler for three years (I sold it last fall and now own/opreate an effecta lambda 35 boiler) and have experienced pretty much all of the normal problems/challanges with getting an EKO40 to operate properly.

There are many possible causes for your wood consumption situation and thus a visit to your location would be the best way to solve these. 

You can contact me by going through my website at www.UpNorthEnergy.com and sendng me an email or calling me.

I look forward to hearing from you and helping you correct your wood consumption situation.

EBU


----------



## Belanger (Apr 11, 2011)

Sq ft of house is 2400,  burning pulp cord dry maple, oak and ash


----------



## Belanger (Apr 11, 2011)

pulp cord is 4x4x8 ,     face 4x8x width of the wood ,   31/2 face cord in a pulp cord of wood


----------



## Fred61 (Apr 12, 2011)

Chris B said:
			
		

> pulp cord is 4x4x8 ,     face 4x8x width of the wood ,   31/2 face cord in a pulp cord of wood



A pulp cord is 4x4x8 rounds that are 4 feet in length. The lumberjack used to get paid by how many cords he cut and stacked in a day. I learned while visiting the camps on the Gaspe Peninsula a logger could do quite well if he cut and stacked 7 cords a day.This was before modern logging techniques. Unfortunately most firewood buyers and users, including yours truly, expect their wood to stack 4x4x8 regardless of the configuration. (split, cut to 20"lengths, 16"lengths, etc.).


----------



## mr.fixit (Apr 12, 2011)

Chris B said:
			
		

> I have owned the EKO-40 since April 2010 and have used since Oct. 2010. I have gone thur 17pulp cord of dry maple, ash and oak wood all stored inside.  This is what I used in an old non-efficient unit I replaced with this one.
> I have 136' base board, wrap around water heater 40 gal. Looking for answers to usage and/or unit set up pictures attached


I heat close to 4000 sq. ft. with a EKO 40. Used about 10 1/2-11 cords this past season.
 Have you ever cleaned your heat exchanger tubes?
 What is the moisture content of the wood? Around here oak takes at least 2 years to fully season.


----------



## Nofossil (Apr 12, 2011)

Unless your windows are open all winter, there has to be something very wrong. I heat 3500 square feet plus a hot tub and DHW with 4 -5 full cords a year, and half of that (at least) is poplar. Are you getting a solid secondary flame and no soot / creosote in the flue?


----------

