# royall 8150?



## georgia hillbilly (Oct 10, 2012)

4k square ft looking to add it as a main source of heat for a lower hvac unit of a two story house. i want to add the dhw kit to it and keep 110gallons of potable hot water handy and also 1000 gallons of non potable water with exchangers. i have been heating with wood for my whole life and havent used anything like this before. anybody have one? like it? i want to buy the best brand/model available.


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## Frozen Canuck (Oct 10, 2012)

IIRC they have been talked about favorably as a non gassification wood boiler in a few threads, well built, solid, simple come to mind. You should be able to find those threads using the search function. Happy searching, reading. I dont think we have a lot of users of the royall here on the forum. Mostly gassification users here.


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## georgia hillbilly (Oct 10, 2012)

thanks for the info. i did try the search and simply came up short. i will make another attempt.


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## BrotherBart (Oct 10, 2012)

Don't get impatient. Everybody doesn't come through here every day. With heating appliances that are less than the mainstream it takes some time for somebody to drop in that has one.


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## georgia hillbilly (Oct 11, 2012)

sweet. i am definitely impressed with the number of posts though. its a proven forum that should offer tons of info. i am now looking for a 300,000+btu wood furnace. i have a free wood supply.....


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## Frozen Canuck (Oct 11, 2012)

One of the pros on our board has installed/serviced a few if memory serves. He has spoken well of them.
Perhaps he will pickup on this thread on the weekend, probably busy with service calls right now. Much work little sleep, tis the season.


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## BrotherBart (Oct 11, 2012)

georgia hillbilly said:


> sweet. i am definitely impressed with the number of posts though. its a proven forum that should offer tons of info. i am now looking for a 300,000+btu wood furnace. i have a free wood supply.....


 
If you are looking for 300,000 btus you are either nuts or looking to get banned as a nutcase. That would melt your basement and is not available except in a house fire. Tell me which you are looking for?

Any member feel free to tell me if I am wrong and that your furnace is pumping 300,000 btu. And how many 50 foot trees an hour you are shoving into it.


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## Frozen Canuck (Oct 11, 2012)

BB is right unless you  have no insulation, no windows or doors & about 15 teenage girls that keep 4 showers going 24/7 you will never need something that big in georgia.

They do come that big & bigger BG, however they are usually in their own building when they get to that size & you just pipe the hot water into the house.


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## Frozen Canuck (Oct 11, 2012)

Perhaps he meant 30,000 btu/hr unit or larger not 300,000. That would fit a Georgia climate even at 4000 + sq ft.

If you really want that 1000 gal storage tank you mention I suggest you think about putting it in its own building as that is one huge radiator to have in your basement.
Maybe OK for the worst of your winter probably no fun at all in your summers when you would only want to heat DHW.

Like BB said be patient ... the good folks here will chime in with lots of helpful advice.

They may need more info on the house & what you want to accomplish but they will get you there.


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## georgia hillbilly (Oct 11, 2012)

yall are hilarious! i love the replys. georgia does get cold, i live in the tail end of the appalachian mtns. i dont live in a conventional house and space is the least of my worries. picture a metal warehouse. the 1k gallon propane tank is already acquired and ready to be moved int place and a box with insulation built around it. i just found the baddest drool worthy stove yet, woodmaster commercial series. i dont want a boiler, simply a big forced air wood furnace. my windows seriously paper thin and the place is a two story. i plan on only heating dhw and maybe a hot tub occasionally. i dont think that 150k btu will cut it. i really want a stove with zero electronics that i can heat the house with when the power goes out with a basic generator. my last 1750sq/ft. ranch was heated solely by a wonderwood tin box with the old spring damper. it worked flawlessly and now i want to re-create that on a larger scale. the desired wood stove/furnace can sit on the concrete in the warehouse and i can simply blow the hot air into the living quarters. im am essentially looking to have a thermostat kick the blower motor on the wood furnace and also stoke the fire at the same time. when the living space temp hits whatever, then it cuts the blower off and closes the damper. btw, the last house could be kept at a digital 95 with ZERO air movers if desired. it was an over designed remodel. wood is the way!


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## maple1 (Oct 11, 2012)

If you're not looking for a boiler but rather forced air - how are you going to heat your storage? I'm missing something I think.


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## Eric Johnson (Oct 11, 2012)

I had an ancient Royall boiler--maybe a 6150, probably circa 1980. It was 150K btu in any event. I never could get it to burn clean at all. It smoked like crazy, and I've always burned dry wood, etc. But it was very sturdy and the folks at Royall were very accessible and helpful. I bought the thing used, ran it for about 3 years and then replaced it with an EKO 60 gasifier. HUGE difference in efficiency and smoke production. Looking at the Royall website, it doesn't look like the design of that particular model (or whatever replaced it) has changed much. I think they're into making OWBs these days, and I have no experience with them.


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## mmudd (Oct 11, 2012)

See Royal website below.  I have a 6150 model.  150,000 BTU.    Works very well.    Good quality unit.  reasonably priced.   They have all parts available and service is good.    Never heard of 8150.   Is that an outdoor model

http://www.royallfurnace.com/home-mainmenu-1.html


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## mmudd (Oct 11, 2012)

Just a follow up, I run mine with storage.   Don't have smoke issues mentioned above as long as no idling.    Not as effcient as gasser for sure but cranks out lots of BTU's.    A good unit for the $


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## georgia hillbilly (Oct 11, 2012)

hmmmmm. im scared that the royall wont be able to keep up unless the thing is ran wide open, speeding through wood. i dont need to heat the storage area because it is insulated, and we dont get into freezing temps often enough to bust water lines. the living quarters is approx 4700sq.ft. as i re calculated last night. also, a simple wood furnace is female friendly operation.


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## Eric Johnson (Oct 11, 2012)

I think you're overestimating your needs, hillbilly. Have you done a heat loss calc? You'd be way ahead err on the side of smaller rather than bigger. One of the many things I've learned from webmaster Craig over the years is that "A bigger firebox means more wood consumed." You don't want to be idling a 300K btu boiler very much. And it's hard for me to imagine that you're going to need anywhere near that much heat most of the time in GA. My wife takes care of the EKO, btw (it's 205K btu), which is to say, she keeps it in wood while I'm at work or out of town on business. It's a bit fussier than a regular boiler or OWB, but not all that much *if* you have dry wood. Big if.


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## mmudd (Oct 11, 2012)

The royal is very simple to operate, as easy as any other wood appliance.  My wife lies it better than our old wood unit. There are more efficient units out there if $ is no object.    4700 sq ft would be too much house for this boiler in northern US, but in GA it might be about right.   Do heaat loss calc!  Sounds like you will have storage, so you'll want to run boiler wide open , store excess BTU's in storage, and it will not eat any more wood than a conventional wood furnace.  Assume you are using blower fan HVAC System, so a water/air HX would work assuming your fan/duct system was sized right and if HX was sized properly, could get usable heat even with lower temp water.   Mine supplies usable heat down to about 135.


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## georgia hillbilly (Oct 11, 2012)

ok. after solid day two of looking, i am now wanting to see an airstove.com in person and am leaning towards it. simple, relatively priced ok, and no plumbing. maybe i can add a dhw coil???


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## georgia hillbilly (Oct 13, 2012)

has anyone owned a hopsco energy hot air wood furnace or know anyone that i can talk to who has? looking for a real world user of these things before i pull the trigger.


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## webbie (Oct 13, 2012)

georgia hillbilly said:


> airstove.com in person and am leaning towards it. simple, relatively priced ok, and no plumbing. maybe i can add a dhw coil???


 
I think these are the worst of all possible worlds.....other than perhaps price, I see little reason to go this way.

My advice is that if you are going to burn wood, burn it as efficiently as possible. I would be surprised if the total delivered efficiency of these outdoor hot air units were 30%....to say nothing of smoking and smelling up your neighborhood....

Do you use an indoor stove now? Have you thought about a good large clean burning indoor unit? You could certainly add DHW to most stoves in one way or another.

I'd say to keep doing research - measure twice, cut once. I'd hate to see you drop a couple grand on something which is not satisfactory.


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## georgia hillbilly (Oct 13, 2012)

thanks webbie. its actually priced as of today at $4000 plus delivery of 250-275. i have used indoor wood stoves for year but the mrs. says no more indoor models. i dont want a boiler with all the guages, plumbing, electronics. i am desperately in search of a large indoor wood furnace. approx 250,000btu . obviously i wont need the whole 250k-btu but its nice to have when you have company and they are leaving doors open and coming in and out. there seems not to be many out there. the royall was my second choice but it is only 150,000btu.


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## georgia hillbilly (Oct 13, 2012)

UPDATE: the "charmaster" is the model i am heavily leaning towards. any info from fellow owners?


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## BoilerMan (Oct 13, 2012)

What about a Caddy?  There are some users on here, basically a big EPA stove with an air jacket.  Clean-burning, efficient, and hot air as you want.

TS


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## laynes69 (Oct 13, 2012)

Well, not sure where to start. If your looking for a wood furnace, I would recommend having something inside. I know the wife might want something outside, but there will be a bit of heat come off the unit. If it's outside, that heat will be lost. As far as heating demand, a woodfurnace will feed a constant btus to the home so you won't need 150,000 btus all the time. Like suggested I recommend a heat loss calculation before guessing on a unit. You go too big you waste wood and take chances for chimney fires. I would look into a Max Caddy if it would meet the guidelines of a heat loss calc. One of the largest wood furnaces that I know of with clean burning technology, and an option for hot water. A glass window is nice to view the fire also. There's a solar site that has a heat loss calculator that might give you a rough idea on whats needed to heat the home. If your still dead set on an outdoor unit, Firecheif and Usstove have hot air models that are made for the outdoors. The firecheif claims to have secondary air, it might be a better unit of the two. Good luck!

http://www.builditsolar.com/References/Calculators/HeatLoss/HeatLoss.htm


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## georgia hillbilly (Oct 15, 2012)

SERIOUS TYPO i meant to say that the charmaster 30" is the model i am ready to buy. any last minute imputs please????


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## Boog (Nov 7, 2012)

I have a Charmaster wood/oil forced air unit bought back in "83".  Still going strong, love that 30" firebox.  Only thing I've ever had to do with it is change out some oil gun components.


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## heaterman (Nov 8, 2012)

Better to go smaller rather than bigger with that unit. They do NOT like to idle and will produce incredible amounts of creosote if not run fairly hard. Storage would be highly advisable to help reduce (notice I did not say eliminate) the tar problem. Here's a picture of a 6150 we installed last year for a guy in a 2,500 sq ft full log home. He cannot run the thing unless temps are down to the teens without plugging his chimney every other week. Anything above 20* and it just idles too much.


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## Eric Johnson (Nov 9, 2012)

Heaterman's observations reflect my experience with a 6150.


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## MNfarmer (Jan 9, 2013)

I have a royall 6526 that is basically an older 6150.  To get away from the creosote problem I put a small sliding draft door in the ash door.  If you do that you MUST have an extra aquastat that will kick on the blower (if you have a water to air heat exchanger) to keep the boiler from getting too hot.  I cannot load it full when it's warm outside but by adding wood depending on what the outside temp is up I can keep the house within a few degrees.   It's not original but it works..


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