# Start of Polebarn for boiler



## sdrobertson (May 24, 2008)

Spring has finally gotten here in Michigan so I've started the project. The polebarn ended up being 24x40 with the boiler portion of it being 12 x 24. The "boiler room" will be 8x12 and the large hole in the pictures is 8 x 8 for 4 500 gallon propane tanks standing upright. I have 10 ft side walls so I made the hole 2 ft deep so I'll have a total of 12 feet so I'll have room for semi-truck rims for them to sit on and enough room so I can insulate the tops really well. The remaining room will be used for stacking approximately 6 to 7 cords of wood (depending on how high I feel like stacking the wood) as I was using between 12 to 14 cords of wood with the Central Boiler and I'm hoping for half that in wood with the EKO 60 and 2000 gallons of pressurized storage. The lines showing are the lines I used for the Central Boiler which are 3/4 inch pex with the blue one a extra line I placed in the installation that I'll now use for more wire to power the building. Time to start insulating the boiler room and studing up the walls while I await delivery of the tanks. I love summer but when I finally get done, I'll be ready for winter so I see if my planning has paid off while I am warm and oil free again.


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## Willman (May 24, 2008)

Great start. Keep the pics coming as you progress.
Will


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## Sawyer (May 24, 2008)

Nice to see a well planned installation. Please do keep us updted with photos as you progress.


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## JustWood (May 24, 2008)

That is gonna be one sweet set up. ALL indoors. Unloading ,splitting ,stacking, and fireing. YA MAN ,you can't get much better than that.


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## deerefanatic (May 28, 2008)

I'm also building a boiler shed.... 12x12....... Will allow me to put my 1200 gallon tank and all my pumps and plumbing inside... the boiler (homemade) will sit outside...... So will the wood......

I'm on a budget!  lol!


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## sdrobertson (Jun 12, 2008)

Getting a little farther - Boiler room ready for paint, boiler and then the last wall. Wood storage room is finished except for a fan to move air through the floor under the wood. My plan is to load the wood in early spring(cut in the spring and dried one year) and then move air throughout the wood during the summer. The fan will be controlled by a thermostat in the attic and will draw air from attic and move it down one wall to the floor. The wood will be stacked on runners to allow air flow along the floor and up through the wood. Tank storage room is ready for tanks - still awaiting those.


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## Yates (Jul 6, 2008)

Love to see a post like this because I'm working on plans with similar equipment choices.  I was only going to use 2 - 500gal propane tanks since I;m in a little warmer climate.   What size room are you making for the boiler and piping itself?  I'm ordering the EKO60 also and building a polebarn from scratch so I've been reading through the posts trying to find a post like yours.


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## Yates (Jul 6, 2008)

What type of insulation did you put in under the slab, if any?  And how are you going to insulate your tanks? ( thickness and material)


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## sdrobertson (Jul 6, 2008)

I didn't insulate the slab at all. The room for the boiler ended up being 8 foot wide and 13 foot long so that now I have room for a 330 gallon steel tank to use as an expansion tank. The tank room is a little over 8 feet square so I'll have 12+ inches of insulation around the tanks (more than that around the round part that will be by the corners of the tanks) and after researching allot of choices in insulation choices, I've settled on blown-in cellulose as it has the highest R value per inch and the manufacturer told me that it would handle the high temps just fine.


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## sdrobertson (Sep 8, 2008)

Update:  Boiler, expansion tank and propane tanks are installed and now I'm getting ready for the plumbing to start.


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## Willman (Sep 8, 2008)

Nice set up. Just hope Homeland Security doesn't stop by to check out your missile silo ! ;-)
Will


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## machinistbcb (Sep 9, 2008)

I just blew in cellulose around my tank. It worked great and seems to be holding up to the heat fine.  One suggestion is to figure out how many insulation bags you think you will need and then buy doubble that amount. I figured about 12 bags and ended up using 30.  Those corners really seem to take a lot to fill them but you end up with an R value of like 100.


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## Eric Johnson (Jan 26, 2010)

Beautiful, Shannon.


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## huffdawg (Feb 20, 2010)

How will the tanks be plumbed together  in series or parrallel.


You must have more pics. by now.

Cheers Huff


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## huffdawg (May 12, 2010)

How will the tanks be plumbed together in series or parrallel.


You must have more pics. by now.

Cheers Huff

Sorry for posting this  again but im curios how you have them plumbed .   Do you have a drawing.


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## woodsmaster (May 12, 2010)

sdrobertson said:
			
		

> I didn't insulate the slab at all. The room for the boiler ended up being 8 foot wide and 13 foot long so that now I have room for a 330 gallon steel tank to use as an expansion tank. The tank room is a little over 8 feet square so I'll have 12+ inches of insulation around the tanks (more than that around the round part that will be by the corners of the tanks) and after researching allot of choices in insulation choices, I've settled on blown-in cellulose as it has the highest R value per inch and the manufacturer told me that it would handle the high temps just fine.



Did you put a vapor barrior under the slab? If not your wood will probably gain more moisture than it loses in the spring being in the garage.


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## sdrobertson (May 12, 2010)

Sorry about missing your first post Huff.  I made up two manifolds, one for the tops of the tanks and one for the bottom.  I made sure that all of my pex was same length running to all the tanks from the manifolds.  On the top manifold is my hot water from the boiler and the supply water for my heating zone along with the four lines running to the tanks.  The bottom manifold has four lines running to the bottom of the tanks along with the return from the heating zone along with a line running to the boiler "in".  I'm pretty happy with the way that the tanks load and unload the heat as they all stay pretty much in line with each other at the same temp considering that they are only tied together at the manifolds.  I did install valves on each line in case I needed to balance the loading but I haven't had to do anything with them.  I do not have any pics as I'm a idiot and forgot to take any before I was finished but I am redoing my underground water lines this summer so I have to open everything up around the manifolds to make the new connections so I'll be taking some then. 

I did not place a vapor barrier when I poured the concrete as I built the building on 4 feet of fill and I should never get any moisture up that high.  I've change my mind right now on placing the wood in the building as early as I had planned as I will probably never get that far ahead in my wood supply.  I'm finally almost two years ahead but I'm leaving it outside in the wind and sun so maybe in the future but for now, I just put the wood in the barn in the early fall.


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## woodsmaster (May 12, 2010)

I wondered how you were able to sink your tanks down below the floor. 4' of fill explains it. Pretty good idea. Do you get any condensation at all on the slab?


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## sdrobertson (May 13, 2010)

No condensation at all.  Good fill and proper drainage.  I had to fill in this much as the ground really slopes where I wanted the building.


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## huffdawg (May 13, 2010)

sdrobertson said:
			
		

> Sorry about missing your first post Huff.  I made up two manifolds, one for the tops of the tanks and one for the bottom.  I made sure that all of my pex was same length running to all the tanks from the manifolds.  On the top manifold is my hot water from the boiler and the supply water for my heating zone along with the four lines running to the tanks.  The bottom manifold has four lines running to the bottom of the tanks along with the return from the heating zone along with a line running to the boiler "in".  I'm pretty happy with the way that the tanks load and unload the heat as they all stay pretty much in line with each other at the same temp considering that they are only tied together at the manifolds.  I did install valves on each line in case I needed to balance the loading but I haven't had to do anything with them.  I do not have any pics as I'm a idiot and forgot to take any before I was finished but I am redoing my underground water lines this summer so I have to open everything up around the manifolds to make the new connections so I'll be taking some then.
> 
> I did not place a vapor barrier when I poured the concrete as I built the building on 4 feet of fill and I should never get any moisture up that high.  I've change my mind right now on placing the wood in the building as early as I had planned as I will probably never get that far ahead in my wood supply.  I'm finally almost two years ahead but I'm leaving it outside in the wind and sun so maybe in the future but for now, I just put the wood in the barn in the early fall.



No worries SD.   Ive been slowly working on my system. Ive poured a 8x12 slab  under a 11' high deck at the back of my detached shop ,framed most of it in , I have two 1-1/4 pex lines  seperated and sprayfoamed , along  with a drain, a water supply and a 2" conduit buried 2' in the ground.   My eko 40 is sitting in there now ready to be positioned and have the chimney and piping installed. Which I will starting to work on when I get home from work next Wed.       Im trying to round up a couple of used 500 gal. propane tanks and I would like to install them vertically to save a little space in my boiler room.
Im just trying to get an I idea on how to plumb them or at least put the plumbing in with fittings and ball valves ready for when I do get the tanks .

Cheers Huff


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## mapratt (Jan 12, 2011)

So, MasterOfFire, did you take pictures this summer?

For the newbies here, the propane tanks are your home-built heat storage system?  Pressurized?  If I keep fishing through the post history, will I find good info on DIY heat storage systems?

Thanks for sharing!


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## shortline (Jan 12, 2011)

Marilyn said:
			
		

> So, MasterOfFire, did you take pictures this summer?
> 
> For the newbies here, the propane tanks are your home-built heat storage system?  Pressurized?  If I keep fishing through the post history, will I find good info on DIY heat storage systems?
> 
> Thanks for sharing!



Thank you Marilyn for finding and commenting on this thread.  I too am a newbie, and I too am planning DIY heat storage to install this summer!  I have bought one 500gal. removed from service propane tank to use as DIY pressurized  storage.  In seeing SDRobertson's post (and great pics, would love to see more of completed project) I am wondering how much heat storage should I have to get optimum effeciency out of one of Fred's 180's?


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## RobC (Jan 12, 2011)

Welcome Shortline & Marilyn. Yes you can find everything here ! 
When you say Fred's 180 if your referring to Seaton. There is a current thread with someone having problems with his and be worth reading. 
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/63382/
Yes you can find our about pressurized storage.
Read the yellow stickies at the top of the boiler room home page. These explain much. About everything.
This is in the works, a checklist. Your input could be helpful where your just starting out. What things are your biggest concerns ?
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/68138/


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## jdboy9 (Jan 17, 2011)

I posted a post in the main forum about this idea.  You think it would make a difference if you tried to make a hybrid system that used both gravity and mechanical pumping?  For instance if each of your 4 tanks were at different heights progressively getting higher from the 1st one?  Or would this cause a completely different effect?


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