# Electric and wood boiler combination



## Bullet (Oct 12, 2010)

Does anyone  know where I can get a diagram of a combination wood and electric boiler ? I am replacing my oil boiler with an electric .


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## Hunderliggur (Oct 13, 2010)

Do you have you own waterfall and hydropower?  I can't imagine changing to an electric boiler.  I have a wood gasser and a Rennai propane backup.  To get 100,000BTU/hour in electric resistance?  That's a lot of juice (29.3KW= about $3.00/hour around here)


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## Bullet (Oct 13, 2010)

Hunderliggur said:
			
		

> Do you have you own waterfall and hydropower?  I can't imagine changing to an electric boiler.  I have a wood gasser and a Rennai propane backup.  To get 100,000BTU/hour in electric resistance?  That's a lot of juice (29.3KW= about $3.00/hour around here)


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       The electric isn't as bad as oil . I will only be using the electric as a back up . I already have an electric boiler bought . 18kw unit . My neighbour has one and is quite pleased with it . He isn't into burning wood so the electric is the only thing he has . He got rid of his oil boiler a couple of years ago .


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## easternbob (Oct 13, 2010)

I am using an elec. boiler as the backup to my wood boiler.  Only used it once while we were away on vac. last winter.  The elec. boiler is just plumbed into the primary loop (primary, secondary loop system) with close spaced T's.  We were building a new house and choose to install the elec. boiler, I hope to never use it and the install was quick and easy.


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## Sting (Oct 13, 2010)

Nothing quite as safe and reliable as a resistance driven appliance. Good choice. Consider two separate boilers, plumbed in a primary secondary configuration.


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## maplewood (Oct 13, 2010)

I've got a 20 KW electric boiler as a back up for my Econoburn.  I don't even turn it on.  It's in a loop valved off of my primary.
I leave one valve open, as the electric boiler is higher than my primary loop, and I can bleed off air easily from that high point.


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## Bullet (Oct 14, 2010)

I know this may sound stupid but what do you guys mean by the primary and secondary  loop ?


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## vvvv (Oct 14, 2010)

the boilers dont pump/flow thru each other


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## easternbob (Oct 14, 2010)

Bullet,
Check out the sticky on the main page (at the top), there are a ton of posts describing primary/secondary (along with diagrams which is the best way to describe it).


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## Bullet (Oct 20, 2010)

~*~vvv~*~ said:
			
		

> the boilers dont pump/flow thru each other


       If the boilers don't flow through each other what keeps the wood boiler from over heating when the zone valves aren't opening for heat ? In my current setup the wood boiler circulates the water through my oil boiler and back through the wood boiler until one of my zones calls for heat . I know the damper closes but wouldn't the wood boiler  still get hotter if the water wasn't being circulated ?


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