# A few pictures of our boiler systems.



## Gasifier

I have been reading quite a few threads and see a lot of the wood stove pictures. Thought it might be cool to see everyones boiler system in one thread. I know I would love to see pictures of all of your boilers in one handy place. What do you guys say? Here is mine.


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## infinitymike

I can almost smell the fire.

Looks great.

I bought the stove pipe and cut in the cathedral ceiling support box this evening.

Chippin away at it..thank God its still pretty warm down here..upper 50's, low 40's until next weekend!

Oil burner coming on occasionally whatta ya gonna do!


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## infinitymike

Do you have a picture of the gasification flame?!


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## Hunderliggur

Here goes! Storage and distribution in the house with an in tank HX.  Boiler in outbuilding 70 feet away.  All the red and blue pex is my domestic water system.  Home runs from each fixture.  No leaks!


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## infinitymike

Amazing!

Home runs for each fixture very sweet!


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## infinitymike

How did you get a heat exchanger in the tank?


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## Hunderliggur

Tank has a 4" port.  The HX is about 3 feet long helix with fins I got from Mark at Ahona  (along with the boiler and tanks).  I consistently get a 20 - 30F rise at 6 GPM at 130 to 170 F.  I mix my output after the HX to a 130F supply and get a 110 to 115 return.  The HX is in the upper tank and the tanks stratify well.  Future plans are for a solar HX in the lower tank to heat/preheat/summer.  I will possibly be making flat plat panels from BuildItSolar.com.


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## ewdudley

/hot


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## bioman

All homemade here.


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## Gasifier

Hunderliggur, EW, and Bioman,

Nice set ups! Very nice. Thanks for the pics. 

Keep them coming guys. Show them off, it will be very interesting to see them all in one thread.

Thanks!


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## stee6043

My boiler room pales in comparison to some I'm seeing these days.  But I do like this one.  190F and 24psi.  Bring on the cold...


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## ewdudley

stee6043 said:
			
		

> My boiler room pales in comparison to some I'm seeing these days.  But I do like this one.  190F and 24psi.  Bring on the cold...



I like it!  Straight to the bottom line.


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## Gasifier

stee6043 said:
			
		

> My boiler room pales in comparison to some I'm seeing these days.  But I do like this one.  190F and 24psi.  Bring on the cold...



I don't care what your boiler room looks like. Or your boiler for that matter. I just want to see peoples boilers and/or systems. It is interesting to me.   :coolsmile:


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## SnowTraveler

Econoburn 150 in dedicated boiler room, 500 gallon storage in boiler room, 300 gallon buffer (storage) in finished basement.  Can store 2 cord in boiler room for "kiln drying". Starting my fifth season.


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## SnowTraveler

To go with the previous 3


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## muncybob

bioman said:
			
		

> All homemade here.



I'm looking for material to encase the high temp insulation I used on my piping. Is your insulation  "1 piece" or is it insulation and then the shiny stuff?


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## Gasifier

HOLY chit SnowTraveler!  :coolcheese: Sweeeeeet

Hey, that's not what I wrote. How do you guys do that? Cool.  :lol:


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## jimbom

I'll be in my bunk with the smart phone.


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## SnowTraveler

Thanks gas!  It's all good here!


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## Gasifier

Hey EW. What's that interesting looking thing-a-ma-jig you built in the last picture of your post? And is that an oil boiler you have for back-up next to your Attack?


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## Briquetmaker

It is cool to see eveyone's setup and find some neat things to incorporate into your own. My favorite thing is burning all my sawdust. $3.89/gal for fuel oil hurts.


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## Gasifier

Nice set-up. Looks great. Love the briquets. Very cool Andy. Very cool.  :coolsmile:


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## ewdudley

Gasifier said:
			
		

> Hey EW. What's that interesting looking thing-a-ma-jig you built in the last picture of your post? And is that an oil boiler you have for back-up next to your Attack?



The thing-a-ma-jig is field-expedient, shade-tree, rural-contemporary engineering artifact for controlling boiler draft as a function of flue temperature:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/69395/P45/

I've wasted a lot of Saturday afternoons in my time, but that little project made up for a couple of them at least.  It controls the burn rate nice and steady, and shuts to air off completely at the end of the burn, which preserves a nice charcoal bed for the next burn.

The other boiler is Keystoker anthracite boiler.  It's even allowed under the boiler room charter:

"This Forum is for the topic of Central Heating - specifically with wood, coal, pellets, corn and other solid fuels. We can also discuss multi-fuel systems, which burn oil and gas along with solid fuels..."


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## Gasifier

The thing-a-ma-jig is field-expedient, shade-tree, rural-contemporary engineering artifact for controlling boiler draft as a function of flue temperature:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/69395/P45/ I've wasted a lot of Saturday afternoons in my time, but that little project made up for a couple of them at least.  It controls the burn rate nice and steady, and shuts to air off completely at the end of the burn, which preserves a nice charcoal bed for the next burn.

Wow. I just read that thread. Very impressive. I didn't understand half of it, but still very impressive.  :lol: I am glad we have you, and a lot of other very smart people on this site. I am not electrically "wired" at all. Oh, sorry. I hope you didn't take any offense to the thing-a-ma-jig description. I did not mean any, that is for certain. Absolute certainty. I am not a very technical person, as you may have noticed. 

The other boiler is Keystoker anthracite boiler.  I bought it with the money I didn't spend on a ####.  

Please explain what you mean here. I am not sure I am following this. ? Yes, I know what you mean that it is a coal burning boiler. Sorry, I thought it was an oil burner.

It's even allowed under the boiler room charter:
"This Forum is for the topic of Central Heating - specifically with wood, coal, pellets, corn and other solid fuels. We can also discuss multi-fuel systems, which burn oil and gas along with solid fuels..."

Okay.


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## 711mhw

My Gun


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## ewdudley

Briquetmaker said:
			
		

> My favorite thing is burning all my sawdust.



Looks more like pharmaceutic production room, or a Confederate Air Force hangar.  Not much sign of any sawdust!


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## Gasifier

Nice 711. Thanks for sharing.  This is what is cool with all these pictures in one place. You never know what idea you are going to pick up from someone else. Seeing everyone elses system is sharing ideas without even talking about them. You never know when you are going to help someone elses learning curve be a little easier for them.  This site does this in several ways. Very cool.


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## 711mhw

Gasifier said:
			
		

> Nice 711. Thanks for sharing.  This is what is cool with all these pictures in one place. You never know what idea you are going to pick up from someone else. Seeing everyone elses system is sharing ideas without even talking about them. You never know when you are going to help someone elses learning curve be a little easier for them.  This site does this in several ways. Very cool.


I like to think that I come up with an original idea now and then, but eventually I realize that I saw it somewhere else before!


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## Gasifier

711mhw said:
			
		

> Gasifier said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Nice 711. Thanks for sharing.  This is what is cool with all these pictures in one place. You never know what idea you are going to pick up from someone else. Seeing everyone elses system is sharing ideas without even talking about them. You never know when you are going to help someone elses learning curve be a little easier for them.  This site does this in several ways. Very cool.
> 
> 
> 
> I like to think that I come up with an original idea now and then, but eventually I realize that I saw it somewhere else before!
Click to expand...


I know we all come up with are own, good, original ideas. It is just that we read and see so much with all the information we process sometimes we can't remember where it came from, if we thought of it, found it, lost it and found it again. I can not tell you how many times I am telling someone about something cool I read and can't remember where I read it. E-mail, thread, news on line, newspaper, magazine, book, etc, etc, etc.


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## leeeallen

711mhw
Is that a factory smoke removing hood or did you manufacture it? Nice to keep that smoke out of the house.


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## stee6043

Here is a shot of my setup before she got insulated.  I believe I took this during one of my cleaning runs before draining and refilling...


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## Gasifier

Very nice Stee6043! I remember your thread on your complete install. Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. For those of you who have not seen it. Check this out!  :bug: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/32524/ Thanks again for posting your system!


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## goosegunner

Started the building last year October 2010. The boiler was online without storage December  2010. I am finishing the insulation of the 1000 gallon pressurized storage now. 

Boiler is in the 12'X16' area on front of building, Tank is in 6'X20' enclosed lean directly behind boiler room.

gg


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## Gasifier

WOW! Holy sh!t GG. That is one beautiful looking building you have there. Nice system. Where do you keep your wood supply? Thanks for posting pictures of your system.


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## goosegunner

Gasifier said:
			
		

> WOW! Holy sh!t GG. That is one beautiful looking building you have there. Nice system. Where do you keep your wood supply? Thanks for posting pictures of your system.



Thanks, Its been quite a project.

I have rolling carts that I can get about a weeks worth of wood on. I keep that in the boiler building, it dries very nice. I have enough wood in the big building to carry me through the snow months. I have another 25 full cords cut and out of sight. I do have to handle my wood more than I like but I will work on that in the near future.

gg


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## Briquetmaker

ewdudley said:
			
		

> Gasifier said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hey EW. What's that interesting looking thing-a-ma-jig you built in the last picture of your post? And is that an oil boiler you have for back-up next to your Attack?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The thing-a-ma-jig is field-expedient, shade-tree, rural-contemporary engineering artifact for controlling boiler draft as a function of flue temperature:
> 
> https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/69395/P45/
> 
> I've wasted a lot of Saturday afternoons in my time, but that little project made up for a couple of them at least.  It controls the burn rate nice and steady, and shuts to air off completely at the end of the burn, which preserves a nice charcoal bed for the next burn.
> 
> The other boiler is Keystoker anthracite boiler.  It's even allowed under the boiler room charter:
> 
> "This Forum is for the topic of Central Heating - specifically with wood, coal, pellets, corn and other solid fuels. We can also discuss multi-fuel systems, which burn oil and gas along with solid fuels..."
Click to expand...



EW, The keystoker has a hopper feed on it?


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## 711mhw

MEHEAT said:
			
		

> 711mhw
> Is that a factory smoke removing hood or did you manufacture it? Nice to keep that smoke out of the house.



Yes . It's the factory unit that I can't life without it. It even sucks the dust out of the air when it's cleaning time!


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## infinitymike

She's not hooked up yet but I'm almost there!
I have the pipe run from the garage to the oil burner which is 70 feet away.
Tuesday my hvac guy is coming to do the hook up.

Should be up and running by Thursday.











The white pipe is the monoflow system that runs around the first floor.





This is the 60 year old oil beast that I will be hooking up in parallel to the wood gun.

I have a silly question.

Is primary/secondary the same thing as parallel?


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## Gasifier

Wow! Looks great Mike. It won't be long now. Good luck this week. Keep us up to date. Thanks for sharing the pics of the progress!


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## ewdudley

Briquetmaker said:
			
		

> The keystoker has a hopper feed on it?


Yeah, pretty basic, but it's simple, efficient, and looks like it will live up to its reputation for being reliable.  Off-the-shelf Honeywell and Grainger control components.  

Although it's annoying to have to take ashes out all the time, it's arguably cheaper and more convenient that maintaining a wood supply and feeding the wood boiler.

But psychologically it's so much nicer to heat the house as warm as I want with as much wood as it takes.

--ewd


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## bigburner

Mine!!


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## Gasifier

COOL bigburner! I assume you made that! What is it? I can't tell if it is a boiler or a hot air furnace. Again, I'm technically challenged with some things. :lol: Very cool. Tell us a little about what you did there man. Thanks for sharing the pictures. That's awesome! 

My neighbor has a home made pallet burner for his large metal building that is his workshop. No insulation it that building. It gets cold in there. Until he starts driving up to the dutch doors with the Gehl skidsteer and loading 4 or 5 pallets at a time into it. The thing throws some serious heat off. Have a good one.


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## Gasifier

Bigburner. Can you explain this system to me a little. It is a little hard for me to tell from the pictures how it works. Is that a storage tank on the right hand side there? What do you heat with it? Anymore information you could give would be appreciated. Very cool to see all the different systems.


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## infinitymike

Bigburner,

That thing is insane! That is one big burner (no pun intended)
Based on the ladder that thing must be 15 feet high! Holy Macaroni dude.

No need to split anything either, just throw the whole dame tree in!

I guess you are heating half of Michigan!

Very impressive.


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## bigburner

welded 1932 steam boiler rated for 30 psi [Hydro at 45 psi]  Hot water 1200 gallon, about 800 ft 3" fire tube, several skids of refractory for burn chamber, set up to do up flow gasification with counter flow passages and bypass, wood loaded with two wheel dolly, door hand cranked gear box -open/closed, 4,000 gal storage [unpressurized], Heats - 9,000 sq ft shop @ 60F in slab + 2500 Sq ft house @ 70F Air to Air with under floor tile areas + 1,000 sq ft indoor pool room & 12,000 gal pool + 700 sq ft garage Air to Air [mounted on unit heater] + 800 sq ft apartment in slab, wood consumption - not sure we burn every thing [hard ,soft wet, dry] some days it seems like it is very very efficient and others not as much. My guess when burning hot [fire brick glowing] it has efficiency as good as anything out there. This is fourth  season Plan on doing some stack reading this winter, find out where the short falls are in the burn cycle/air adjustment. Hope to also experiment with straw bales and wood chips.


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## Gasifier

bigburner said:
			
		

> welded 1932 steam boiler rated for 30 psi [Hydro at 45 psi]  Hot water 1200 gallon, about 800 ft 3" fire tube, several skids of refractory for burn chamber, set up to do up flow gasification with counter flow passages and bypass, wood loaded with two wheel dolly, door hand cranked gear box -open/closed, 4,000 gal storage [unpressurized], Heats - 9,000 sq ft shop @ 60F in slab + 2500 Sq ft house @ 70F Air to Air with under floor tile areas + 1,000 sq ft indoor pool room & 12,000 gal pool + 700 sq ft garage Air to Air [mounted on unit heater] + 800 sq ft apartment in slab, wood consumption - not sure we burn every thing [hard ,soft wet, dry] some days it seems like it is very very efficient and others not as much. My guess when burning hot [fire brick glowing] it has efficiency as good as anything out there. This is fourth  season Plan on doing some stack reading this winter, find out where the short falls are in the burn cycle/air adjustment. Hope to also experiment with straw bales and wood chips.



Very cool bigburner. Thanks for sharing your system. 

Boiler guys. Is this all the systems in the boiler room forum. I think not! C'mon, we want to see pictures of your system. Does not matter what it looks like, we just like to see you heating systems! See how others do things. Never know what you might learn or what idea you might give to someone else.


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## Gasifier

I see there are many new systems and new members. So I thought I would bring this thread up again and see if any of you want to add pics of your systems who have not already. I like to see pics of your systems. Thanks in advance.


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## ozzie88

All homemade here,up-draft Gasser.  Works great! 2nd year in maine,   Lots of welding here.  Basebboard in propane tank for dhw. works great also. 330 gal. storage


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## ozzie88

All homemade here,up-draft Gasser.  Works great! 2nd year in maine,   Lots of welding here.  Basebboard in propane tank for dhw. works great also. 330 gal. storage


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## hartkem

I just finished mine this year. Put about 5 loads through it a few weeks ago during a cold spell and it worked good. 500 gallons of pressurized storage in basement. Boiler shack about 120' from the house. Homemade A coil in forced air plenum.


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## Gasifier

Very cool ozzie88 and Hartkem. Nothing like heating your home and hot water with wood! Thanks for sharing them.


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## BoilerMan

This is my first year with a gasser, there was a NewYorker wood boiler in it's place here, built the house and did all mechanicals myself as well. Only heat is with wood here.  Sorry, didn't have any pics of fire on hand, and it's out for today.


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## Gasifier

Very nice Taylor. Thanks for sharing. Looks like some nice BTUs behind that nice BTU burner!


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## BoilerMan

Almost 4 cord, all ready for winter.....

TS


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## NickDL

Wow, these are some incredible systems. I couldn't imagine ripping out my electric unit & replacing it with some of these monsters, although I would love to.


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## taxidermist

Gasifier said:


> I have been reading quite a few threads and see a lot of the wood stove pictures. Thought it might be cool to see everyones boiler system in one thread. I know I would love to see pictures of all of your boilers in one handy place. What do you guys say? Here is mine.


 
Is that a smoke flap on thee door?


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## heaterman

Some of you guys may be in the wrong trade. We could use a few more good installers.


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## Gasifier

taxidermist said:


> Is that a smoke flap on thee door?


 
 Yes! As you can see I originally posted this thread in Nov. 2011! I brought my boiler on line October 1, 2001 and that smoke flap came with it. It did not take me long to buy the smoke hood and get rid of that flap. It actually worked to help keep the smoke from rolling out the front door but was a pain in the ... when you were loading wood. Here is a shot of it after the smoke hood was installed. Much better!







I have since changed my chimney pipe from single wall and installed horizontally the way AHS said to do it with the double wall insulated and sloped. Much better! Keeps my chimney temps higher to prevent any condensation/creosote.







I could have saved some money if I had known about the chimney thing before hand.  But I was trying to save some money the way I did it the first time.


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## Gasifier

Taylor Sutherland said:


> Almost 4 cord, all ready for winter.....
> 
> TS


 
Your install looks great Taylor. Looks like you could make some money on the side anytime you wanted to doing all sorts of things. Nice pics.


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## Gasifier

NickDL said:


> Wow, these are some incredible systems. I couldn't imagine ripping out my electric unit & replacing it with some of these monsters, although I would love to.


 
If you like to keep more of your money instead of giving it to the oil/gas/electric/coal people you can. Of course if your electric rates are cheap, it would not be worth it. The initial investment takes some dough and some work. The wood processing takes some work, but I enjoy the work. Helps keep me in good shape. And you are always seeing some imediate progress when you are doing it.


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## nate379

I like it better with a "main" and branch lines.

Pull hot water from a fixture and anything else you use will have hot water fairly quick.  With a home run setup you might have a hundred feet (or more) of pipe from the manifold to the fixture!




infinitymike said:


> Amazing!
> 
> Home runs for each fixture very sweet!


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## kopeck

I'm going to have to get some new pictures of mine once I get it back in commission (storage tank issues).

Great pictures guys!

K


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## Tennman

Gasifier, I just gotta give you props for this great idea. For the life if me can't imagine why it wasn't thot of before. Although for essentially all of us it started out as a way to save money, heating with wood become's far more than that for me now. Who'd a thunk a wood boiler become a passion. I'll take some new pics and join in.... here's a knuckle bump to ya. Thx


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## infinitymike

Since I probably posted my set up in different phases through out different threads, am I allowed to compile them all here?
Huh BOSS?, Can I Boss? Cmon Boss, please?



Tennman said:


> heating with wood become's far more than that for me now. Who'd a thunk a wood boiler become a passion.


See I'm with you tennman, I passionately want to show off my stuff.   So can I boss? Please?


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## Gasifier

Tennman said:


> Gasifier, I just gotta give you props for this great idea. For the life if me can't imagine why it wasn't thot of before. Although for essentially all of us it started out as a way to save money, heating with wood become's far more than that for me now. Who'd a thunk a wood boiler become a passion. I'll take some new pics and join in.... here's a knuckle bump to ya. Thx


 
Thanks Tennman. I appreciate it. Kinda cool to to have one place for all this boiler eye candy. Hopefully more and more will add to it. I can't wait to see your new pics!


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## Gasifier

infinitymike said:


> Since I probably posted my set up in different phases through out different threads, am I allowed to compile them all here? Huh BOSS?, Can I Boss? Cmon Boss, please?
> 
> See I'm with you tennman, I passionately want to show off my stuff. So can I boss? Please?


 
 Well certainly! Get her all pertty and snap away. But you have to leave the ones already in the thread. I love that old Ford boiler man! Where did that beauty go anyway? Up to the old boiler wagon in the sky? Those pics in that other thread were pretty cool you high flying acrobat. I was waiting for the trapese to come out in the next picture. You were not part of those Flying Wallendas were you Mike? C'mon. Give it up man.  For those guys that did not see those pics here is the link to see Mike "hard" at work. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/arborist-at-work.92542/#post-1216486  Can't wait to see your new pics Mike. I like to see pics of your fuel for your boiler system right in there as well!


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## Tennman

Ok.... First I want to state that EVEN I can upload images now to this new website. AND, after seeing Taylor's install and all these impressive systems here I'm a bit reluctant to "show you mine" So.... whaddya think of my boiler barn!?! Rough cut poplar siding, great shed roof wood drying volume, ~120' behind our house....  My goal of storage for this winter has been overtaken by higher personal and business priorities. Which ain't the end of the world. Behold, your bare bones gasser (BioMass), system designed/installed by yours truly with considerable generous assistance by lots of folks here. Chill's in the air.... game camera's are out.... my favorite football teams are in the crapper..... Life is good.


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## infinitymike

Hey man nothing to be ashamed of. I think simple is better. 
Is your family warm? Then that's all the matters. 

Call me naive, but I never would think Tennessee would have a long enough heating season to be justify a gasser and all the associated work. But good on ya.  Not paying for oil or gas is priceless!


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## Gasifier

Very nice Tennman. I like the barn and the boiler. That storage will be nice when you get to it. But until then, you have to take care of priorities. I use to work with a man from Tennesee, well a few of them actually, working construction in Virginia and South Carolina. I think he now lives in a little place called Mickey(?), Tenn. I can't remember if that is how you spell it or not. If you blinked you might miss it. About an hour or so from Memphis? How do you like the Biomass? What kind of wood do you usually burn? Thanks for posting the pics man!


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## infinitymike

And I forgot to tell ya that out building is sweet.  
How much land are you sitting on? Sure looks nice in the back ground.


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## heaterman

What's your draft Tenman? Looks to me like it might be advantageous to add another length of flue pipe to get up near the peak of the building.
Code is 2' above anything within 10 feet. Maybe it's just the angle of the picture .............


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## wardk

SnowTraveler said:


> Thanks gas! It's all good here!


Nice system Snow T , Industrial Electrician would explain those great looking control boxes.You use a plate exchanger on this  system , just wondering what the temp difference between the boiler side and the load side. I use a 70 plate and its about 20 degrees different, just wondering if that's normal ?


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## skfire

some pix of the system.

Scott


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## Tennman

Mike, Although our heating season is benign compared to essentially everyone else here, our ~5k sqft home is pathetically inefficient. We could dramatically upgrade the efficiency, but my wife and I love looking out thru all those old wrinkly, wavy glass windows that allow our curtains to blow around all winter (I know, you Yankees are shaking yer heads). So I'm probably burning an extra cord for that pleasure in an area where our mean winter temp is ~38F. Before the BioMass, propane was the primary heat source so we had system payback in about 2 years. The property is now down to 150 acres of prime hunting, dirt biking, and wood fetching land from the original 10,000 acre Revolutionary war land grant. It's our piece of heaven and we're privileged to be current custodians.

HM, No it's not the photo angle. Code?? You mean zip code, software code?!*? Only inspectors we have check the fittings on the stills so we don't waste any 'shine. Seriously, since I can't burn wide open without storage, I need to clean the screen on the cap at least once, maybe twice during the burn season and being shorter makes that easier. It may be too short to get good draft but since our boiler is a forced gasser it seems to work fine and the nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile away. The prevailing wind is always from the left of the picture coming down the holler. Is the taller stack for draft reasons or so it doesn't bother neighbors or both? In other words is it bad or unsafe the way it is? Since I have your attention and you now have a picture of my boiler room. I'm confused about circ pump, expansion tank, and air separator location/order in the system. I used the basic schematic guides shown up in the sticky and in other commonly shown schematics which place the circ just up stream of the Danfoss and downstream of the boiler. Gonna move my expansion tank to the separator to try to reduce pump noise. Better stop before I hijack Gassifier's thread.


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## BoilerMan

Tennman, love the boiler shed with intigrated wood shed!  Oh, and 38F??  That's just getting to be sweatshirt weather around here........LOL..... beautiful lot it looks like you have there!
Skfire, FROLING!!  Can I say more? 

Thank you for all your positive comments on my install. 

TS


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## Gasifier

WOW skfire! Very, very cool. That boiler must be sweet, man. Thanks for sharing the pics. I like the setup, everything looks very good. Congrats!


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## maple1

Some great pics here. With where I'm at right now I'm keying more on the insulation pics - tanks & pipes. I picked up a bundle of Roxul tonight but haven't found decent stuff to cover it with. That shiney stuff looks good skfire - what is it? I plodded around Home Depot for almost an hour today (& other places besides) but haven't seen anything I like yet. For pipes either - those look great.


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## wardk

maple1 said:


> Some great pics here. With where I'm at right now I'm keying more on the insulation pics - tanks & pipes. I picked up a bundle of Roxul tonight but haven't found decent stuff to cover it with. That shiney stuff looks good skfire - what is it? I plodded around Home Depot for almost an hour today (& other places besides) but haven't seen anything I like yet. For pipes either - those look great.


I agree where can I get  that pipe insulation?


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## wardk

wardk said:


> I agree where can I get that pipe insulation?


Hartkem did a real nice job on insulation as well.


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## wardk

A few of ours.


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## Gasifier

Very nice wardk. How long have you had the Garn? How much wood do you burn in a season? Do you burn year round? Thanks for adding the pics!


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## wardk

Gasifier said:


> Very nice wardk. How long have you had the Garn? How much wood do you burn in a season? Do you burn year round? Thanks for adding the pics!


This is our first season,only been burning for3 wks, using about 10 pieces a day maybe 100-150# a day,working between 120 and 160 degrees right now when winter hits will try 140-190. Hopefully 10 cords is enough.


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## skfire

maple1 said:


> Some great pics here. With where I'm at right now I'm keying more on the insulation pics - tanks & pipes. I picked up a bundle of Roxul tonight but haven't found decent stuff to cover it with. That shiney stuff looks good skfire - what is it? I plodded around Home Depot for almost an hour today (& other places besides) but haven't seen anything I like yet. For pipes either - those look great.


 
3" thick ductwrap, comes in 4'x50' rolls. JM, very happy with it. Got 2 layers of it on the tanks(6"thick).
http://www.jm.com/insulation/performance_materials/products/ahs331_microlitexg.pdf
2.5" thick 4'x8" insulation panels on the wall, got from HD

SK


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## Gasifier

skfire said:


> 3" thick ductwrap, comes in 4'x50' rolls. JM, very happy with it. Got 2 layers of it on the tanks(6"thick).
> http://www.jm.com/insulation/performance_materials/products/ahs331_microlitexg.pdf
> 2.5" thick 4'x8" insulation panels on the wall, got from HD
> 
> SK


 
SK,

I like the way your insulation looks on your tanks. I was looking at the wrap in the link you gave.
Am I reading that table correctly that you have an R value of about 8.3 installed with the stuff that you used? The stuff looks very good and I am thinking of wrapping my tank with it over the top of my spray foam.


----------



## skfire

Gasifier said:


> SK,
> 
> I like the way your insulation looks on your tanks. I was looking at the wrap in the link you gave.
> Am I reading that table correctly that you have an R value of about 8.3 installed with the stuff that you used? The stuff looks very good and I am thinking of wrapping my tank with it over the top of my spray foam.


 
yup,
R8.3 per 3" layer.


SK


----------



## SmokeEater

These photos may have appeared in an earlier posting. They show my PB105 and a Liberty L30 both capable of sending heated water to the Smart 100 either separately or together. Normally, the pellet boiler will be the only boiler in operation and only if the water temperature in the Smart drops to 140*F will the oil kick on. I use the snap switch on the Smart to activate the Liberty. The Smart holds potable water that can be used for all the DHW. It also can exchange that heat through a 50 plate HX to the remainder of the heating system. The 180* water is tempered to a lower setting through a 1 ¼” manual mixing valve and/or the 180* F water can heat the hotter baseboard loads upstairs or the modine heater in the cellar.


----------



## Gasifier

SmokeEater said:


> These photos may have appeared in an earlier posting. They show my PB105 and a Liberty L30 both capable of sending heated water to the Smart 100 either separately or together. Normally, the pellet boiler will be the only boiler in operation and only if the water temperature in the Smart drops to 140*F will the oil kick on. I use the snap switch on the Smart to activate the Liberty. The Smart holds potable water that can be used for all the DHW. It also can exchange that heat through a 50 plate HX to the remainder of the heating system. The 180* water is tempered to a lower setting through a 1 ¼” manual mixing valve and/or the 180* F water can heat the hotter baseboard loads upstairs or the modine heater in the cellar.


 
Nice set up SmokeEater. That sounds very nice. How big of a space do you heat in combination with you DHW? How much pellets do you go through in a year? Do you heat DHW year round with the pellet boiler or do you do something different in the summer?


----------



## ozzie88

Here a photo of a friend that has an old boiler with a DHW tank I made for him, this is a simple set up but I must say this old boiler he has works great. No computer or switchs just simple it fires good and last long time, no electric that ok too still runs and heat house.  Hes really heating two houses with this, his and small house next door for his mom,wow huh!  Photo of coil also.


----------



## Gasifier

ozzie88 said:


> Here a photo of a friend that has an old boiler with a DHW tank I made for him, this is a simple set up but I must say this old boiler he has works great. No computer or switchs just simple it fires good and last long time, no electric that ok too still runs and heat house. Hes really heating two houses with this, his and small house next door for his mom,wow huh! Photo of coil also.


 
That is a "wow" ozzie88! Simple is nice, and easy. Nice job on the tank. Can you explain to us how you built it?


----------



## SmokeEater

Gasifier said:


> Nice set up SmokeEater. That sounds very nice. How big of a space do you heat in combination with you DHW? How much pellets do you go through in a year? Do you heat DHW year round with the pellet boiler or do you do something different in the summer?


My space is about 2200 sq ft but will expand to my breezeway of 200 more  and the garage with 12 ft ceilings and 1100 more sq ft.  So far I can't give you a good number on the pellets used per year, but this October I started my first fire in September late and have just used about 45 bags, nearly a ton.  DHW is only made during the "heating season"  after that I heat the DWH with a 40 gal. electric heater.


----------



## rpmm70

Effecta 60 finally up and running with 2000 gallons of storage, and a little hearth...still more to do though.


----------



## wardk

SmokeEater said:


> My space is about 2200 sq ft but will expand to my breezeway of 200 more and the garage with 12 ft ceilings and 1100 more sq ft. So far I can't give you a good number on the pellets used per year, but this October I started my first fire in September late and have just used about 45 bags, nearly a ton. DHW is only made during the "heating season" after that I heat the DWH with a 40 gal. electric heater.


How are the prices for pellets in NY? I was talking to the neighbours yesterday, they buy 20 tons at a time from a local manufacturer paid $3.20 a bag.


----------



## BoilerMan

RPMM70, where is that boiler located?  Looks like outside, but the brick seems like it's in some type of addition....  I like the brickwork!

TS


----------



## Gasifier

Wow rpmm70. That looks really friggin nice man! Really nice. I love the look of the hearth around the boiler. Now you are giving me ideas of how I might want to finish the floor and the walls off in my boiler room.  Another project for when I do my basement remodel in a few years.  Thanks for sharing the pics of your system.  I see a little guy in there that likes the room as well.


----------



## SmokeEater

wardk said:


> How are the prices for pellets in NY? I was talking to the neighbours yesterday, they buy 20 tons at a time from a local manufacturer paid $3.20 a bag.


Curran's do manufacture locally and I buy there medium priced pellet by the ton only and at $4.60 per bag.  You pick them up.


----------



## rpmm70

Thanks all. It has been a ton of work so far. I had an idea to get the effecta which at the time was not well known or been seen in person, so i wanted this setup to loom really nice. Still a work in progress but is getting there.
The hearth, boiler, and storage is located in my pole barn. Nothing outside, except the 2.5" underground pex to the house of course.


----------



## rpmm70

The other "nice touch" to the hearth, storage tank room is the old barn siding. I found an old barn that blew down and salvaged the siding from it and used it for the ceiling and sidewall of the hearth. I also am currently enclosing the storage tanks with it. The ole siding looks really amazing on this setup. I will post more pics when i get a chance.


----------



## mikefrommaine

Here's my boiler. Low quality pics though. I use the mule to bring the wood close to the boiler room. I can load the wood directly into the boiler or into the wood crib. The crib is in front of the boiler and holds 3-7 days worth of wood depending on how cold it is.


----------



## Gasifier

mikefrommaine said:


> Here's my boiler. Low quality pics though. I use the mule to bring the wood close to the boiler room. I can load the wood directly into the boiler or into the wood crib. The crib is in front of the boiler and holds 3-7 days worth of wood depending on how cold it is.


 
Nice looking set up Mike. Thanks for sharing the pics. What kind of wood you burning their? How much do you go through in a year?


----------



## BoilerMan

Mike is that an air louver in the lower left of the second pic? 

TS


----------



## mikefrommaine

Gasifier said:


> Nice looking set up Mike. Thanks for sharing the pics. What kind of wood you burning their? How much do you go through in a year?




That's all pine. Tree service drops it off for me. I have plenty of my own trees to cut bt it's easier to have it dumped in my backyard 

Went through about 8 cord last year.


----------



## mikefrommaine

Taylor Sutherland said:


> Mike is that an air louver in the lower left of the second pic?
> 
> TS



Yes it's a vent to the unfinished part of my basement. It's the only source of make up air when the doors to the boiler room are closed. The boiler room has 5/8 Sheetrock all around and exterior fire rated doors. Had planned to add an exterior vent but don't think I need it.


----------



## mmudd

solar draindown and 500 gal pressurized storage                                                                               solar draindown tank                                 royal boiler
                                                                  The pex in backround is for future wall radiant upgrade.


----------



## Gasifier

mmudd said:


> View attachment 82757
> View attachment 82755
> View attachment 82756
> View attachment 82754
> 
> solar draindown and 500 gal pressurized storage solar draindown tank royal boiler
> The pex in backround is for future wall radiant upgrade.


 
Nice set up there mmudd. Thanks for showing it. How much solar panels do you have? And do you have a pic of them?


----------



## mmudd

Thanks.      I'lll get a picture of them too, i keep forgetting to get that done.


----------



## mmudd

Thanks.   Folks on this site have been a big influence on my project.      
pics of solar collectors & Support. 1 panel is homemade, 8' x8 pex/aluminum absorber plates.    The other three are 4'x10' factory panels with copper pipe and copper absorber plate purchased used from craigslist with stainless draindown tank for $1000 bucks.   Off course I had to do some repairs as previous owner had it set up as closed loop and the array obviously had overheated.     It was pretty easy to repair.      

Adding the pressuized storage and integrating the solar took lots of work, time and $, but I am satisfied with how it works.   Most people think I'm nuts (I even thought so sometimes) and that this is super complicated, but as we all know here, it's not if you understand it. 
I'm not sure how much contribution I'll get from solar in winter.   Having the solar and pressuized sotrage integrated will really extend domestic hot water in summer.     It was not unusual in summer for the 200 gal solar tank to limit out after a day and a half.   Now I have someplace to dump the excess heat.   Yesterday was sunny with hi temp of 38, solar tank was at 140 when I got home.    The boiler keeps tank at 130, so I got some gain.      
t


----------



## Gasifier

Very nice mmudd. After buying my system, and then spending the money on a used tractor/loader/backhoe, if I spend any more money I think my name will be mud! Wife wants to go on a vacation sometime. Planning has begun for next July. Going out west for a three week vacation. Hope to see some huge trees while were out there!


----------



## mmudd

I have spent a ton of $ and more time and still not done   -   plan to add radiant wall heat to move away from fan coil.     trying to stretch out wood usage. 

If I would have had a actual cost estimate before starting, I probably would not have done anything.      

You will see some big forests out west.  As I understand it , the pine beetles are really taking a toll.     I visited the Adirondacks a couple of years ago and was impressed with the forest up there.  Also visited a  friend in Burlington VT.    That area is very pretty, but timber did not look as good.   We are fortunate to have mostly of oak /hickory forests on our farm.  Good for wood heating!
If you pass thru mid- MO on I-70 on your way out west, look me up.


----------



## kopeck

I said I would do it, so better late then never...




The Tarm and some fuel. You can see the over heat loop on the left which I tested for the fun of it today (it worked). The rack of wood is something new I'm trying. Working out a design that's most versatile for me. I like it but I can see a few changes I'm going to make on version 2.




My manifold and my oil boiler, it ain't pretty but it does work.




Mission control. The box with the RIB is the controls for my auto fail back to oil. Works really well, I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out.




My 820 gallon heat bank. I need to trim the vapor barrier in the front, it's been working so I've gotten a bit lazy.


K


----------



## infinitymike

very nice set up


----------



## BoilerMan

Nice, K!  Did you do the install, or hire it out?  Looks great!

TS


----------



## kopeck

All the wood boiler side I did my self, I tied into piping that was hired out. 

I really learned as I went, there's things I would change if I was doing it again but it works!

What you can't see is the 25' run of pipe between the Tarm & the manifold.  I loose quite a bit of heat there, insulation is in order I just need to find the time and the money. 

K


----------



## KenLockett

infinitymike said:


> I can almost smell the fire.
> 
> Looks great.
> 
> I bought the stove pipe and cut in the cathedral ceiling support box this evening.
> 
> Chippin away at it..thank God its still pretty warm down here..upper 50's, low 40's until next weekend!
> 
> Oil burner coming on occasionally whatta ya gonna do!


 

Mike,

Up here near Albany, NY where its a little cooler.  Anyhow, I just put in a small fireplace insert (Drolet Escape from Northern Tool - Actually a very high quality little unit!) to augment on the coldest days and heating during the shoulder seasons.  About 39-45 Deg yesterday in Albany and the little unit heated the 2300 SQ farmhouse very well for the entire day and last evening without the oil burner coming on.  Hate burning that oil.  Back into the thirties this evening so will be firing the gasifier up later today.

Ken


----------



## KenLockett

stee6043 said:


> My boiler room pales in comparison to some I'm seeing these days. But I do like this one. 190F and 24psi. Bring on the cold...


 
Can you send some information on that combo gauge?  I'd like to get one.


----------



## stee6043

KenLockett said:


> Can you send some information on that combo gauge? I'd like to get one.


 
This is the manufacturer but you can't buy them direct.  You'll need to find a local source (I think). 

http://www.miljoco.com/


----------



## fabsroman

Great setups everybody. Compared to what everybody has posted, mine is the simplest of all, which is good because I think I would have gone insane trying to install the boiler systems that most of you have shown here. Was bad enough tying my furnace into the existing ductwork and wiring everything up, replacing the central A/C condensor, installing a new natural gas hot water heater, and replacing all the gray butylene water pipe in the house with cpvc. Will not even get into the utility installation of natural gas from the main to the house. That would take all night for me to type.


----------



## BoilerMan

Looks great fabsroman!  It seems so strange for me to see a gas burner like that.  Used to seeing oil burners set up like that.  But gas is starting to take over here now.

TS


----------



## fabsroman

Taylor Sutherland said:


> Looks great fabsroman! It seems so strange for me to see a gas burner like that. Used to seeing oil burners set up like that. But gas is starting to take over here now.
> 
> TS


 
Yeah, Wayne Industries makes both an oil burner and a natural gas/LP gas burner that can be used in the furnace without any modifications to the furnace. From what I read, the gas burners were developed to retrofit on furnaces that used an oil nozzle burner. So, the older oil furnaces could be converted to natural gas or LP gas just by swapping out the nozzle burner.


----------



## kopeck

It looks a lot like my parent's ThermoPride.  They've been using it for years and it's served them well.

K


----------



## mikefrommaine

fabsroman said:


> Yeah, Wayne Industries makes both an oil burner and a natural gas/LP gas burner that can be used in the furnace without any modifications to the furnace. From what I read, the gas burners were developed to retrofit on furnaces that used an oil nozzle burner. So, the older oil furnaces could be converted to natural gas or LP gas just by swapping out the nozzle burner.



Nice looking setup.


----------



## Hansson

Here some pics from sweden.
Baxi solo innova 30. 2 1000L tanks.150L expansion tank.
50L electrical heater after the tanks. always hot water to take a shower
Laddomat 21
Termomatic CBJ heating regulation 1 for the radiators and one for the floor heat.The one for the floor heat have a 4way valve that first take the return from the radiators. At the vetilation to the room I have put at motriced damper that close when the boiler is off.. And the logger that uppload the system status to this page www.e-logger.se/pub?hansson&p=1 Merry Christmas everybody


----------



## Floydian

Very nice Hansson!

Happy Holidays.

Noah


----------



## BoilerMan

Hansson, looks great!  I see you have some solderless connections and the other copper connections appear to be brazed.  Is this common over there?  Also what is the grey thing in the second to last pic looking like it's going outside through a window.  Sorry about the questions just curious about how things are done in Sweden, would like to go there someday.  Blessed Christmas all!

TS


----------



## Hansson

Brazeing is geting more and more rarely used here. They are going over to press connections.
The grey thing is motorized damper. It opens when the boiler starts and close when the boiler stops.
The boiler room is getting really cold in the winter when I didn't have the motorized damper.
It can get down to -30 c here in the winters.
In Sweden its normal to have a ventilation hole that have the same diameter as the chimney.


----------



## Gasifier

Nice set-up Kopeck. Glad you shared it with us. Thanks.


----------



## kopeck

What a nice neat job Hannson!

It's always fun to see how folks do things in other parts of the world.  Heat still moves the same way though. 

K


----------



## Gasifier

Nice set up Fabsroman! That looks great. How much are you heating and how much wood do you go through?


----------



## Gasifier

Very nice Hannson, very nice. How long have you had it? How much sq. ft. do you heat? And how much wood do you go through? What type of wood are you burning over there?


----------



## Hansson

I heat about 130 square meters. I do not really know how much wood I do with but maybe 25 m³.
I use mostly birch, pine and spruce.


----------



## woodsmaster

​


----------



## woodsmaster

Dont Know why the pics posted the way they did. Oh well.


----------



## BoilerMan

Great looking setup J.T. I have a lot of respect for people who can do black iron. The little that I've done has not looked that good! Nice vertical tanks too, you must get a nice amount of useable heat with all the low temp emitters you have in your sig.

TS


----------



## Gasifier

Nice set up J.T. Storage is the name of the game. How long you had it. How much you heating? How much wood you burnin?


----------



## woodsmaster

Been up and running since 12 -31- 10. I burn around 8 cord a year heating buildings in signature and DHW year round. Shop is 15' tall with a couple overhead doors. House is old and could use a few more efficiency improvements.


----------



## Floydian

First of all, great thread Gasifier! So happy I can finally add some pics of my system. Been up and running over a week now and couldn't more pleased with the efficiency, convenience, ease of operation, and of course the comfort.

Details: Varmebaronen Vedolux 37, 1000 gallons of storage, low temp radiant floors utilizing constant circulation, outdoor reset and TRV control.







Inside the Varm:







Hopefully I can add DHW in the coming months.

Noah


----------



## Gasifier

Wow. Very nice Noah! That looks great, and lots of storage. Love it!  

Thanks for posting the pics and info. Appreciated.


----------



## Floydian

Gasifier said:


> Wow. Very nice Noah! That looks great, and lots of storage. Love it!
> 
> Thanks for posting the pics and info. Appreciated.


 
Thank you, Gasifier. Although my system lacks that nice, professional looking installation, it is all working as it's supposed to. Rob @ http://www.nrtradiant.com/ deserves a lot of credit for making sure I didn't make any big mistakes. I bought all my heating side components thru Rob, and while I could have payed less elsewhere online, having a pro like him on my side as well as this site, gave me the confidence to pull this off.

And yeah, storage is incredible! I knew I wanted it from the get go. If you're gonna do it, DO IT-right?

Noah


----------



## mustash29

My pics are in the furnace thread.

My install / mod thread: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/englander-28-3500-furnace-install-mods.102100/

Do pics of your day job count? I spend 50+ hrs / week here:

Control room:






Running 2 updraft gassification trash to energy boilers. 500 tons / day of trash = 150 tons per day of ash.  The water / steam side runs at 830 deg and 1000 psi:






16 foot wide fire box, fuel feed chute and ram feeder in the rear, 8 individual moving grate zones in the middle, ash drop off chute in the front:






And we spin a 17 mega watt turbine.  830 deg and 855 psi at the TG throttles:


----------



## BoilerMan

I love to see industrial setups.  I have a degree in industrial automation and controls, so the MCC room looks quite familiar, although I do not work in that feild (independent contractor).  What kinds of trash do you try to avoid burning, other than the obvious propane tanks and mercury containing objects?   Trash to Electricity is a great thing IMHO.  We have to pay for trash collection around here. 

Do you do anything with waste heat other than heat the building?

TS


----------



## Gasifier

mustash29. Very cool! Thanks for sharing that. Looks like a cool job you have there.


----------



## mustash29

Whatever the trash haulers pick up comes to us.  It may come in direct from businesses or residential routes.  A lot of what we get has already been through a single or multi stream recycling facility or transfer station.  Essentially we are getting the garbage of the garbage, LOL.  Most of the paper, cardboard, plastics, tin cans, etc have been taken out already.

We also do assured destruction and witness burns where the material gets fed directly to the boilers.  Police evidence, contraband, sensative files from businesses, etc.

A 20 lb grill tank with residual propane in it will go BOOM pretty nicely.  Years ago we would get beer kegs that were bad, they would pop pretty good when heated and the bad beer turned to steam (1600 to 1 expansion ratio).

We generate about 16 MW and use about 2 MW to run the plant, the rest goes out to the grid.  The boilers supply aux steam to preheat the underfire air to about 300 deg if needed to dry out wet or thaw frozen fuel.

18,000 gal propane tank on site for aux burners to heat up a cold boiler or if needed to control CO during fuel anomolies or any other boiler related casualty.

We inject a urea (ammonia) solution into the furnace to control Nox, lime slurry mix in the boiler exhaust to control So2 and stack temp and activated carbon for heavy metals removal.

Ash residue goes to a special tripple lined landfill.


----------



## Gasifier

Mustash 29. Very interesting stuff. We almost installed a garbage incinerator at a county facility many years ago, it was suppose to burn so hot and clean that 99% of the stuff that came out the stack was suppose to be steam. But it did not get passed by the legislators. A small number of environmental activist got it stopped. Many were dissappointed. I am all for protecting the environment, but now many people who live out in the country illegally burn their garbage in a 55 steel barrel where officials won't see it because they don't want to, or can't afford the dumping fees. Now everyone pays more money because we have to have it hauled away from our transfer stations to a facility in another county where they use the energy they get from the trash from their enormous landfill. And the landfill employs a lot of people. Just like the incinerator would have for us.  Oh well. What are ya gonna do. What do you burn with at home?


----------



## mustash29

A Froling was my 1st choice.  I have a very limited footprint to work with concerning storage, I only have a tiny basement under one corner of the house, so.....

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/englander-28-3500-furnace-install-mods.102100/


----------



## __dan




----------



## __dan




----------



## wardk

Wow Dan, that is a very sophisticated system. Are you the designer and installer?Dumb question , what are the green things in the second post 1st pic? I'm guessing valves. You must be very confident in your black iron work with few unions, I used a box full on my simple system and still think more would have been better.


----------



## __dan

wardk said:


> Wow Dan, that is a very sophisticated system. Are you the designer and installer?Dumb question , what are the green things in the second post 1st pic? I'm guessing valves. You must be very confident in your black iron work with few unions, I used a box full on my simple system and still think more would have been better.


 
Everything in the picture was designed and built by me, the foundation, the structure. Definately the guidance of Tarm USA and the Froling product made the job over the top nice.

The green thing to the left is the oil boiler DHW Taco 007 circ and the other green things are the DHW indirect tank Taco flow checks. Intesesting thing I wanted to show in the picure is the indirect DHW tank had two direct lines for boiler water, straight from the WM Gold oil and straight from the Froling with no recirc in the larger headers. Straight boiler water with one circ from either boiler depending on which boiler is firing. I used a lot of circ isolating flanges instead of unions. Tape and dope everything.

Was afraid to post the picture of my fancy DHW control wiring, considering that is my trade. I like plumbing.

Been loving the heat with very low fuel consumption.

Wasn't able to rotate the pictures correctly.


----------



## __dan

Today's fire I knew would be better witth some off time. I loaded this white oak knot that was cut out of the tree, outside one year. I wanted to slow the fire down. Just that and some low quality softwood. Have had to rake the coals through the lighting door twice but I'm burning the same piece of tree from ~ 8:00 am to the picture above at 4:00 pm. The first picture, that's 4:00 pm. The fire had gone out again but that was good because it would have been too much heat.


----------



## wardk

__dan said:


> Everything in the picture was designed and built by me, the foundation, the structure. Definately the guidance of Tarm USA and the Froling product made the job over the top nice.
> 
> The green thing to the left is the oil boiler DHW Taco 007 circ and the other green things are the DHW indirect tank Taco flow checks. Intesesting thing I wanted to show in the picure is the indirect DHW tank had two direct lines for boiler water, straight from the WM Gold oil and straight from the Froling with no recirc in the larger headers. Straight boiler water with one circ from either boiler depending on which boiler is firing. I used a lot of circ isolating flanges instead of unions. Tape and dope everything.
> 
> Was afraid to post the picture of my fancy DHW control wiring, considering that is my trade. I like plumbing.
> 
> Been loving the heat with very low fuel consumption.
> 
> Wasn't able to rotate the pictures correctly.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 88441
> View attachment 88442


Flow checks make sense, is the manifold for future radiant?


----------



## kopeck

Holy smokes Dan, that's quite the setup!

Like wardk said, that's some impressive black iron work you have going on there.  I started out with all BL but ended up finishing with copper since I could fit it better.

Great boiler and great job.

K


----------



## wardk

__dan said:


> Today's fire I knew would be better witth some off time. I loaded this white oak knot that was cut out of the tree, outside one year. I wanted to slow the fire down. Just that and some low quality softwood. Have had to rake the coals through the lighting door twice but I'm burning the same piece of tree from ~ 8:00 am to the picture above at 4:00 pm. The first picture, that's 4:00 pm. The fire had gone out again but that was good because it would have been too much heat.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 88452
> View attachment 88453
> View attachment 88454
> View attachment 88455
> View attachment 88456
> View attachment 88458
> View attachment 88459
> View attachment 88460
> View attachment 88461


8 hrs on a single charge of wood, your Froling must cycle on and off as heat is needed.Excuse my ignorance but I didn't think gassers liked that much idle time. Does it smoke during idle.I know mine smokes a bit till the flue reaches 350f and runs between 350-450 usually run it 3 to 4 hrs with two full charges of wood.


----------



## kopeck

Well, it's not the most efficient way to run them but they will do it.  There's a bunch of guys on here that run their gassers with out storage, that means your going to to idle.

Even with storage I get some idling on mine as the return water gets closer to the supply temp (ie the tank is getting getting close to the supply temp).  With mine the fan shuts off for a couple of minutes, once the temps come back down the fan kicks back on and things get rolling.  While it's idling I do get just a hint of smoke from the chimney.

It gets back to gasification pretty quick, there's always a nice bed of coals.

K


----------



## __dan

wardk said:


> 8 hrs on a single charge of wood, your Froling must cycle on and off as heat is needed.Excuse my ignorance but I didn't think gassers liked that much idle time. Does it smoke during idle.I know mine smokes a bit till the flue reaches 350f and runs between 350-450 usually run it 3 to 4 hrs with two full charges of wood.


 
No. I have been avoiding slumbering the Froling by timing and limiting how much fuel I put in. On a coal bed with the boiler hot I can only put in three or so splits for three hours to avoid overfeeding and slumbering. It slumbers on high temps and goes off for fuel load burnout, excess O2 > 19%. When empty I can only load 1/2 to 1/3 with fuel, on softwood.

It was one piece of wood, a big white oak solid knot that was cut and outside one year. I put that in to burn slower and some softwood to make a fire. The oak chunk went out twice, burnt out the softwood, and the Froling went off, not slumbering. The tree piece was slow roasted and burned, that's the first picture of wood that had gone out.


----------



## Gasifier

Very nice job Dan. That Froling must be sweet! Thanks for sharing your pics of your system.


----------



## mustash29

A fun evening at work, check out page 6 of this thread for some background info.....

It's actually quite funny that it only took me 13.5 years to do this, LOL.

Boiler 2 was taken down yesterday for a scheduled mid run water wash, the heat transfer tubing gets pressure washed at 10,000 psi.

After burning 1350 gallons of propane heating up for 4 hours, we drop trash into the furnace. That black square in the back is about 4-5 feet high and 14 feet wide. The furnace is actually 16 feet wide.

The blob on the right wall is a clinker, essentially a "moon rock" of melted and re-solidified ash with lots of metallic debris embedded in it. When they get too heavy to hang on to the wall they "shed" and come through the fuel bed like a snow plow.

That thing that rolls down near the viewport is a plastic lid for a 55 gal drum.

http://s23.beta.photobucket.com/user/Mustash29/media/Misc/MOV00221_zps72f22a06.mp4.html

Dry trash sitting in an 800 degree "oven" only takes about 10 minutes to spontaneously combust. The flicker you see is from the gas burner flames, which are 20 feet above the fuel bed.

From camp fire to fully engulfed took just over one minute. From here on, the burners are shut off and the fire is self sustaining as long as you keep shoving more fuel in.

When we stop feeding, it takes about one hour to burn up what is sitting on the grates and what is left in the feed chute.

http://s23.beta.photobucket.com/user/Mustash29/media/Misc/MOV00222_zps4687fa7a.mp4.html


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## Gasifier

Very cool mustash29. Thanks for sharing all of it. Do those clinkers do any damage to the burn chamber? Do they burn up or is there a process to take them out?


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## Gasifier

Hello again gentlemen. Just wanted to see if anyone had a new system or old system that they wanted to add pictures of to this thread. I love seeing other peoples systems!


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## Coal Reaper

some old pics.  pipes and room are insulated now.  still need to get doors for boiler room.


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## PassionForFire&Water

Coal Reaper said:


> some old pics.  pipes and room are insulated now.  still need to get doors for boiler room.


 
I like your storage tank setup.
Are these 2 x 500 gallon tanks?
Can you post some pictures of the skirt that's keeping them in the vertical position?


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## Coal Reaper

PassionForFire&Water said:


> I like your storage tank setup.
> Are these 2 x 500 gallon tanks?
> Can you post some pictures of the skirt that's keeping them in the vertical position?


yes.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/vedolux-37-install.110669/


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## Gasifier

Very nice Coal Reaper! Thanks for sharing. How do you like the Vedolux so far? How much sq.ft. you heating and what type of house? Baseboard? Radiant in-floor?


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## Coal Reaper

Gasifier said:


> Very nice Coal Reaper! Thanks for sharing. How do you like the Vedolux so far? How much sq.ft. you heating and what type of house? Baseboard? Radiant in-floor?


Love it! Spend too much time on hearth tho. Just put second load in so i find myself checking the forum as i watch the gasification chamber through the view pane. Currently only running for DHW.  Going through about 105#s of wood every five days. Vedo is in insulated room in barn. House is 2400sqft, cathedral cieling in family room as well as three bedrooms and two baths upstairs, slant fin baseboard.  Have taco bumble bee in set point mode returning 140*f water back to storage. Pump runs at 41 watts for a few minutes and then backs off to 9-11 watts. Awesome stratification and i think i can get away with 120* return to storage.


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## Gasifier

Coal Reaper said:


> Love it! Spend too much time on hearth tho. Just put second load in so i find myself checking the forum as i watch the gasification chamber through the view pane. Currently only running for DHW.  Going through about 105#s of wood every five days. Vedo is in insulated room in barn. House is 2400sqft, cathedral cieling in family room as well as three bedrooms and two baths upstairs, slant fin baseboard.  Have taco bumble bee in set point mode returning 140*f water back to storage. Pump runs at 41 watts for a few minutes and then backs off to 9-11 watts. Awesome stratification and i think i can get away with 120* return to storage.


 
Sweet man. It must get warm in that boiler room! Does that and the tanks radiate off a lot of heat? I know I love my spray foam on my 400 gallon tank. Wish it was twice as thick. Maybe this year sometime I will add another layer. I am currently heating for DHW as well. My first summer I heated for DHW all spring summer and fall. This summer I got so busy I stopped burning around the end of May or beginning of June, I can't remember, and just got back to burning around September 2nd. Nice to be back.


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## Coal Reaper

Gasifier said:


> Sweet man. It must get warm in that boiler room! Does that and the tanks radiate off a lot of heat? I know I love my spray foam on my 400 gallon tank. Wish it was twice as thick. Maybe this year sometime I will add another layer. I am currently heating for DHW as well. My first summer I heated for DHW all spring summer and fall. This summer I got so busy I stopped burning around the end of May or beginning of June, I can't remember, and just got back to burning around September 2nd. Nice to be back.


Boiler is insulated well and sides are cool to touch. Most of heat comes from short stovepipe section and its not unbearable. When the unit is not running it is actually cooler in the room now than before i insulated due to the south facing wall and steel siding. Its very comfortable now, no humidity. 5-6" foam on tanks, foam surface is ambient temp. I have some exposed fitting that i should make an attempt to cover up. What are yourunning?


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## Gasifier

Any more new systems to add to this thread? Some very cool systems. Mine has been humming away and going through some serious wood the last few days. Temps have been hovering below 15 here. It was -17 at 5:30 this morning with a little wind. Glad it wasn't much wind! My Wood Gun went through a whole chamber full of White Ash in 8 hours last night! But, I did not have to get out of bed until after I had a good 7 hours of sleep!


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## kjahnz

This kind of photo is hard to capture with my boiler. Burning ash and elm in this load.


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## Gasifier

I see from your sig you are running an Attack 35. How do you like it? Looks like some serious flames there. Got any pics of the outside? How close are you to having your storage operating?


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## kjahnz

I can't complain, but I don't have another gassed to compare too. It did not take long to realize dry wood works best. I still could tune the air and the fan speed. Storage will make that tuning even easier. If I get some time off work,the plasma cutter will get a little work out. I am joining two 500 gal.vertically. when I am done pics will be posted. Thanks for asking.


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## kopeck

Anyone else find that opening they're secondary door kills the magical gas flame?

I can look through the peep hole and it's that really cool redish-blue flame but if I open the door to take a closer look it goes out after a second or two.  I'm just cracking the door too.

I guess what I'm saying is no cool pics from me  

K


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## Coal Reaper

My peep hole is 6x6".


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## kopeck

Coal Reaper said:


> My peep hole is 6x6".



Yeah, I know.  That's really kind of a cool "feature".

Does the glass darken at all?  My peep hole fills up with fly ash but other wise stays clean.

K


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## aka.bugle

MaryAnne (Tarm MB30) 1st time fire yesterday... Woohoo!


started with 1100 gallons, water to bottom sight glass w/ 1 atmosphere in the air tanks.


Eventually it will be primary/secondary.... but thats a ways away yet...


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## maple1

kopeck said:


> Yeah, I know.  That's really kind of a cool "feature".
> 
> Does the glass darken at all?  My peep hole fills up with fly ash but other wise stays clean.
> 
> K


 
Mine gets the odd dribble of creosote on it from the front of the wood chamber, directly above. Doesn't happen very often or much. Likely when I get an odd damp piece of wood in there, and loaded to the front. I haven't cleaned it since mid-last winter, and there might be 3 or 4 of those marks on it. Otherwise nothing else on it.


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## Gasifier

aka.bugle said:


> MaryAnne (Tarm MB30) 1st time fire yesterday... Woohoo!
> View attachment 121198
> 
> started with 1100 gallons, water to bottom sight glass w/ 1 atmosphere in the air tanks.
> View attachment 121200
> 
> Eventually it will be primary/secondary.... but thats a ways away yet...


 
Nice bugle. I like it. Is this your first fire this year? Or first fire in it for you?


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## aka.bugle

Gasifier said:


> Nice bugle. I like it. Is this your first fire this year? Or first fire in it for you?


1st w/ a boiler, certainly not for this little danish tart! She's got a tiny leak at both top (1") rubber (I'm told) plugs (looks like it may have seeped there for a while.... grrr. the poor hot cream filling has been oozed from there before and corroded the original boiler paint and further into the metal.) never had a DWH coil. so they probably never noticed the seepage.  I', just gonna keep an eye on it 'till spring or so. (and I know the "spring or so" could turn into an over night boiler plugweld job at the 1st turn from acceptable.)


I'm on the 3rd firing now. Give up the heat, steel.


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## salecker

Lets see if this works
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





No Luck
Any tips on posting pic's??? anybody??


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## BHetrick10

I couldnt figure it out until recently.  Upload you pics to your pc in a file click upload file below where you enter your post, go to your pictures and select the picture/s


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## NP ALASKA

Effecta 60kw with pellet option 30kw

Been running pellets all winter, works great. At -40 plus for more than two days i have learned to switch to wood in the first 24 hours if it will stay that cold. Need the btus

At -20 the pellet gun work great heating 4800 sq ft.


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## salecker

BHetrick10 said:


> I couldnt figure it out until recently.  Upload you pics to your pc in a file click upload file below where you enter your post, go to your pictures and select the picture/s


I tried that and got an error message,just tried it again same thing.No explanation as to what the error is.
Any other ideas?I am posting pic's from the same group on another web site.And there is another web site that i have the same issues as here.
 Thanks Thomas


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## NP ALASKA

OWB, before I got smarter, 70 plus cord/year. 11000 sq ft between 4 buildings. This one has been gone since spring 2012








	

		
			
		

		
	
 Effecta 60KW Lambda, gasser wood boiler with pellet option 30KW
Running this one on the house, 4800 sq ft





	

		
			
		

		
	
 Titan II Coal boiler by Decker
This one heats the remaining 6200 sq ft between 3 buildings.














Best regards, from North Pole Alaska


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## Gasifier

Very nice!


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## maple1

NP ALASKA said:


> Effecta 60kw with pellet option 30kw
> 
> Been running pellets all winter, works great. At -40 plus for more than two days i have learned to switch to wood in the first 24 hours if it will stay that cold. Need the btus
> 
> At -20 the pellet gun work great heating 4800 sq ft.


 
Hey Morgan, just wondering - how is your pellet consumption, and how much do you pay for them way up there? I could see pellets being in my future - but hopefully not for quite a while yet. And hopefully by then the local supply situation will be better.


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## NP ALASKA

maple1 said:


> Hey Morgan, just wondering - how is your pellet consumption, and how much do you pay for them way up there? I could see pellets being in my future - but hopefully not for quite a while yet. And hopefully by then the local supply situation will be better.



The pellet burner will keep up to -20 or so, if it is going to stay around -20 or colder for more than a couple days I make the switch to wood and get the 60KW output.
I have been away before and early in my testing and getting familiar with the system I ran pellets (30Kw) down to -40. Wanted to see how it would keep up.

Day 1 - no problem
Day 2 - noticed a one degree to two degree drop in the house
Day 3 - noticed significant drop of 5-6 degrees or more temp dependant

This was expected with my sq footage that is why I went dual fuel.

I have learned to make the switch early enough to not loose much in house or she starts to voice her opinion! Lol

-10 1- 1.5 bags
-20 2-2.25 bags
-30 3-4 bags
-40 5+

Just my testing nothing scientific to it, a ledger showing date and how many bags I loaded in my half ton hopper.

Regards,

Oh yeah

269 a ton
or 5.38 /#40 bag


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## velvetfoot

Hansson said:


> Brazeing is geting more and more rarely used here. They are going over to press connections.
> The grey thing is motorized damper. It opens when the boiler starts and close when the boiler stops.
> The boiler room is getting really cold in the winter when I didn't have the motorized damper.
> It can get down to -30 c here in the winters.
> In Sweden its normal to have a ventilation hole that have the same diameter as the chimney.


That is a good idea.


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## Karl_northwind

NP ALASKA said:


> The pellet burner will keep up to -20 or so, if it is going to stay around -20 or colder for more than a couple days I make the switch to wood and get the 60KW output.
> I have been away before and early in my testing and getting familiar with the system I ran pellets (30Kw) down to -40. Wanted to see how it would keep up.
> 
> Day 1 - no problem
> Day 2 - noticed a one degree to two degree drop in the house
> Day 3 - noticed significant drop of 5-6 degrees or more temp dependant
> 
> This was expected with my sq footage that is why I went dual fuel.
> 
> I have learned to make the switch early enough to not loose much in house or she starts to voice her opinion! Lol
> 
> -10 1- 1.5 bags
> -20 2-2.25 bags
> -30 3-4 bags
> -40 5+
> 
> Just my testing nothing scientific to it, a ledger showing date and how many bags I loaded in my half ton hopper.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Oh yeah
> 
> 269 a ton
> or 5.38 /#40 bag



Glad to hear everything's been running well for you.  I'm just curious how well insulated your place is to be that size and getting by with 100,000 btu in -20F.  as far as I know you're the only person in the US using the effecta 60KW with the pellet head.  this certainly seems to be a pretty good case study.  

karl


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## NP ALASKA

Hey there, good to hear from you. Been busy as heck here just noticed you posted.

Again, I must say my calculations are estimates as I have no scientific statics backing it.
I can merely provide the temp, make up of the house and the fuel consumption rate.

The house is made up of 12 inch walls. double 2X6 with a space between the two frames. Insulated all the way through and very close attention when placing vapor barrier ensuring sealing of all seems, edges and even staples. the attached garage is 2X8 with the same attention to detail.
Currently we are about -5 to -12 at night and in the +30-40's during the day. my consumption rate has slowed so significantly over the last 2 weeks I have been a bit lazy in keeping any records.

I am extremely pleased and am using about 1/4 in pellet fuel to what it would be in oil. No complaints about that. I have learned allot using the system and must say it is very user friendly. The biggest thing like any of the boiler listed here, keep it clean and it will perform without question.

On another note: I have decided to add a boiler room to the side of the garage. I will again stick with 2x8 construction in keeping with the existing garage. My tanks with stay as they are and I will simply move boiler and pellet hopper into new garage area. I have attached my proposed layout. What do you think? Any suggestions?

Regards, Morgan




Karl_northwind said:


> Glad to hear everything's been running well for you.  I'm just curious how well insulated your place is to be that size and getting by with 100,000 btu in -20F.  as far as I know you're the only person in the US using the effecta 60KW with the pellet head.  this certainly seems to be a pretty good case study.
> 
> karl


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## mustash29

Nice drawings but.....

Why not leave the 60 kw where it is, relocate chimney to back wall, build new garage for the skid steer and wood storage?  Why go through moving everything when you could just add the new space and have a full bay to utilize however needed?


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## NP ALASKA

The new room isnt my idea. The wife really likes the system but she can smell a hint of the boiler running. She is like the smoke smell police. Lol
she says the boiler has to be isolated so it (smell) doesnt get in her truck or the house. Anyhow bonus for me since she didnt freak out at my drawing and size of addition.

Thanks for the input though


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## Karl_northwind

NP ALASKA said:


> Hey there, good to hear from you. Been busy as heck here just noticed you posted.
> 
> Again, I must say my calculations are estimates as I have no scientific statics backing it.
> I can merely provide the temp, make up of the house and the fuel consumption rate.
> 
> The house is made up of 12 inch walls. double 2X6 with a space between the two frames. Insulated all the way through and very close attention when placing vapor barrier ensuring sealing of all seems, edges and even staples. the attached garage is 2X8 with the same attention to detail.
> Currently we are about -5 to -12 at night and in the +30-40's during the day. my consumption rate has slowed so significantly over the last 2 weeks I have been a bit lazy in keeping any records.
> 
> I am extremely pleased and am using about 1/4 in pellet fuel to what it would be in oil. No complaints about that. I have learned allot using the system and must say it is very user friendly. The biggest thing like any of the boiler listed here, keep it clean and it will perform without question.
> 
> On another note: I have decided to add a boiler room to the side of the garage. I will again stick with 2x8 construction in keeping with the existing garage. My tanks with stay as they are and I will simply move boiler and pellet hopper into new garage area. I have attached my proposed layout. What do you think? Any suggestions?
> 
> Regards, Morgan



That's a lotta insulation!  I don't see anything wrong with what you've got planned. 
karl


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## NP ALASKA

SO here we are onto another winter.  Been running the pellet gun so far. I have learned a bit on settings and tuning while in pellet mode.  I can now use the pellet gun pretty much all year with out any issues.  The appliance has always been capable I just had to learn to drive it. LOL

I plan to burn wood December and January just to save a little on the $$$

Still very impressed with this system.  Easy to operate and easy to clean.

I still plan to add 1000 gallons of storage to the already installed 1250.



Regards,



NP ALASKA said:


> The pellet burner will keep up to -20 or so, if it is going to stay around -20 or colder for more than a couple days I make the switch to wood and get the 60KW output.
> I have been away before and early in my testing and getting familiar with the system I ran pellets (30Kw) down to -40. Wanted to see how it would keep up.
> 
> Day 1 - no problem
> Day 2 - noticed a one degree to two degree drop in the house
> Day 3 - noticed significant drop of 5-6 degrees or more temp dependant
> 
> This was expected with my sq footage that is why I went dual fuel.
> 
> I have learned to make the switch early enough to not loose much in house or she starts to voice her opinion! Lol
> 
> -10 1- 1.5 bags
> -20 2-2.25 bags
> -30 3-4 bags
> -40 5+
> 
> Just my testing nothing scientific to it, a ledger showing date and how many bags I loaded in my half ton hopper.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Oh yeah
> 
> 269 a ton
> or 5.38 /#40 bag


----------



## infinitymike

NP ALASKA said:


> View attachment 124229
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 70 plus cord/year.



FOR REAL??? 
70 REAL CORD
LIKE 4'x4'x8'
LIKE 128 cubic feet
DANG, Thats a full time job.
Did you ever get 3 years ahead?


----------



## rkusek

infinitymike said:


> FOR REAL???
> 70 REAL CORD
> LIKE 4'x4'x8'
> LIKE 128 cubic feet
> DANG, Thats a full time job.
> Did you ever get 3 years ahead?


maybe that was one of those coffin type OWBs.  reload it with the tractor that has the bucket grapple fork setup 

Quite impressive with your current setup.  Nice to have that flexibility too.  Your insulating detail is impressive too.  You would be surprised how many guys I know try to heat an poorly insulated workshop here in Nebraska.


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## NP ALASKA

Yep for real
it was like 15 cord all summer in my truck and the rest was log trucks delivered 3 or 4 in summmer and 2 or so in the winter
i would run a saw 2 hours everynight after work even at 40 and 50 bleow outside

this was my motivation to find a better way


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## Gasifier

NP ALASKA said:


> Yep for real
> it was like 15 cord all summer in my truck and the rest was log trucks delivered 3 or 4 in summmer and 2 or so in the winter
> i would run a saw 2 hours everynight after work even at 40 and 50 bleow outside
> 
> this was my motivation to find a better way



Holy smoly! That would motivate anyone!


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## tuxedoblack11

Here's a little video of my wood boiler in action.

I also just added in floor heat above my tuck under garage using Rehau aluminum transfer plates and Rehau manifolds.  The whole house and separate zones are all controlled via wireless Honeywell redlink thermostats that I can control from anywhere.  This allows me to set back the temperature when I'm not home because my wife and I have different schedules and helps save more wood this way.






I cleaned up and straightened all these text lines after I got done they look kind of hokey in the pic.


----------

