anyone using a Thermal Control boiler
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This is my first year with their smallest boiler (125K advertised) and I'll tell you what I know and have experienced.
My house is a 2100 sq ft ranch with full basement. I have a water to air HX in the ductwork above my propane furnace. The boiler is in a 1500 sq ft detached garage. Water is piped underground to the house, through a sidearm HX on a DHW tank, through the water to air HX and then back to the boiler. Simple enough.
I first received it at the end of October in 2008. Finished the piping and first fired it up on November 15th and ran constantly to the 2nd or 3rd week in March. I have been firing it up a couple days a week as needed here recently.
The house thermostat was set at 71 degrees all winter. The garage, by heat loss off the boiler and stack etc, stayed anywhere from 58 to 73 degrees all winter. The coldest is got here was -10 degrees.
I fed it at 6 AM, 5 PM and before bed at 10 - 11 PM. There were only a handful of times when the thermostat reading was below 71.
Wood consumption was around 7 cords during that time period. Since this was my first year the wood was not the best. I cut some in April, August, September and October. So I am sure it was not seasoned well. All the trees were dead. I could tell some were seasoned well and others not so much. So IMO would consumption may get better next year.
Pros:
1. It kept the house and garage warm.
2. It appears to be built well.
3. You can't get any simpler.
4. Large firebox and door.
Cons:
1. Don't put this thing in your house or basement if you can help it. The ashes have to be emptied out of the boiler with a shovel about once or twice a week. There is no way to avoid the Mt. St. Helens ash dust from getting over everything during the process no matter how careful you are. Also, sometimes it will smoke bad during reloads even with the bypass damper open. This doesn't bother me in the garage.
2. I have had a lot of creosote buildup in the chimney. This may or may not have been due to the quality of the wood. I do know that burning stack temperatures near 600 degrees helps this quite a bit. Again, I would not put this in my house or basement. I have had a perfectly clean chimney one day after cleaning and then dirty the next. Still learning though.
3. Going along with the creosote buildup in the chimney is my major complaint with this boiler - there is no draft control. The damper actuator on the front of the door allows either a FULL OPEN or FULL CLOSED (idle, high stack temp) air intake. So basically if you have a high stack temperature for whatever reason you may have a chimney fire. I think it needs to run with a barometric damper on the stack.
I do not know your climate in Maine (probably don't wanta) but you should be able to estimate your wood consumption with all this info if you decide to go with a Thermo Control.
My house is a 2100 sq ft ranch with full basement. I have a water to air HX in the ductwork above my propane furnace. The boiler is in a 1500 sq ft detached garage. Water is piped underground to the house, through a sidearm HX on a DHW tank, through the water to air HX and then back to the boiler. Simple enough.
I first received it at the end of October in 2008. Finished the piping and first fired it up on November 15th and ran constantly to the 2nd or 3rd week in March. I have been firing it up a couple days a week as needed here recently.
The house thermostat was set at 71 degrees all winter. The garage, by heat loss off the boiler and stack etc, stayed anywhere from 58 to 73 degrees all winter. The coldest is got here was -10 degrees.
I fed it at 6 AM, 5 PM and before bed at 10 - 11 PM. There were only a handful of times when the thermostat reading was below 71.
Wood consumption was around 7 cords during that time period. Since this was my first year the wood was not the best. I cut some in April, August, September and October. So I am sure it was not seasoned well. All the trees were dead. I could tell some were seasoned well and others not so much. So IMO would consumption may get better next year.
Pros:
1. It kept the house and garage warm.
2. It appears to be built well.
3. You can't get any simpler.
4. Large firebox and door.
Cons:
1. Don't put this thing in your house or basement if you can help it. The ashes have to be emptied out of the boiler with a shovel about once or twice a week. There is no way to avoid the Mt. St. Helens ash dust from getting over everything during the process no matter how careful you are. Also, sometimes it will smoke bad during reloads even with the bypass damper open. This doesn't bother me in the garage.
2. I have had a lot of creosote buildup in the chimney. This may or may not have been due to the quality of the wood. I do know that burning stack temperatures near 600 degrees helps this quite a bit. Again, I would not put this in my house or basement. I have had a perfectly clean chimney one day after cleaning and then dirty the next. Still learning though.
3. Going along with the creosote buildup in the chimney is my major complaint with this boiler - there is no draft control. The damper actuator on the front of the door allows either a FULL OPEN or FULL CLOSED (idle, high stack temp) air intake. So basically if you have a high stack temperature for whatever reason you may have a chimney fire. I think it needs to run with a barometric damper on the stack.
I do not know your climate in Maine (probably don't wanta) but you should be able to estimate your wood consumption with all this info if you decide to go with a Thermo Control.
I can not comment on the unit because I have never seen one. However, I did price them out before I bought my current boiler. My thought is for the money a thermo-control boiler costs - you can probably get into a gasser...
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