Eko vs Varm

[jasonh]

There's a YouTube video of one in use. Just search Varmebaronen and it should come up. It's a pretty neat feature to have. From what I seen you have to change a plate on the door or something like that.

 

[maple1]

Jason, what's your heat load? How many BTU's an hour do you require?

I like the Varms too, but not sure they will be big enough. Granted I haven't looked to closely into them either. I also like the Econoburns.......

I had a heat loss done on my house when it was built, 20 years ago. I have no idea what the numbers were & can't find it now - the heating contractor had it done. But it's a conventional (2x6 walls) two storey, 1500 down & 1200 up, (plus unfinished basement) on an exposed open hilltop - and the most I was actually burning last year was 9 hours a day. Most days more like 6. So unless the heat loss in this case is a LOT more than that, the Varm should be more than capable - I think the 37 puts out a bit more heat/hr than mine & the way I run it & wood I burn.

 

[Buzz Saw]

I used the slant Fin heat loss calculator. Here are my values:

Indoor temp 70F°
Outdoor temp 0F°
Which gave me a load of 89,537(or something like that) BTU's heat load per hour for the house.


I also will have a 32'x60'x14' barn I will heat with in slab radiant. I haven't done a heat load on that yet.

My house and barn also sit on top of a hill with little protection. The mailbox and a couple trees in the yard

Maple in your experience could the Varm37 can keep up with that demand without having to baby sit the boiler?

0°F is probably a bit lower than needed but I want a system to ride out the cold cold winter days we are having now. If we don't have super cold days then I'm figuring a long time between burns. I would like to get 12 hrs between burns at 0F° but unsure what I need to accomplish this.

I just wish there was someone local,that understands & familiar with wood burning with storage, to help me properly size out my system.

 

[Buzz Saw]

I've talked with a couple HVAC guys and I'm starting at scratch trying to explain what I want and how storage works.... Frustrating at times.

 

[jasonh]

Buzz, I used 0° in my calculations as well. Seems like the last couple years that seems to be a good median low temp to guage by.

To others that already have their systems running, is this a good "theory" to base your calculations on? Seems to me that would just up the size of storage maybe. That's why I pretty much settled on 1000 gallons. I really only want to burn 1 time a day if I can.

I remember building panels last January when it was -11°. And that was without the windchill. Probably the coldest weather I've ever worked in, in NE ohio.

 

[Buzz Saw]

Buzz, I used 0° in my calculations as well. Seems like the last couple years that seems to be a good median low temp to guage by.

To others that already have their systems running, is this a good "theory" to base your calculations on? Seems to me that would just up the size of storage maybe. That's why I pretty much settled on 1000 gallons. I really only want to burn 1 time a day if I can.

I remember building panels last January when it was -11°. And that was without the windchill. Probably the coldest weather I've ever worked in, in NE ohio.

Did you figure you heat load or higher it out?

Locally we had a couple days the high way -15°. Not fun at all.

 

[jasonh]

Buzz, I had to have my condenser moved when I dug my footers up in may. I asked him if he knew about wood boilers and storage. He said he did, but we'll see. It doesn't seem as main stream as I would of thought. Kinda disappointing. I bet every hvac knows what's going on across the pond.

 

[jasonh]

Did you figure you heat load or higher it out?

Locally we had a couple days the high way -15°. Not fun at all.

I did it off a website on the internet. I forget which one. It was a spreadsheet type page. I used 74° for the interior temp. We're used to the wood stove going 24/7.

 

[S.Whiplash]

Not to get off topic of the EKO vs Tarm OP, but how does the Econoburn compare to the Tarm/EKO?

I ask because I have a Econoburn dealer locally and local dealer support maybe an important factor to consider.

Won't go wrong looking at an Econoburn, excellent performance and build and should still be running in 25 years.

 

[BoiledOver]

Holy cripes dude. Have you done any math with regard to payback time? Is all of your wood free? With natural gas and the amount under the ground in the U.S, costs should be more steady than any other fuel out there. If we had NG available, I never woulda considered a wood fired boiler and just stuck with a wood stove indoors. Firewood prices around here have risen each of the passed two years for those that buy. Enough that I will just harvest off my land from here out.

 

[Buzz Saw]

Holy cripes dude. Have you done any math with regard to payback time? Is all of your wood free? With natural gas and the amount under the ground in the U.S, costs should be more steady than any other fuel out there. If we had NG available, I never woulda considered a wood fired boiler and just stuck with a wood stove indoors. Firewood prices around here have risen each of the passed two years for those that buy. Enough that I will just harvest off my land from here out.

Who is dude?

 

[BoiledOver]

In response to the original posting. Dude would be jasonh.

 

[jasonh]

Holy cripes dude. Have you done any math with regard to payback time? Is all of your wood free? With natural gas and the amount under the ground in the U.S, costs should be more steady than any other fuel out there. If we had NG available, I never woulda considered a wood fired boiler and just stuck with a wood stove indoors. Firewood prices around here have risen each of the passed two years for those that buy. Enough that I will just harvest off my land from here out.

Considering that my last gas bill was $6.99 mcf and isn't that much different during the winter month, they stopped all drilling in my area and only 1 gas supplier why would I not consider it?

As far as wood goes, I work for the railroad, which is lined with trees on both sides of the tracks and they like to fall on the tracks, my neighbor owns 8 acres that I pretty much have the run at and my dad owns a 45 acre farm filled with timber......Ya I don't buy firewood.

Some people have other reasons to buy a boiler setup like: self reliance, teaching 2 young boys what hard work is and again self reliance, not having a gas bill that's $400 when the wood stove isn't running, getting the mess outside and not even having the chance of a chimney fire in the house. At least those are my reasons

I didn't know only oil burners could buy wood boilers. My mistake.

 

[Buzz Saw]

That's what I figured, but I wasn't sure since I had been throwing out numbers too

 

[BoiledOver]

It appears you are singed at my post. No need to be insulted as there was no intents as such. We all do as we do, good luck with your plans.

 

[BoiledOver]

@jasonh In case you are not aware.
Ohio is a choose your own ng supplier, yes? At the following link it shows several choices under $4 at a fixed price. Best of luck on your heating needs. (broken link removed)

 

[jasonh]

I did know. Thank you for the link. Just haven't had time to look into it with the other projects going on here.

 

[jasonh]

Thanks to boiledover's link I just locked in ng for $3.75/mcf till September 2017. However I will still continue to burn wood and still continue to research a wood boiler system. I still hate paying a gas bill.

 

[BoiledOver]

Wow, 54% of what your previous rate was. Glad to see you get the reduction in your heating costs.

 

[jasonh]

Actually I was mistaken. It was 5.99 this last July and 6.99 in July 2014. Wow! Still 3.75 is good I think. Still hate paying it though. But such is life.

 

[BoiledOver]

You're welcome.

 

[Coal Reaper]

quite a few points going on in this thread, but i will chime in.
if NG was an option for me i too would not have gone the wood burning route, and i have enough property to sustain my wood burning. insulation upgrades would have been a better investment and shorter ROI.
yes, lot of happy EKO users, but for even for the extra price i chose vedolux 37 without hesitation. as maple stated, very easy to clean. i can play with my air adjustments all i want but it dont seem to change my burn rate or output so i leave it at the recommended settings. it is nothing like you read in the EKO tuning sticky. as far as 'low-mass boiler', i am happy to have that thing up to operating temp and moving 160* water to storage in under 15 minutes of striking a match. fireboxes typically fail at the welds. no matter how thick of plate they are constructed from, sub-par welds will lead to failure. varms welds are top notch. im sure the EKO runs better on dryer wood, but my 37 NEEDS it. as i approach 25%MC its just no good.
hard to find a local heating guy to do the install. and i think you may be starting to get into a time crunch for the beginning of this season.

edit: pellet head. i liked the idea that i can hook the pellet head up if i decide to ever stop burning stickwood. for only 1 or 2 weeks out of the year tho it wouldnt be worth the investment.

 

[jasonh]

Coal reaper, we just had our walls foamed from the outside this last March. So we'll see how that works for the gas reader. I'm not looking to install anything till next heating season or maybe later. I even dabbled into researching the kuuma and such since we have central air. Downside is fire/mess still in the house. Still not sure what I want to do. Have to sit and read more about the options.

 

[Bad LP]

I had a breakthrough today. I think I'm going to head towards a varm. My boys are getting close to the age where we can actually take a vacation somewhere warm in the winter. We're thinking of looking into purchasing a condo in the Carolinas at some point for rental income. So with my vacation time from work, we can spend a week somewhere, meaning I won't be here to feed the boiler. I flip over the varm to the pellet head, fill a bin and head south for awhile. I'm not sure if any other manufacturers offer a pellet head or not. I think wood master does.

I was kinda heading toward a varm anyway. Last winter I started looking at them pretty hard in hopes to get things in order to make it happen. Just wanted to see what the eko owners had to say. Now it's just putting all the pieces together.

When I was pouring over wood boiler information last year I came to the exact same conclusion. Having the option of burning pellets would be a huge plus in my mind. At 54 I don't have a problem playing in the log pile. Something could change in later life that would not allow that.
My storage capabilities allow for plenty of storage for either wood, pellets or a combo of both. I would however use my current propane boiler as backup or when away.

 

[Buzz Saw]

@jasonh. Did you end up pulling the trigger on Varm?