FEED IT WOOD AND WALK AWAY

[heaterman]

HI, Have you considered a Switzer.Fires to 220, its pressurized.(no problem using baseboard heat) I loaded mine max once a day in Jan. and if it made it to the forties every other day.I think mine is the best system possible for my needs.

Baseboard heat is not the problem, it's the nasty habit some installers have of scrimping in the lineal feet and designing the system to require 180+ water temps. The lower the water temp, the more efficient everything in the system becomes. Mandated maximum temperature in any new heating system in Germany is 167* Why do you think they do that? System efficiency.

 

[LOKO]

I know some Macs can run windows software, not sure what it takes to do that...

The other option is to see if any of your Macs will run "WINE" (recursive algorythm, WINE Is Not an Emulator) - I know that WINE will run the Slant Fin program OK on Linux (that is how I run it), and I know that WINE has been ported to some of the BSD's, but I'm not sure if they have ported it to run under whatever proprietary mods Apple has done to BSD... (One reason I don't like the BSD license, it doesn't require giving back the code...)

Gooserider

13 April - Hi Gooserider - I found a good heat loss calculator program at website "WarmlyYours" which works nicely on the MAC - I am currently working on heat loss for each individual room. I also measured the lineal feet of b'board in each room - so hopefully in the not distant future I will have a "good idea" of water temperatures that I will need and i f there there is sufficient baseboard to deal with the lower temperatures that I might experience with the GARN. I'll let you know more when I finish the calculations - hopefuilly tomorrow.
Thank you for the tips and keeping in touch.
Best regards - LOKO

 

[LOKO]

HI, Have you considered a Switzer.Fires to 220, its pressurized.(no problem using baseboard heat) I loaded mine max once a day in Jan. and if it made it to the forties every other day.I think mine is the best system possible for my needs.

13 Apr - smangold - haven't heard of that one -sounds European - I'll give it a look - Thank you - LOKO

 

[flyingcow]

HI, Have you considered a Switzer.Fires to 220, its pressurized.(no problem using baseboard heat) I loaded mine max once a day in Jan. and if it made it to the forties every other day.I think mine is the best system possible for my needs.

Baseboard heat is not the problem, it's the nasty habit some installers have of scrimping in the lineal feet and designing the system to require 180+ water temps. The lower the water temp, the more efficient everything in the system becomes. Mandated maximum temperature in any new heating system in Germany is 167* Why do you think they do that? System efficiency.

Listen to heaterman,
this is probably what my system is based on, close to 180. In the deep of winter, when my house calls for heat, my storage has to be at least 160+ ,170 and up to work well. But it eats up my storage quickly. If I had more lineal feet, it would take lower temps. I have staple up radiant in my kitchen and have plans on doing my living area with that also. Obviously this will help a lot. The way I would compensate for the design problem is I would fire up unit about 3pmish(,my son would do when he came home from school), and by 4pm we had 180 feeding the baseboard, going on to 195. Usually would refill unit about 630/7pm(this would keep a good fire going close to midnight) and that would give us direct heat off boiler to heat house, rest of heat not needed would charge my storage.I can heat my house and charge storage at the same time. Everyone was in bed by 10pm(t-stats turned down to 62), but i get up at 1/130am to go to work and could check to see if it needed more wood, usually didn't except the nights it was -38 below.
The weekend, we might fire as needed.
Now in the shoulder season, I can bring my room temps up easily on 120+ tank temps. My undersized baseboard system will keep up.

Hope this helps. Excuse my typing/spelling skills. Had surgery on my rotator cuff, typing with left hand/finger, on pretty good meds.

 

[flyingcow]

I know some Macs can run windows software, not sure what it takes to do that...

The other option is to see if any of your Macs will run "WINE" (recursive algorythm, WINE Is Not an Emulator) - I know that WINE will run the Slant Fin program OK on Linux (that is how I run it), and I know that WINE has been ported to some of the BSD's, but I'm not sure if they have ported it to run under whatever proprietary mods Apple has done to BSD... (One reason I don't like the BSD license, it doesn't require giving back the code...)

Gooserider

13 April - Hi Gooserider - I found a good heat loss calculator program at website "WarmlyYours" which works nicely on the MAC - I am currently working on heat loss for each individual room. I also measured the lineal feet of b'board in each room - so hopefully in the not distant future I will have a "good idea" of water temperatures that I will need and i f there there is sufficient baseboard to deal with the lower temperatures that I might experience with the GARN. I'll let you know more when I finish the calculations - hopefuilly tomorrow.
Thank you for the tips and keeping in touch.
Best regards - LOKO

I also contemplated replacing my baseboard with high output baseboard, versus running more feet.

 

[LOKO]

confused LOKO,
The choice you make is forever going to be yours regardless of the input that you get for making a choice. Garn is good but so are the gasifiers that do not include storage. Fine tuning is just that. Fine tuning! It is not an every day occurrence and frankly most are set to run as is when received. Tweaking is optional but beneficial. Without storage I have taken my EKO40 from 8-10 hour burns to 14 hours. During the summer to supply dhw I will have one small daily fire. the choice should be based on function and output and the discipline you are going exercise towards fuel quality. Gasifiers are not OWB's, are not wood stoves and are not fire places. But now that mine is tuned I load it and basically walk away. The qualifier in the winter and cooler weather is I have a bed of coals to put fresh wood on. In warmer weather I start a fire, just like any other wood burning appliance, and don't walk away until the fire is going. The effort you make in economic functionality will reward you with less hard work and more effective output. I ran my EKO 24-7 for 1 1/2 years and was happy but then I found I could tweak it and I have not regretted the decision to do so and now I don't adjust the dials. If you get a Garn you may want to see if you can make it work better. People get Cadillac's and get them tuned every now and then. People with oil and gas heat systems get them tuned once in a while too. Wood is fuel. Consistent tweaking is "mother henning" but it can be fun. Enjoy what ever heating system you buy for your reasons.

30 April 2009

Hello Cave2K and any other wood chuckers - well - "confused Loko" is less confused than a month ago - but I am now in a quandary in choosing between an EKO 40 without storage and a GARN 1500 -I have pretty well gotten past the "fine tuning" issue with the EKO 40 - the problem/question is money. There is a pretty big delta (interms of cost) between the two - and at the end of the day - an EKO with water storage (1000 gallon) will probably come in just slightly less then the GARN 1500. For Cave2K - I see that you operate an EKO 40 without water storage and you seem to be pretty happy with the set-up. I would be interested in hearing more about your experience with this set-up - and if you plan to add water storage. I am close to a decision - just wondering what other opinions are out there.

Getting close to a decision - with 12-14 cords of wood in the drying process. - LOKO