Heat loss on underground piping

[NP ALASKA]

Id collect about 10 and have 5-6 10 cord log trucks delivered.
Cut in 36” pieces and feed the dragon over and over.

 

[salecker]

Face Cord or Full Cord? Either way 70 is a crazy # !

I know a guy that has a Central Boiler of some sort.
He heats his house which is quite similar to mine and his garage and can heat one other building if it is required.
He goes through over 50 real cords a winter.For a number of years he worked at a sawmill so he would haul home the scrap wood from their yard.Now he has a real chore to process his wood for a year.
I would run for over 5 yrs on 50 cords.

 

[JohnDolz]

Full cord
Was a vicious few years

Wow! Cannot even imagine.

 

[JohnDolz]

Id collect about 10 and have 5-6 10 cord log trucks delivered.
Cut in 36” pieces and feed the dragon over and over.

Was thinking about you during that 2 week stretch we had where it stayed well below 0 degrees F - could not believe how much wood I was burning through. Had me thinking pellet boiler for a house we are considering about in VT.

 

[NP ALASKA]

T

Was thinking about you during that 2 week stretch we had where it stayed well below 0 degrees F - could not believe how much wood I was burning through. Had me thinking pellet boiler for a house we are considering about in VT.

The pellet option on my boiler is pretty nice.
I travel once in a while and it makes it easy for the wife and kids; ran two weeks solid on pellets once.
They just had to add to the half ton hopper.

If I was looking at another place I would still go pellet / wood combo like I have now. I like the option to do either.
Just my 2 cents

My new install seems to be taking shape; I will have a underground run to one building that is 45’. Im thinking of running a supply-retrun diferential pump on it- instead of a pump running constant.

 

[JohnDolz]

Id collect about 10 and have 5-6 10 cord log trucks delivered.
Cut in 36” pieces and feed the dragon over and over.

Was thinking about you during that 2 week stretch we had where it stayed well below 0 degrees F - could not believe how much wood I was burning through. Had me thinking pellet boiler for a house we are considering about in VT.

 

[JohnDolz]

T

The pellet option on my boiler is pretty nice.
I travel once in a while and it makes it easy for the wife and kids; ran two weeks solid on pellets once.
They just had to add to the half ton hopper.

If I was looking at another place I would still go pellet / wood combo like I have now. I like the option to do either.
Just my 2 cents

My new install seems to be taking shape; I will have a underground run to one building that is 45’. Im thinking of running a supply-retrun diferential pump on it- instead of a pump running constant.

Interesting, for some reason I thought you used Wood in the shoulder seasons and pellet in the real winter portion. As I am considering a 2nd home having a pellet backup at both locations seems to be worth exploring. Any chance I can ask you for some pictures of what the Effecta looks like with the pellet system in place? Feel free to email me those at your convenience so we are not boring everyone.

Regarding your plumbing from an outbuilding, you should poke TCaldwell & nhtreehouse they are both experts on that subject.

 

[huffdawg]

Sounds like about the same size as my house - which is 2700 sq.ft. in two stories, plus another 1500 in the basement (unfinished & not directly heated), 'typical' 20 year old construction. I burn between 5 & 6 cords. Going all summer would be maybe another cord. I think my boiler is rated around 80%. Not sure they can be directly compared though, likely some apples & oranges stuff going on.

What temp do you keep your house at Maple?

 

[rowerwet]

I owned a CB 7260 for about 7 years in the Interior of Alaska.
4 buildings- over 11,000 sq ft
Pumps run 24/7
One run was 150’ underground with another 120’ inside building

70 cord per year

Sold it and ran as quick as possible

I compare the stack output of that old unit and my Effecta gasser- no comparison
The OwB is obviously a non efficient device

Did you have good underground lines? (The ground stayed frozen over them all winter? )
That kind of wood burn is crazy!

 

[maple1]

What temp do you keep your house at Maple?

It varies a bit. We have 4 zones. And use various setbacks.

One of the 4 is kids bedrooms, and they're all off to college now, so it stays at either 16 or 17c, unless they're back for a visit. Master bedroom zone sets back to 16c around 6am, sets back up to 20c at supper time. Back down to 18c around 10pm. Living room/office is still on a manual stat, I turn it down a bit when we go to bed (18c?), back up a bit (20c) when I get up if I am home all day. Maybe give it another nudge up around suppertime. Last zone is kitchen. It sets up to 20c at 5pm, down to 16c at 9pm, up to 18c at 6am for a couple hours than back to 16.

Or thereabouts.

That usually puts most of my heat load on my boiler when it is running - set temps rise not long after I light. And lets storage coast further when I'm not. Oversized radiation/distribution is pretty much a necessity for good setback recovery. If it is extra cold out or everyone is home for the day all around the house I will just turn the heat up more. Kitchen zone also has good sun exposure. Right now it's around -5c and sunny out and 21c out there with stat set at 16. But with no wind. Wind hits us pretty hard, really bumps the heat loss up even though we have fairly decent construction.

 

[NP ALASKA]

Did you have good underground lines? (The ground stayed frozen over them all winter? )
That kind of wood burn is crazy!

Therma-pex from Central boiler- buried 4 1/2 - 5’ deep. Frost line reaches anout 3’ here.

Heating 4 buildings over 11000 sq feet had a bunch to do with it

 

[Ashful]

Therma-pex from Central boiler- buried 4 1/2 - 5’ deep. Frost line reaches anout 3’ here.

Heating 4 buildings over 11000 sq feet had a bunch to do with it

Sounds like a lot, but the numbers do check out. I’d expect 400M-500M BTU to heat that space, in our 5000 HDD climate, so almost triple that in your 14k HDD climate. That’s 42-63 cords, depending on species, at 100% efficiency. Scale for boiler efficiency and line loss, and 70 cords sounds just about right.

 

[vtwoodheater]

I lined my OWB firebox with 2" firebrick, it made a hot fire for sure, but since most of the designs are straight through and out anyway, probably didn't gain much transfer to the water.

I used a viridian delta T pump in my basement next to my plate exchanger for the last year I had my OWB. I controlled it with the end switch on the taco zone relay. It only ran when heat was needed. With one zone calling, it ran around 20 watts, with 4-6 zones calling it ramped up to full speed of 68 watts. Saved on electric consumption and wood usage for sure.

The calculation that would make you vomit would be how many BTU's are lost to the outdoors from the OWB itself just sitting out in your open yard all winter long.

 

[NP ALASKA]

Sounds like a lot, but the numbers do check out. I’d expect 400M-500M BTU to heat that space, in our 5000 HDD climate, so almost triple that in your 14k HDD climate. That’s 42-63 cords, depending on species, at 100% efficiency. Scale for boiler efficiency and line loss, and 70 cords sounds just about right.

Nice- no engineer here - Thanks for the confirmation. I just gain experience and wisdom through application
At the end of the day I am so glad I found thia site and my Effecta gasser.
Regards