My coils are not hooked up and they have not burned through. I have basic understandings of hydronic heating. It is to my thoughts that a water to water heat exchanger in a closed system would be necessary for heating DHW. An open system could be applied but you'd be evaporating a lot of water in your house.
In NY a heating unit is exempt from the EPA regs if installed in a structure. At least this is how it used to be.... an OWB was ok if it was grandfathered in, pre existing boilers. Any non gassifiers installed after regs were put in place were ok if in a structure. I haven't paid the regulations any mind in a number of years, so someone please correct me if I am wrong.
My indoor Thermocontrol was made in late 70s. Air intake is natural draft controlled by t-stat. Air enters front and travels down thru a pocket on back of door. There is a tube on each side of the stove, at the bottom, feeding fresh air to rear of stove, preheated by the coals.
Exhaust exits rear of stove from the bottom by traveling thru a chamber to the top. Opening at the bottom of chamber is where the preated air from the tubes exit. There is a bypass at the top of chamber for smokeless loading. It is not a true gassifier in todays standards but does have that effect.
