Installing Wood Gassification Boiler With 1000 Gallon Thermal Storage

[EdisonBurn]

Hi everyone, EdisonBurn here. First time post and first time member on Hearth.com ...i am also the brother of Sid. Hey Bro...! First off congrats to everyone here for pioneering some of these awesome alternative fuel boilers. Sid, Im stoked to see you giving this a go. I have never really heated with wood before and have never seen a gasification wood boiler ever until Sid called one day and said that he had bought one. I do have a couple questions for the wood boiler community tho.
1) can anyone post piping diagrams, (even a stick figure drawing) of how their own system is plumbed?
2) are wood boilers more commonly hooked up to a standard hydronic convector baseboard emitters or are wood boilers more likely to be used in a lower temp systems such as infloor rad, or radiant wall/ceiling panels?
3) is there anyone here that has warmed up a room in winter using standard hydronic baseboard (1990s single tube/single fin type) with lower than 140 supply temps and was able to maintain room temp setpoint (68-70degrees)?

Again, thanks everyone for helping my brother out with this adventure. Cant wait to see it get up and running.

 

[Clarkbug]

Hi everyone, EdisonBurn here. First time post and first time member on Hearth.com ...i am also the brother of Sid. Hey Bro...! First off congrats to everyone here for pioneering some of these awesome alternative fuel boilers. Sid, Im stoked to see you giving this a go. I have never really heated with wood before and have never seen a gasification wood boiler ever until Sid called one day and said that he had bought one. I do have a couple questions for the wood boiler community tho.
1) can anyone post piping diagrams, (even a stick figure drawing) of how their own system is plumbed?
2) are wood boilers more commonly hooked up to a standard hydronic convector baseboard emitters or are wood boilers more likely to be used in a lower temp systems such as infloor rad, or radiant wall/ceiling panels?
3) is there anyone here that has warmed up a room in winter using standard hydronic baseboard (1990s single tube/single fin type) with lower than 140 supply temps and was able to maintain room temp setpoint (68-70degrees)?

Again, thanks everyone for helping my brother out with this adventure. Cant wait to see it get up and running.

Hi Edison. Welcome to Hearth. You should probably start your own thread instead of hopping into this one.

Check the top sticky in the boiler room for some good info on where to start.

 

[Sid]

Hi Edison. Welcome to Hearth. You should probably start your own thread instead of hopping into this one.

Check the top sticky in the boiler room for some good info on where to start.

Started a new thread since I too would love to see diagrams of systems people are using.

You can find it here: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/post-your-piping-diagrams.139211/

 

[Sid]

Not sure what you have lined up for heating your DHW exactly - but a sidearm doesn't work very good at all in the summer. It will mess up your stratification and your storage will be pretty well useless once it gets below 150 or so. I started out with one, but then added a 20 plate FPHX pumped slowly both sides. Which works very well, I burn every 7 days or so in the summer for DHW. Having said that, I may or may not do it again next summer. Depends what I have for junk wood laying around - it only costs us $25-30/mo for electric DHW.

I have a Buderus Logalux ST150 Indirect Fired Domestic Hot Water Tank. It's hooked up as a zone with a zone valve. I believe it is the 42 gallon version. It would be great to fire on the weekend or once and a while with scrap wood to help offset oil cost for DHW.

 

[velvetfoot]

You're making good progress. Keep the faith.

Although I have a pellet boiler, I think I can add some things, although I hope they haven't been mentioned yet.
-How about a heat pump water heater for the non-wood heating season? I think CT might have some good rebates.
-I followed the Tarm diagram. The idea is that when the boiler is running the zone pumps get first crack at it and excess goes into the buffer tank until it gets filled up with heat.
-Now that it's over, I really have a hankering for more instrumentation, but currently my boiler doesn't come with that. Works great, and I might be slightly obsessive, but if there's anything you can do when things are apart, (thermowells, exhaust temp probes, etc), now might be the time.
-For air elimination I can recommend the Spirovent-the existing air scoop just never seemed to do the job for me.
-The pellet boiler is connected in parallel with the oil boiler. Check valves ensure the proper flow.
-You have to figure out some way that the oil boiler will be activated. I used a few RIB relays and Ranco controllers.
-For example, I used the power from the running fan to trigger a relay that controls the aquastat of the boiler. I figure I don't want them both running at the same time, but you have to think of your scheme.

Uncertain if I contributed or not. All in all, although the project was nerve-wracking at times, it was fun.

 

[Sid]

Been crazy busy lately but wanted to just check quick to keep this install thread alive.

All of the chimney has arrived, I plan to take pics tonight and begin the install soon (hope to finish by end of weekend).

I also plan to reply and thank later tonight in detail directly to some of posts people have made. Thanks so much, be back later.

 

[BoiledOver]

In the photos on the right side, you can see where I sketched the storage with lines going to the height of each sensor locations. One photo from an earlier standby and two photos at different times of the burn today.

 

[EdisonBurn]

In the photos on the right side, you can see where I sketched the storage with lines going to the height of each sensor locations. One photo from an earlier standby and two photos at different times of the burn today.


View attachment 150783



View attachment 150785



View attachment 150784

Wow thats's super helpful. thanks
Can you post more pics or diagrams of how you piped your system? here https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/post-your-piping-diagrams.139211/

 

[Sid]

In the photos on the right side, you can see where I sketched the storage with lines going to the height of each sensor locations. One photo from an earlier standby and two photos at different times of the burn today.


View attachment 150783



View attachment 150785



View attachment 150784

BoiledOver, could you tell me what (and maybe where to get) kind of temp sensors and display unit you are using...looks like a nice setup.

 

[Sid]

Reading around on these forums I see a lot of guys just taping (one guy mentioned JB Weld) temperature probes right to the outside of the tanks. I have ports all over the tanks that i'm sure I could use, would just have to figure out what kind of probes and adapters for hole size and thread type.

If just taping (I like the thought of JB Weld and metal/foil together) works just as well, I would be inclined to do that for simplicity.

 

[maple1]

I just taped my sensors to the tank surface, under a layer of a scrap of pipe insulation. Works great. My guages look the same as Boiled Overs - Ebay from China. Or Hong Kong.

Suface temp sensors/probes work fine - I would certainly chose one over trying to add another port for a well. My experience with my tanks & welding & fittings leads me to advise to limit your tank penetrations to the bare minimum. Plus they are easy to move around or change afterwards. I also have a Johnson A419 controlling my DHW with an external sensor - no issues.

 

[Clarkbug]

I have those same sensors on my tanks/piping. Secured to the exterior with HVAC tape and some thermal paste for computer heat sinks. If you have the ports you could put a thermowell in, but I wouldnt put a port in specifically for a temp measurement.

 

[Sid]

Hello All, Sorry for dropping off the face of the earth, been busy with other new house projects and a new baby but it's time to stop procrastinating and try to get this system installed before winter hits.

What I've done:

1. Put boiler in final resting spot (on blocks to save the back).
2. Almost finished installing chimney.
3. Figured out how to pipe this thing (hopefully all figured out).
4. Ordered and received almost all of the parts required to pipe.

Attached is a few pics of what I've done as well as the Piping Schematic (current and future plan).

As always, any help and advise is greatly appreciated. I will keep you all posted as I slowly progress.

A special thanks goes out to the guys at Tarm Biomass for helping and talking with me, even though I did not buy boiler from them (I did however buy the BLT
Controller and Diverter Valve Kit from them).

Current piping of fossil setup:





Final Piping Schematic:





What I've done:

 

[Sid]

Coming along, slow but decent so far.


12" of 2" pipe before entering storage to help slow velocity from the 1-1/4.



2" union

First time soldering pipe...

 

[Sid]

Also, I hate to double post but please check out my other post here about my latest issue with pipe thread standards and sealing...

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...more-advanced-discussion-than-just-no.147984/

 

[Sid]

I created another thread about my expansion tank location, since I'm second guessing what I piped.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/expansion-tank-location.148379/

 

[velvetfoot]

Nice. I never realized those units are so deep.

Don't forget you have to fill and vent it. Sometimes those check valves can get in the way of that. I think my ThermoMix valve got in the way too.

 

[Sid]

Nice. I never realized those units are so deep.

Don't forget you have to fill and vent it. Sometimes those check valves can get in the way of that. I think my ThermoMix valve got in the way too.

Yeah, the firebox looks like it can take some serious logs, I'll actually be limited by my splitter's stroke length. As the for the purging, I have so many valves and fills everywhere I'd assume it shouldn't be too bad, and at this point it's more like I just need to cross one bridge at a time...if I start thinking about too much I just end up walking around in circles in my basement and nothing gets done, hence this year long install...

When the time comes I'll sure I'll be asking for some input and tricks on filling/purging.

 

[velvetfoot]

Another thing I remember is cranking real (scary) hard on some fittings with a two foot long wrench to make them not leak. That might have been on the euro buffer tank. Perhaps related to the different threads issue you noted, I don't know. Luckily I was able to crank on a leaker and not disassemble anything. I have another tip, lol: make sure you don't miss sweating all your joints. I had a squirter and that was the (stupid) reason.

Perhaps wire up more tank sensors than you think you need before the tank is insulated.

I put a piece of plywood on the wall to mount the electric doo dads.

I totally did/do the basement circle walking thing too!

I'm no piping expert, but I think your expansion tank location is fine, just make sure you have enough of it.

You're getting close!

 

[Sid]

So I have been up and running for a little while now. Had some crazy overheating issues at first due to a faulty controller that New Horizon quickly identified and sent me a new controller. I have many more pictures and issues to to write and reflect on but have limited time these days for posting. I will try to update this post as soon as I can. Here are some pictures to hold you guys over for now.

So far no problems now with new controller and I am super happy with its performance at this point.

Here are links for a couple panorama pictures that were too big for this forum site to upload (even after compressing)

(broken link removed to https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2flzCEcNlMMbS1pV2JzZ29QTEU/view?usp=sharing)

(broken link removed to https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2flzCEcNlMMbnNxSEgyQXhodVE/view?usp=sharing)