I've been reading the posts on this board for a few months. This is my first wood boiler (gassifier) purchase and first foray into plumbing and heating system installation. I am attempting to heat a 3,000 square foot house (2,000 upstairs, 1,000 downstairs) and a 1,000 square foot pole barn in Northern Michigan (as soon as possible). Both the house and pole barn are in the process of being insulated with 2lb. closed cell spray foam. The boiler will be kept in the same room as my existing oil burning heater (in between the house and garage).
I decided on purchasing a NextGen BioMass Gassification Boilers» BioMass 40 from Zenon at New Horizon (will be ordering this Monday). I've already purchased 2: 500 gallon propane tanks from a scrapyard ($250/each). All the fittings on the propane tanks are the standard ones that come on all 500 gallon tanks (can post pictures if necessary).
I'm in the process of cleaning out my tanks by filling them up with water and Oxyclean (there is only a faint smell of propane left inside) and letting them sit for a few days before draining (far away from my well).
I am picking up a pallet rack to stack my propane tanks on top of each other.
It should look just like: stee6043's setup: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/44600/
In fact, my entire setup should be very similar to stee6043's (except I'm not using forced air).
Now that I am ready to install my system, I have a few (many) questions.
Questions:
1. What is the best way to attach the two propane tanks to each other? I would like to be able to use as many existing fittings as possible to do this, but am not sure if that is a good idea.
I will be spraying 3'' foam on my tanks very soon so I need to figure out exactly how many fittings I need for my system and where to install them. I figured that I need two fittings for each tank:
1 water in
1 water out
In addition, I will need fittings to connect the tanks to each other (above). I know that I want my cold return water coming in at the bottom of the bottom tank and the hot supply water coming in at the top of the top tank, and that I want as little mixing and turbulence between the hot and cold water as possible. I am just not sure how to achieve this with my two propanes tank stacked on top of each other setup.
I want to get the fittings situation sorted out asap so I can make an appointment with a welder to get them taken care of (and then I can spray the tanks).
2. I am in the process of compiling a list of all the materials I will need to complete the job (I want to do the simplest install possible). This is proving to be a bit overwhelming. I am currently going off of schematics and pictures of similar system I have found on this message board. Is there any comprehensive (or close to it) list of materials on a thread on this site (knowing full well that each install is unique) that could be used for my install?
3. I plan on working on this install with a friend (who has some plumbing experience) full time (starting Monday), any estimates on how long I can expect this job to take (I was shooting for a November 1st completion date)?
4. I have a 75' supply line that will run from the house to the pole barn. I plan on digging a 2' trench and insulating the supply lines with 5'' of closed cell spray foam. The surrounding ground is mostly sand. Is this deep enough? Do I need to wrap the foam covered supply lines in a plastic coating or can I just bury them as exposed foam?
5. It looks like ebay is the best (cheapest) place to purchase most of the equipment that I need for the install, is that a fairly accurate statement?
I know that this message covers a ton of ground, but really any help at all would be greatly appreciated.
I decided on purchasing a NextGen BioMass Gassification Boilers» BioMass 40 from Zenon at New Horizon (will be ordering this Monday). I've already purchased 2: 500 gallon propane tanks from a scrapyard ($250/each). All the fittings on the propane tanks are the standard ones that come on all 500 gallon tanks (can post pictures if necessary).
I'm in the process of cleaning out my tanks by filling them up with water and Oxyclean (there is only a faint smell of propane left inside) and letting them sit for a few days before draining (far away from my well).
I am picking up a pallet rack to stack my propane tanks on top of each other.
It should look just like: stee6043's setup: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/44600/
In fact, my entire setup should be very similar to stee6043's (except I'm not using forced air).
Now that I am ready to install my system, I have a few (many) questions.
Questions:
1. What is the best way to attach the two propane tanks to each other? I would like to be able to use as many existing fittings as possible to do this, but am not sure if that is a good idea.
I will be spraying 3'' foam on my tanks very soon so I need to figure out exactly how many fittings I need for my system and where to install them. I figured that I need two fittings for each tank:
1 water in
1 water out
In addition, I will need fittings to connect the tanks to each other (above). I know that I want my cold return water coming in at the bottom of the bottom tank and the hot supply water coming in at the top of the top tank, and that I want as little mixing and turbulence between the hot and cold water as possible. I am just not sure how to achieve this with my two propanes tank stacked on top of each other setup.
I want to get the fittings situation sorted out asap so I can make an appointment with a welder to get them taken care of (and then I can spray the tanks).
2. I am in the process of compiling a list of all the materials I will need to complete the job (I want to do the simplest install possible). This is proving to be a bit overwhelming. I am currently going off of schematics and pictures of similar system I have found on this message board. Is there any comprehensive (or close to it) list of materials on a thread on this site (knowing full well that each install is unique) that could be used for my install?
3. I plan on working on this install with a friend (who has some plumbing experience) full time (starting Monday), any estimates on how long I can expect this job to take (I was shooting for a November 1st completion date)?
4. I have a 75' supply line that will run from the house to the pole barn. I plan on digging a 2' trench and insulating the supply lines with 5'' of closed cell spray foam. The surrounding ground is mostly sand. Is this deep enough? Do I need to wrap the foam covered supply lines in a plastic coating or can I just bury them as exposed foam?
5. It looks like ebay is the best (cheapest) place to purchase most of the equipment that I need for the install, is that a fairly accurate statement?
I know that this message covers a ton of ground, but really any help at all would be greatly appreciated.