First things first, I've enjoyed reading the forum for the past few months while researching the best way to heat a new home & pole barn to be built starting this summer. Like many others I have mentioned, all of you have probably saved me from shelling out $5000 or more for an OWB when I could have a gassifier that will be far more efficient, earth friendly, cleaner, and probably last much longer. I simply didn't even know they existed I came across this site.
As far as milk tanks go, I have access to a free one, 500gal although looks slightly different than what I have seen here. Round cylinder on its side, with feet, two curved access lids on top with holes, and an agitator w/motor on top. Like heaterman says though, I can't see any way that this could be pressurized though, even slightly. The two lids sit on rubber molded gaskets and are just held by gravity although i suppose some type of latch could be built. The outside is painted steel (except for the lids) and I believe I remember seeing fiberglass type batt isulation when I last saw it years ago. Will get some pics next time I visit Mom & Dad.
I was originally thinking 3 homemade copper coils kind of like Nofo's setup. 1 from boiler to charge the tank, 1 to feed the zones, and possibly one for a future solar panel. I guess copper and SS must play well together and I would be able to suspend it from top of tank to prevent touching the bottom of tank. Might be cheaper now to use 2 flat plate exchangers now that copper has gone up lately although it would make it more complicated requiring 2 circulators for each process.
I can imagine corrosion being a problem in a SS tank full of water that only touched copper (or the flat plate hx). I'm guessing just something to treat the water and as long as it does not come into contact with steel there shouldn't be a corrosion problem, right? I'm hoping the 500 gal will suffice since Nebraska should be a little milder compared to most of locations on here. Fueling twice a day during coldest days in January would be acceptable. I'm leaning toward radiant floor (slab in basement, possibly sandwich on upper floors) throughout home and possibly pole barn as well (if the isulation in the floor is not too expensive) to utilize low water temps. I'm kind of worried that the Builders, plumbers, and HVAC contractors here are pretty clueless about all of this stuff. I stopped in a local HVAC contractors office that "supposedly" had installed radiant heat and he immediately started pushing a zoned forced air type. Our current home (4 yrs old) has high-efficiency gas forced and not impressed by any means. Need to run humifiers constantly in the bedrooms to prevent nosebleeds.
Sorry, didn't mean to ramble on and get off topic. Will put a new post together soon with some questions I have about my setup.
As far as milk tanks go, I have access to a free one, 500gal although looks slightly different than what I have seen here. Round cylinder on its side, with feet, two curved access lids on top with holes, and an agitator w/motor on top. Like heaterman says though, I can't see any way that this could be pressurized though, even slightly. The two lids sit on rubber molded gaskets and are just held by gravity although i suppose some type of latch could be built. The outside is painted steel (except for the lids) and I believe I remember seeing fiberglass type batt isulation when I last saw it years ago. Will get some pics next time I visit Mom & Dad.
I was originally thinking 3 homemade copper coils kind of like Nofo's setup. 1 from boiler to charge the tank, 1 to feed the zones, and possibly one for a future solar panel. I guess copper and SS must play well together and I would be able to suspend it from top of tank to prevent touching the bottom of tank. Might be cheaper now to use 2 flat plate exchangers now that copper has gone up lately although it would make it more complicated requiring 2 circulators for each process.
I can imagine corrosion being a problem in a SS tank full of water that only touched copper (or the flat plate hx). I'm guessing just something to treat the water and as long as it does not come into contact with steel there shouldn't be a corrosion problem, right? I'm hoping the 500 gal will suffice since Nebraska should be a little milder compared to most of locations on here. Fueling twice a day during coldest days in January would be acceptable. I'm leaning toward radiant floor (slab in basement, possibly sandwich on upper floors) throughout home and possibly pole barn as well (if the isulation in the floor is not too expensive) to utilize low water temps. I'm kind of worried that the Builders, plumbers, and HVAC contractors here are pretty clueless about all of this stuff. I stopped in a local HVAC contractors office that "supposedly" had installed radiant heat and he immediately started pushing a zoned forced air type. Our current home (4 yrs old) has high-efficiency gas forced and not impressed by any means. Need to run humifiers constantly in the bedrooms to prevent nosebleeds.
Sorry, didn't mean to ramble on and get off topic. Will put a new post together soon with some questions I have about my setup.
