New furnace time!!
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brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
Right.
I was surprised they couldn't order one in...its not like Drolet closes for the summer!
If it's a seasonal item and this is the heating season then are they only available in the summer?
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
I have a 55 gallon natural draft Tarm boiler from 1980. I have no extra storage, only what is “on board” in the boiler. I find the 55 gallons is enough to keep a very constant temperature of 70 Degrees in my 2100 sq. ft. home. I load wood around 10 p.m., once in the middle of the night, and then at 8:00 a.m. the following morning. This would be on a night when the low temp would be 15 degrees. I have “pushed” the boiler load limit and can get by with one load at 10:00 p.m. that will last until 8:00 a.m. I don’t like to do that because the damper control is nearly closed for a good portion of the burn, resulting in a large amount of creosote formation in the boiler. On the worst winter, in the 38 years I have been using the boiler, the temperature one night was -20 degrees and the boiler maintained a constant temperature in the house. Of course, I went through a lot of wood that night.
The boiler will heat the 55 gallons easily in one hour from room temp to 180 degrees. If I have a real hot fire, it will get to operating temp in ½ hour. If the fire does go out, I have heat for about an hour until the circulator shuts off at 100 degrees (the circulator goes on at 120 degrees on start-up).
I like the simplicity of the boiler operation; a mechanical damper (draft) regulator, one hydronic zone valve for control of house temperature (heated by hot water coil in heat pump air handler) and one zone valve for temperature control of domestic hot water in a 40 gallon Amtrol Boiler Mate.
I realize that I burn more wood than a gasifier, but I have an abundance on our property and so far I don’t mind the work for the extra wood requirement. I cut my wood to 19” lengths. The boiler will “digest” any log that has a cross section that will fit through the 10” X 12” loading door.
I am posting this reply for anyone that may find a used boiler and have an interest in using an “old style boiler”. They are trouble free. I have not replaced one part in 38 years of operation. The only maintenance is scraping the loose creosote once a year from the boiler walls and a chimney cleaning once a year. Surprisingly, the chimney stays fairly clean. I could go a couple of years between cleanings but, but once a year is just part of my routine.
John M.
I could hook someone up to a brand new old stock never fired one of these.
maple1
Minister of Fire
'...once in the middle of the night..'. Some glad my days of that kind of thing are gone. I had an old style boiler also - I was a slave to it & didn't realize it all those years. But if ones lifestyle or preferences allows it or fits to it - that's great.
I have an similar old style boiler that was run old school for few years, I agree with Maple1 it was a PITA and I would just switch over to a wood stove during shoulder seasons. I installed 500 gallons of storage on it. I cut my wood usage by a 1/4 to a 1/3 and only need to feed it wood for a couple of hours in the evening in cold weather and every 2 days during shoulder seaon (although I must admit I use the mini split for heat these days for shoulder season. Unless its real cold stretch like we had in January, once a day covers it. I can leave home for about 2 days if I turn down the thermostats. If I wanted to spend the bucks I could put in low temp emitters style radiators and extend my effective storage capacity to close to double.
IMHO There really is not a lot of efficiency gain between a gasifier and conventional boiler if its being run full bore which is how I charge up my storage. The big advantage to a gasifier is less than full load operation, its going to burn cleaner and create less creosote. Hard to compare apples to apples as most of the gasifiers have better heat transfer area downstream of the gasifier so less heat up the stack vs conventional as the conventional boiler has to be designed to survive creosote generation during part load.
IMHO There really is not a lot of efficiency gain between a gasifier and conventional boiler if its being run full bore which is how I charge up my storage. The big advantage to a gasifier is less than full load operation, its going to burn cleaner and create less creosote. Hard to compare apples to apples as most of the gasifiers have better heat transfer area downstream of the gasifier so less heat up the stack vs conventional as the conventional boiler has to be designed to survive creosote generation during part load.
