Hello, I am new to the site but have read posts here off and on for the last few years. This is the first post of what will likely be many as I try to work through upgrading the heating system in my old house. My apologies as this post will likely be long as I am going to describe the general concept of what I hope to accomplish and how I am thinking of doing it.
First of all, I have an old house that was built in 3 stages, the main building is roughly 30 x 30 story and a half with an unfinished and slightly short but dry basement circa 1900. There are two additions, one about 16x16 single story on a crawl space (damp) circa 1950, and another 15x30 single story on a slab. The main house is currently heated with a wood insert (regency 2400, barely adequate) on the main level and a forced hot air oil furnace and oil water heater in the basement. The two additions receive heat from a wood stove (currently a nice old vermont castings unit which is a bit small) in the newer addition. The main house uses an old brick chimney with two flues (one for the oil, one with a liner for the insert), the wood stove in the addition has a Selkirk style chimney. My most pressing issue is the chimney in the main house (which goes right up through the middle of the building) is deteriorating and doesn't have a long time left serviceable.
To this end I am looking to upgrade with something that suits my situation and will work for the future. I have 60 acres, partly wooded and so wood fuelled/biomass options are preferred. Unfortunately finances are tight so I will be doing my best to be frugal with this project and I appreciate there are places where excess frugality will be expensive in the long run.
What I am thinking of doing (after eliminating most of the other options for a variety of reasons but other ideas are certainly welcome) is installing an outdoor wood gasification boiler (I was able to pick up a used unit, an Empyre Pro Fab 200) that's also CSA rated for indoor installation in a 16 x 16 insulated building that's about 75' behind the main house. I also have a large tank, approximately 4' in diameter and 8' in length/height, completely uninsulated that I'm thinking of using for thermal storage (after I insulate it). I would then bury insulated pipe (I understand this is one place to absolutely not be frugal?) across the back lawn (which tends to be very wet/waterlogged in the winter) and bring it in to the basement at ground level (because the basement is stone lined with cement and the wall are about 3+ foot thick up to the sills). I would then have some variety of plumbing in the basement to distribute the hot water.
To spread the cost out to a workable level I am thinking of doing the heat distribution in the house in phases. Phase one would be a heat exchanger in the existing forced hot air oil furnace, followed by some variety of heat exchanger for my domestic hot water. Phase two would likely be a couple of case iron radiators (which I have) in the additions. Eventually I would like to do radiant infloor heating in both additions along with the main level of the main house, as well as hot water base boards in the upstairs of the main house.
For further future planning I might consider a solar panel or two for DHW purposes during the summer months and I also have an interest in running an internal combustion engine off wood gas and would collect the waste heat, but that's all a long way down the road.
I hope I've included most of the important information without rambling too much and look forward to suggestions as well as figuring out how I can make this all work, my main concern is going to a lot of work and either not being about to heat the house adequately (and yes, I plan on insulating the house better and upgrading that side of things as well, but time and money...) or burning a crazy amount of wood to do so. Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.
Sam
First of all, I have an old house that was built in 3 stages, the main building is roughly 30 x 30 story and a half with an unfinished and slightly short but dry basement circa 1900. There are two additions, one about 16x16 single story on a crawl space (damp) circa 1950, and another 15x30 single story on a slab. The main house is currently heated with a wood insert (regency 2400, barely adequate) on the main level and a forced hot air oil furnace and oil water heater in the basement. The two additions receive heat from a wood stove (currently a nice old vermont castings unit which is a bit small) in the newer addition. The main house uses an old brick chimney with two flues (one for the oil, one with a liner for the insert), the wood stove in the addition has a Selkirk style chimney. My most pressing issue is the chimney in the main house (which goes right up through the middle of the building) is deteriorating and doesn't have a long time left serviceable.
To this end I am looking to upgrade with something that suits my situation and will work for the future. I have 60 acres, partly wooded and so wood fuelled/biomass options are preferred. Unfortunately finances are tight so I will be doing my best to be frugal with this project and I appreciate there are places where excess frugality will be expensive in the long run.
What I am thinking of doing (after eliminating most of the other options for a variety of reasons but other ideas are certainly welcome) is installing an outdoor wood gasification boiler (I was able to pick up a used unit, an Empyre Pro Fab 200) that's also CSA rated for indoor installation in a 16 x 16 insulated building that's about 75' behind the main house. I also have a large tank, approximately 4' in diameter and 8' in length/height, completely uninsulated that I'm thinking of using for thermal storage (after I insulate it). I would then bury insulated pipe (I understand this is one place to absolutely not be frugal?) across the back lawn (which tends to be very wet/waterlogged in the winter) and bring it in to the basement at ground level (because the basement is stone lined with cement and the wall are about 3+ foot thick up to the sills). I would then have some variety of plumbing in the basement to distribute the hot water.
To spread the cost out to a workable level I am thinking of doing the heat distribution in the house in phases. Phase one would be a heat exchanger in the existing forced hot air oil furnace, followed by some variety of heat exchanger for my domestic hot water. Phase two would likely be a couple of case iron radiators (which I have) in the additions. Eventually I would like to do radiant infloor heating in both additions along with the main level of the main house, as well as hot water base boards in the upstairs of the main house.
For further future planning I might consider a solar panel or two for DHW purposes during the summer months and I also have an interest in running an internal combustion engine off wood gas and would collect the waste heat, but that's all a long way down the road.
I hope I've included most of the important information without rambling too much and look forward to suggestions as well as figuring out how I can make this all work, my main concern is going to a lot of work and either not being about to heat the house adequately (and yes, I plan on insulating the house better and upgrading that side of things as well, but time and money...) or burning a crazy amount of wood to do so. Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.
Sam
