to all those running a gassifier..................update us!

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88rxn/a

Member
Hearth Supporter
Feb 12, 2008
145
northeast PA
how much wood did you burn last year?

how many days out of the week did you have to lite it?

did you let it idle or die out?

may i ask the price of what you paid for yous and which brand and why that brand???

my intial plan was a wood boiler but id rather not burn 20+ cords and have a train smoke in my back yard.....

does any of the company's do financing??

i should have at least 5K for a down payment next summer, but i don know how much there going for in todays ever so growing economy.....

**edit

what about building my own?? is it worth it? a buddy is a SUPERIOR welder and great with torches and blueprints so we got the know how....just curious how difficult it would be to build one...
 
88rxn/a said:
how much wood did you burn last year?

how many days out of the week did you have to lite it?

did you let it idle or die out?

may i ask the price of what you paid for yous and which brand and why that brand???

my intial plan was a wood boiler but id rather not burn 20+ cords and have a train smoke in my back yard.....

does any of the company's do financing??

i should have at least 5K for a down payment next summer, but i don know how much there going for in todays ever so growing economy.....

**edit

what about building my own?? is it worth it? a buddy is a SUPERIOR welder and great with torches and blueprints so we got the know how....just curious how difficult it would be to build one...
Click to expand...

A lot of your questions have been answered in earlier threads, especially wood consumption and fire patterns. Pricces have cahnged and will probably continue to do so. I know that they are going for about twice what I paid.

People have built their own with varying results. Again, many threads explore this. There's a lot more technology in them than meets the eye. Best approach would probably be to take critical measurements from a 'known good' design.
 
how much wood did you burn last year?
how many days out of the week did you have to lite it?
did you let it idle or die out?
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Depends on location, temperature, heat requirements, storage, many variables. No single answer.

may i ask the price of what you paid for yous and which brand and why that brand?
Click to expand...

Rapidly changing market. Anything other than season's purchase would be irrelevant, and no prediction for next year.

Does any of the company’s do financing?
Click to expand...

No knowledge.

what about building my own??
Click to expand...

I am far more than average on mechanical ability, but I wouldn't try it unless my goal was to spend lots of money on an experiment just for the fun of it.
 
Those are actually pretty interesting questions to those who are contemplating biting the bullet and getting into a gasification boiler. I've been trolling these forums for about a week and haven't run across a lot of concrete info. Even if there's caveats, the info would be great for a ballpark estimate...understood if not everyone is willing to divulge that kind of info, however :) That's the kind of stuff that'd be great in a FAQ!
 
Well here is my story, folks:

I was going to buy one of those "add on furnaces" you can buy a Home Depot this summer to help boost the temp in my house this winter as well as help defray the cost of natural gas. I started searching the internet looking for information on how they work and if they were easy enough to maintain. That's when I found this site. My number one concern for choosing a wood burner was the amount of wood it would require to heat my home. I am not willing to load it three times a day to be comfortable and I wanted to be in the sub-5 cords per year range of consumption. After a significant amount of reading, both here and with some hard copy, I figured out what most here already knew - the "best case" for efficient wood burning is wood gassification with storage. Of course this has to be the most expensive option with my luck.

I am currently installing an Orlan EKO 40 with 1000 gallons of pressurized storage. I picked up my EKO two weeks ago, I'm picking up the rack for my tanks today, my (2) 500 gallon propane tanks are being delivered tomorrow and PexSupply.com will deliver everything but the black pipe later this week. I had just about enough money to pay for the boiler itself (call it $7k) but the rest I did have to borrow from my credit union. The payback was justifiable in my mind even though natural gas is the cheapest of the fuels out there.

My total bill will end up just shy of $14k with any luck. I hope to have one fire per day all winter long. My EKO should not idle at all with the 1000 gallons of storage. I will be heating 3200 square feet via a heat exchanger mounted in my existing forced air furnace. I "hope" to be able to get through an average winter with between 4 and 5 cords of wood keeping the house at or near 70 degrees during the day.

My experience thus far has been quite enjoyable. I like the challenge. I will tell you that this is a moderately complicated project to undertake. Just today I had to buy a digital timer to shut off the EKO after a set amount of time so that I'm not pumping hot water out of my tanks long after the fire has burned out. It's things like this that are quite unexpected during planning, but completely logical.

My current "stretch goal" is to have my EKO up and running by Christmas. I'll be taking my time with the plumbing and the setup. Since it took me an entire day just to get the EKO off a trailer and into my basement I figure I'll be conservative in my time estimates moving forward. Hope this helps....
 
Great info! Stee6043 it sounds like your situation is exactly like mine...I'm glad you posted. Gives me a good idea of what I'm in for should I dive in. Man, that up front cost is som'n else. My hot water heater says it'll cost me just under $500 per year, and I figure if my heat is half of the remaining electric, say $150 (for a $300 electric bill - that's pretty high)...that's $1800 per year total saved per year. If I get it all installed for $15k it'd take just over 8 years to recoup the investment. Ouch. Is my math off? What am I missing? If they deregulate the electric in my area like they're threatening next year, that'd certainly bring the recoup time down...not that I'm hoping they raise electric rates.

Not included in that is the safety factor for not having to worry about creosote as much - that's pretty huge in my book.
 
I did the math too, my friend. Last year I spent just a tick over $1500 on natural gas just for heating. Another $500 or so on the hot water/cooking. So if I went with just that number it would take me a long long time to pay off the EKO 40. So why would any sane person do it? Here's why - Currently I keep my 3200 square foot house at 64 when the wife and I are home, 60 when we're at work and 57 at night when we're sleeping. That is COLD! With this boiler I plan to keep it warm enough so I can actually feel my hands all winter long. I have to believe keeping my home at 69-70 degrees would bump my heating bill by at least a few hundred a year. So that adds to my payback. Next point - I've heard on the news already this fall that natural gas is expected to rise 20% this year. Even if it doesn't go up that much this year what are the chances it will stay the same or drop over the next five years? Not likely. So realistically I think my payback is 5-6 years. If you take into account the higher temps, maybe even 3-4 years.

Since the EKO has a 20 year warranty (albeit limited after 5) I figure I'm looking at somewhere in the range of 15 years of free heat under warranty. Who knows how many more after that.

Last thing - as the economy continues to flounder I think alternative heating/cooling will become more and more popular. That thought pushed me to buy this year and not wait. These units will only become more expensive as demand goes up and the dollar continues to struggle. Not to mention you might have to wait a year to get one eventually!

Glad I could help. Now get down to your credit union and borrow some money. Support the American ECONOMY! ha.
 
If you have the money, there are a limited number of options that you could do with it:

If you took $15K and put it in the stock market, you'd have $10k now ;-)

You could put it in some safe investment at 4% or so, and it would make you $600 per year.

Or you could buy a wood gasification system and it would pay you $1500 or more per year (depends on cost of wood and future cost of current heating choice).

If it's saving $1500 per year and you have to borrow the money to buy it, any interest rate less than 10% makes it a good deal.
 
hehe that's a great way of looking at it - it really is an investment isn't it. I would go to a bank and get a loan but they're so jumpy right now I'd be afraid I wouldn't come out with both hands and legs.
 
Hey Stee, you mentioned you were picking up two propane tanks? What do you need propane for?
 
I'm using (2) 500 gallon propane tanks for my pressurized storage of hot water. There are loads of threads on this site about storage and pressurized vs unpressurized. If you have access to propane tanks it makes for a pretty simple solution...
 
Oh so you're not actually using *propane* for anything. I was confused (not the first time).
 
Shoot man, I couldn't afford to fill the tanks with propane! As it is I'll probably spend a week filling my tanks to avoid burning up my well pump. That's a lot of water....
 
Really though, it's not that much. You'd be surpised how much water you draw on an average day... Every time you flush the stool its 1-2 gallons... It adds up in a hurry. But, doing it over the course of a week isn't a bad idea......

Actually, you won't burn your pump up pumping water..... But, if you have a "rock well" or "granite well" or similar, you'll suck your well casing dry and have to wait for it to refill! :) Try explaining THAT to the wife......

If you've got a strong well that doesn't ever run dry, then you're set..... Fill 'er up!
 
As for building your own stove, it's not exactly a walk in the park... Take this from someone who's doing it as we speak! :) But it is possible. Though I know mine would not have ever come to even half working if it hadn't been for nofossil......
 
My 2 cents... I went with the CB e-classic. 450 gal built in storage piped to the house to heat DMH and forced hot air system. From everything I have heard I should use 4+ cords of wood through the winter. I can fill the firebox once per day and have it carry me through until the next day. I also kept the house cold last year and still spent 3000 on heating and hot water. I am planning on keeping the wife happy and warm by having the house around 68 this winter. We have been in the upper 20's and low 30's here for the last week at night and 50's during the day, the furnace has not kicked on and plenty of hot water AND I can sit in the living room with shorts and a t-shirt comfortably!!!!!!!!!!! No worry of mess, smoke, fire, etc in the house and very simple machine to run. Cost is the same at approx. 14K with no issues of set up and calculating needed heat storage etc. Very happy with the purchase so far....... we'll see how she does through the winter.
 
I'd be interested to hear your wood totals after this year, VT. My brother-in-law has a CB classic and he has burned roughly nine cords a year for the past three years heating 2500 square feet. He also loads that hog three times a day in the winter, less in the fall/spring.

His wood consumption and frequency of loading are what pushed me to gassification...
 
warm in VT said:
My 2 cents... I went with the CB e-classic. 450 gal built in storage piped to the house to heat DMH and forced hot air system. From everything I have heard I should use 4+ cords of wood through the winter. I can fill the firebox once per day and have it carry me through until the next day. I also kept the house cold last year and still spent 3000 on heating and hot water. I am planning on keeping the wife happy and warm by having the house around 68 this winter. We have been in the upper 20's and low 30's here for the last week at night and 50's during the day, the furnace has not kicked on and plenty of hot water AND I can sit in the living room with shorts and a t-shirt comfortably!!!!!!!!!!! No worry of mess, smoke, fire, etc in the house and very simple machine to run. Cost is the same at approx. 14K with no issues of set up and calculating needed heat storage etc. Very happy with the purchase so far....... we'll see how she does through the winter.
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I would plan on at least 10 cord. maybe even 12 to 14. The Classic Boiler rep told me to figure at least 100gal of oil = 1 cord of wood. I burned 800 gals of oil last winter and I figured I would use 8 cord, and I planned on being warmer than last winter, so I was figuring on 10+ cords. I hope you the best.
 
I certainly hope you guys are wrong!......? My brother in law has a CB 6048 and used about 6 cords last winter heating a slightly bigger house than mine. I think a lot has to do with what you are burning for wood too. he had all good hardwood which is also what I am burning. I too, saw the 100 gal oil= 1 cord of wood. I burned 500 gals last year. I believe that the comparison was a non gassifier so assuming that I save some wood by using the gassifier and running the temp slightly warmer, I hope to be in about that same range of use... 4-5 cords???? I guess I will soon see. Of course it would be fine with me to see warm temps and not have to hardly use it all winter!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
 
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