Uni tsi boilers opinions

[maple1]

I went to belkomin and they have a video of how they are built all heavy duty partial automated welded and thick steel. They look built really well. Its -50 in siberia, I cant see being that dangerous to have?

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I'm not sure anyone said they were dangerous? For me its just the simple fact that no CSA sticker = not insurable. If I had a situation where I wanted a boiler tied to storage in a building that I wasn't wanting to insure, I might actually consider. But I would need to see one first hand first, and read some first hand user honest feedback before considering.

 

[SpaceBus]

How come you aren't trying to utilize the 26% tax incentives?

Plenty of options in the downdraft area...

I'm not buying any time in the next few years. By the time I am read there will probably be very different appliances on the market.

 

[S.Whiplash]

That's true but we are talking about using storage...

Also as a test I burnt wood in the manual feed door on the pellet duo and still had good success. It can only get more efficient using the UNI.

Even with thermal storage cord wood burners can not match pellet boilers for low emissions, but it's not really a competition, they just happen to be on the same list of apples and oranges. Pellet boilers also run better with thermal storage as it reduces cycling.

 

[S.Whiplash]

They had plenty of warning, but it seems none of them wanted to develop gasification technology, which has been commonplace on woodstoves, and the UMaine Jetstream boiler, since the 70's. European and a few select US manufacturers have been making gasification boilers for years now, so there were even plenty of proven designs to draw inspiration from.

Let's face it, due to the reliance on the fossil fuel industry in N.A., biomass boilers for central heating is little more than a niche product with a very small marketplace existing on the fringes of common society. If there were great profits to be made the European manufacturers would show more interest in the N.A. marketplace. Alternatively if it was worthwhile one of the giant US owned wood-stove conglomerates would add wood boilers to it's portfolio and invest the R&D needed to dominate the market and wipe out all of the little guys. They already know for every wood boiler they could produce, they can sell 1,000 wood stoves, so they don't bother chasing peanuts and other odd nuts.

 

[SpaceBus]

Let's face it, due to the reliance on the fossil fuel industry in N.A., biomass boilers for central heating is little more than a niche product with a very small marketplace existing on the fringes of common society. If there were great profits to be made the European manufacturers would show more interest in the N.A. marketplace. Alternatively if it was worthwhile one of the giant US owned wood-stove conglomerates would add wood boilers to it's portfolio and invest the R&D needed to dominate the market and wipe out all of the little guys. They already know for every wood boiler they could produce, they can sell 1,000 wood stoves, so they don't bother chasing peanuts and other odd nuts.

Indeed, all great points. I just wanted to point out that we shouldn't be feeling bad for the manufacturers for not keeping pace with the times. These companies, no matter how small, were not blindsided by the tightening regulations. Apparently it was better to lobby for extensions and exemptions rather than innovate.

 

[salecker]

Indeed, all great points. I just wanted to point out that we shouldn't be feeling bad for the manufacturers for not keeping pace with the times. These companies, no matter how small, were not blindsided by the tightening regulations. Apparently it was better to lobby for extensions and exemptions rather than innovate.

But some companies have been hobbled by covid and travel restrictions.
I was talking to one of the head guys from one company and they have their boiler ready for EPA testing,but the testing facility is in Canada.Which presents a huge extra cost to the already expensive testing required to pass the EPA tests.Without having their personnel onsite the testing facility cannot make changes or adjustments like the people that build them.

 

[SpaceBus]

But some companies have been hobbled by covid and travel restrictions.
I was talking to one of the head guys from one company and they have their boiler ready for EPA testing,but the testing facility is in Canada.Which presents a huge extra cost to the already expensive testing required to pass the EPA tests.Without having their personnel onsite the testing facility cannot make changes or adjustments like the people that build them.

Covid is not an excuse, they had years to figure this out. The regulations were supposed to go into effect before Covid.

 

[salecker]

Covid is not an excuse, they had years to figure this out. The regulations were supposed to go into effect before Covid.

covid is not an excuse for them it is a fact of life and they can not get EPA certification because of it.
Only the CCP knew that corrona was going out in the world,it's not like it was advertised so company's could schedule around it.
Coming up with new models that pass the EPA doesn't just happen overnight.
Lot's of use of corrona as an excuse,but that's not always the case.That's just generalizing and lumping everyone together

 

[ajalger]

Did anyone ever take the plunge with a wood only mbtek?

 

[jdboy9]

I am torn between one of their coal units or pellet. I noticed they have wood chip boilers available now as well. The wood only smaller models are pretty cheap and I considered getting one just to try it but I really don't want to burn wood anymore. Coal and pellets are reasonable around here so I'm going that route.

 

[oscar1111]

I have the Uni 35 and have been running it for about 4 years. I have around 300 gal of thermal storage and wish I had more considering our house is large and rather old and leaky. I am very curious how a gassifiying unit would have performed in it's place, but I have no reference. No doubt it would have been more efficient, but how much more?
It smokes a lot (out flue) when you light the fire and then burns clean after a bit. This seems like the basic definition of a fire itself, though.

 

[cumminstinkerer]

@oscar1111 I can't say for sure on that boiler, my folks went from an old Hardy smoke dragon with no storage to a Polar G3 and have used a little shy of half the wood they normally do, plus they have been able to run both the house and shop on the wood full time where with the hardy on super cold days 15F or below really they could only run one. I went from a homemade with some added reburn and a flue HX boiler with 1500 gallons of storage, to the Econoburn 100 with the storage, dropped roughly a third of the wood, then early last spring I switch to a Polar G2+ with the same storage, Have had a little struggle getting my storage and load controls to integrate and behave the way I want with the polar but got it dialed in finally, and I dropped to roughly 1/2 the wood the Econoburn used, plus the polar is so much easier to operate, literally load before work and before bed, walk away, the econoburn had to be relit for every fire.

 

[brenndatomu]

My folks went from heating with a large CB to a HeatMaster G10000 gasser (also large) and dropped 50% wood usage.
IMO the only way you can run an old school boiler even halfways efficiently is to have enough storage that you can fire 1X/day.

 

[cumminstinkerer]

@brenndatomu I agree, and even then they only sorta work, best thing I did on my homemade one was adding the flue tube HX, the reburn was a must but the HX really did help, the Polar is just night and day so much less work and even now where I am just burning for DHW at 70+ outside temps I can load it full once a day or even every other, depends on the wife and laundry/dishes/bath ya know, just throw some in run the easy sweep, close the door and forget it.

 

[SpaceBus]

I work for a family owned organic farm and the family heats with wood using a Heatmoor outdoor unit. Looks like a conventional unit and they get bulk wood delivered and burn it green. They say in the shoulder season it's too much and in the dead of winter it can't keep up. It told the boss lady that even just burning dry wood is going to save them 15% wood and increase heating output by a similar amount. Can an outdoor unit be run with indoor storage? They won't consider an indoor unit because family members that don't live in the house (of all ages and ability groups) load the stove.

 

[brenndatomu]

Can an outdoor unit be run with indoor storage?

Yes, certainly.

 

[SpaceBus]

Yes, certainly.

I'll have to bring it up to them. That should really reduce getting cooked out in the shoulder seasons and freezing in the winter.

 

[brenndatomu]

On top of any efficiency gains from burning dry wood, I would estimate another 20% (more?) gains from running a load full bore, instead of hours of idle time every day, which is terribly inefficient.

 

[SpaceBus]

On top of any efficiency gains from burning dry wood, I would estimate another 20% (more?) gains from running a load full bore, instead of hours of idle time every day, which is terribly inefficient.

Oh it definitely idles! The chimney is black on the outside from all the smoldering. It's also used to heat a greenhouse.

 

[brenndatomu]

Oh it definitely idles! The chimney is black on the outside from all the smoldering. It's also used to heat a greenhouse.

Oh, so it's oversized now...that's even worse, but it would still respond very well to batch burning.

 

[brenndatomu]

Ask @hobbyheater how much difference adding storage to a smoke dragon makes!

 

[SpaceBus]

Oh, so it's oversized now...that's even worse, but it would still respond very well to batch burning.

I bet it wouldn't be too hard to put some insulated tanks in the greenhouse they are heating in addition to their actual house. I'm willing to be the lines are also poorly installed /insulated.

 

[hobbyheater]

Ask @hobbyheater how much difference adding storage to a smoke dragon makes!

Over 40 years a reduction off 600+ cords !

 

[hobbyheater]

Over 40 years a reduction off 600+ cords !

I think that I read the question wrong .The difference between a smoke dragon and a very efficient gasification boiler with storage was 600 cords over 40 years . A smoke dragon when adding storage was a reduction would of 160 cords over 40 years !

 

[Nature boy]

Hi since i an unable to purchase an effecta smart boiler, I am looking into these tsi boilers, but looking for more info. Even though they show in Canada , they ship from USA. Looks about $700 usd shipping. Want to be sure I am not making a poor decision.

We got a UNI 15 and had it installed in our basement for our in-floor heat. I only have 40 gallons of hot water storage, so a lot more would have been a good idea. My main beef is the smoke coming out of the door I need to open to add wood. I added a draft booster to the exhaust chimney, which itself has problems. Having storage would mean I could just load it, burn it all up then start it up again later when there would be no smoke to escape.