[TheForge] Re: Heating with woodstove OT

[Walter Mullett]

If your close enough to do one unit, that would seem to be a great idea.
Because these units use water instead of air, they would be great for a
shop.  Some piping around your perimeter and some heat exchangers and you
would have a nice system.  No other power required other than the pump
that's on the unit. 

As far as fuel goes, most of these are multi-fuel units so you can have a
gas/oil backup for emergencies. A neighbor has one that he runs all year
because it also provides his hot domestic water.  Seems like a waste but
because there is no creosote problem, these units can shut the combustion
air way down when demand is low.  He was burning old railroad ties.  Really
stunk when you were down wind and the vents opened up. 

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Ralph Sproul
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 7:16 AM
To: Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Re: Heating with woodstove OT

Up here the boilers they are making are direct firebox surrounds with the
firebox in the middle. The little steel sheds cover the outside of the
boiler and the units are antifreezed just like your heating system has to be
up here.  If the heat in the house is high enough - the unit could freeze up
outside if not running at demand temperatures.

I've seen some modular home set ups with these boilers running 2" stems in
and out for feed/returns, and they go to fan modine like air units on the
wall blowing down.  One place has a boiler and heats three large 100 x 200
buildings with it - all from scrape from their sawmill and production
framing operations.

I'm gonna stay away from block, sand, and the thermal mass - as it would
take to much wood to get that up to temp up here........ we saw 32 below
this winter - so trying to heat mass up at that temp is nuts with the amount
of fuel it would take to do so.  I'm going to run with direct water transfer
- especially that the house furnace is radiant baseboard heat
(besides the wood stove we run 24/7 for five months).    :-(

The shop was a different matter - as I just wanted to break the chill to
work - but when it takes as much time to do the 7 cord of wood - to double
that production and feed two stoves would be nuts - I'm going with one unit
to do both from now on.

Ralph