Indirect Hot water tank

dlabrie · Jan 14, 2005

Mike,

Thanks so much for your comment. This is what I had heard. I was told I couldn't use enough hot water to run it out. My oil furnace is rated for 140,000 BTUs and the new wood furnace is rated at 200,000 BTUs.

Right now with just the DHW coil in the oil furnace, I can only use 1 hot water device at a time. If someone turns the hot water on at a faucet while you are in the shower /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif instant ice water.

Varmintmist · Jan 14, 2005

Just a thought but the hot water problem might be distribution. If that is the case then a new heater of any type will not help.

If you are 1/2 in all through the house then your problem is moving the volume of hot water, not the temp. Unless your wife gets cold when she turns on the sink while you are in the shower, the problem is in the pipes, not the heater. If you run out of hot in the whole house quickly, then it is the heating unit.

Just a thought, since you are doing major plumbing a few lenths of 3/4th might not be a bad idea.
............................

I dont think the oil is very efficent in the wood furnace either, but that is a guess. It has probably only run on oil for 4-5 days in the last 2 winters and I used a lot more HH oil in the tractor than I did in the burner to even guess how much oil it would burn if it ran 100% on oil.

Wood or duel, I think you will like the OD wood furnace. You can put in pretty much anything you can fit through the door size wise. Problem with that is its hard to pack with full sized rounds. Ill half some 15-18 in diam stuff if I am in the mood, and I find that I like to keep the logs at around 15-18 inches long. Just makes it eaiser to handle. I fill the back of the burner then put another rank towards the door. Smaller stuff, up to 6 in diameter Ill cut almost the lenth of the firebox.

Like any other woodburner your oaks burn best and longest. You can burn anything you want in the thing though. I toss some pine in in the morning because the burner wont work as hard in the "heat" of the day and I have some cut. I toss in odd shaped stuff in during the day to.

A lot of people dont like them because of the smoke. Well, if you burn seasoned dry wood, they dont smoke that much. If you burn green wet wood, which you can do, it will float a cloud across the ground. It will smoke the most just after you load it while it burns off the moisture. Thats pretty apparent, but some folks dont get that.

Mine is only about 30 feet off of the house. I made SURE which way the wind blew 99.9% of the time before I chose the spot. Even 100 feet away, make sure the wind doesnt blow towards the house. Remember the stack is only about 10 feet off the ground. On a wet day the smoke wants to hug the ground and if the wind is blowing towards the house, you are going to smell it.

Sounds like you thought out what you want and picked it. You will like the burner. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

dlabrie · Jan 14, 2005

I have definitly chosen a spot upwind from the house for the furnace. I can't wait to get started putting it all together.

I went to see a Central Boiler set up not far from here. The 84 yeard old farmer had been using a Taylor water stove for the past 12 years. It started to leak, so he got a Central Boiler last year. He has the CL5648 model. He heats a huge, old, drafty, farm house with it. The old house had a forced hot air system in it. He added 3 FHW, base board, zones. So with this wood furnace, he heats 3 FWH zones, the old FHA system and his domestic water. He has 1 1/4" PEX lines comming into a manifold that feed the system. It works slicker than anything I have seen.

thcri · Jan 15, 2005

( Murph,
Now you have me worried. The installer and others I have talked to said I would have more DHW than I could ever use.
Our usage consists of showers, dishwasher and washing machine. I thought I had it all figured out, now, I am not sure.

Varmintmist,

My telling you to go higher is two fold. I will use the 60 gal on city water. Well water comes in so much colder and takes more time to heat up. Your outdoor wood boiler may not be as fast as a regular boiler, but at times maybe faster. With a wood boiler you do need a dump zone for the times nothing is calling for heat and maybe your hot water tank can take some of that extra up. Now if your using this a a pre-storage to your existing hot water heater then it really doesn't matter. But you might as well get as much out of the wood burner as you can.

murph
I thought about the dual fuel option, It really looks like a great Idea but I like the idea of having a separate oil unit in the house, in case something goes wrong with the outdoor furnace. Also for resale value, some folks don't want to be bothered by wood and I feel you loose efficiency mixing the 2 together.

)

tc18ny · Jan 18, 2005

I just installed a Crown 26 gallon indirect. I run it off my Peerless Pinnacle propane fired boiler as a zone. It works great other than my wife sometimes like to take showers for 20 minutes and she does run out of hot water. If I had put in a 40 gallon, I could run hot water for probably 30 to 40 minutes straight. Other than that, it performes flawlessly. The recovery rate is about 1/3 that of our old standard water heater. One very important thing to remember is that if you use a zone valve from your boiler water, MAKE SURE it is a high flow valve. Your indirect instructions should state the minimum flow rate in GPM. Most standard Honeywell or Taco zone valves are only 2 or 3 GPM. Ball valves work the best.
Dave

dlabrie · Jan 18, 2005

( if you use a zone valve from your boiler water, MAKE SURE it is a high flow valve. )

The Boilermate WH-7P, Is 41 gallons and comes with its own circulator. It will be desiginated as the primary circulator on the heating system. The tank will be right next to the oil boiler and connected with either 3/4 inch copper or 1" PEX.

CTyler · Jan 18, 2005

( I have an oil, FHW system in the house. )

Friggen Hot Water?

How often do you have to empty the ashes on these outdoor boilers?

dlabrie · Jan 18, 2005

( How often do you have to empty the ashes on these outdoor boilers?)

I have a small indoor wood boiler and I empty it about once a month. I just push the hot coals to one side and shovel the ash out. From what I have seen, the new Central Boiler I am going to install will burn more efficiently so I would imagine it need it less often.

What do you say, Varmintmist?