Outdoor Wood Boiler Lifespan

[dave1949]

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Dave 1949- Cool house, is your (unseen in pics) roof burried also?

No, I am not that brave. Too many horror stories about leaks. Maybe in a drier climate I would try it, I do like the concept.
One thing I didn't figure on, is I have to clear snow from behind the house with the tractor so the next storm/slide-off has somewhere to go. That 4' height gets filled up pretty fast.

 

[Skybox]

Geo thermal is cool, but not in most peoples budget. What is considered an acceptable return on the additional investment? Of course this depends on energy costs, but I'd be inclined to spend that money on super insulating, or other "passive" efforts. I have the equipment and the land to do the horizontal type myself and my radiant design Co. that I used for my house, (a great bunch of greenies) said that the COP or some other tech, term that is was not really worth it in Maine. This was about 4 years ago, have the water to water heat pumps come along that much since then?

Dave 1949- Cool house, is your (unseen in pics) roof burried also?

It would be interesting to know why it wouldn't work well in Maine. Coefficient of Performance (COP) is a term used for heat pumps and relates to how many watts of energy produced for every watt it consumes. I have a ClimateMaster system with a COP of 4.7. So for every watt consumed it produces 4.7. This is where your saving comes in and partly how the payoff is figured. Standard electric heating systems have a COP of 1.

I considered the open system using well water to feed the heat heat pump where the heat is then extracted. The water in then output to a pond or creek. Well water is 55 degrees so there is enough heat or cooling when reversed in the summer. I didn't like this idea because the well pump is constantly running and the minerals in the water clog the system. I too considered the horizontal trenching but it seemed radical digging those long trenches. I elected to have five 200 foot wells dug in a closed glycol loop system. The glycol mixture circulates through black pipe via the wells giving off heat in the summer and collecting heat in the winter then back to the heat pump to start the process over. A circulating pump turns on an off as needed and of course the heat pump does the rest. It also provides hot water - has two pipes inlet and outlet to the hot water heater ....additional saving used in the payoff calculation.

The system was 20K total (including wells) but you get a 30% federal tax credit. So it end up costing 14K with a six year payback. It still amazes me that my total electric bill averages 200 dollars a month in 3100 square foot home in Michigan. Last year when the temps hit 105 in the summer this thing didn't even blink and had no trouble keeping the temp at 74. I could of easily went lower but 74 is comfortable for us. My house is well insulated and the windows and doors are energy efficient (standard double pane low e-glass Pella) Anderson's make basically the same window but I found a deal on the Pellas. I promise everyone I don't have an interest in geothermal systems or Pella windows.

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

Has anyone ever noticed all the tree huggers live in the city and have close neighbors ? I plan on fueling mine with bunnies and baby deer carcasses and use the extra hot water in my fracking well we are drilling to use free natural gas in our moonshine still ! Thats why we call this area THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS !



:drink:

 

[dave1949]

Has anyone ever noticed all the tree huggers live in the city and have close neighbors ? I plan on fueling mine with bunnies and baby deer carcasses and use the extra hot water in my fracking well we are drilling to use free natural gas in our moonshine still ! Thats why we call this area THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS !

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:drink:

And here I thought you would be reliant on chicken feathers for fuel. Chicken fat oil lamps. Chicken manure methane for the gas range. You are expanding it seems. :laughing:

 

[Paul N]

I lke your style Grumpy Old Man.

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

And here I thought you would be reliant on chicken feathers for fuel. Chicken fat oil lamps. Chicken manure methane for the gas range. You are expanding it seems. :laughing:

Chicken fat oil lamps ? HMMMMMMM ? I'm going to have to try that one :laughing: I have to relay a story on tree huggers ,I was downtown Knoxville one day for the concert in the city and was approached by a young 20 something old girl wanting me to sign a petition to stop farm animal abuse and vegan awareness form I asked her if she realized she was wearing a leather belt and shoes and she said yes I then asked if she knew were leather cam from ? and she had no idea leather was a byproduct of the butchered cow ! Now here we have the guy trying to save money and not burn fuel by using a wood fired heater and some yahoo complaining about the smoke ! One of my favorite "smells" of my whole life has been a wood fire burning and we keep our fireplace burning constantly when the weather permits ! Just my two clucks !:cow: