Wood/Coal/Oil Furnaces

[Wayne County Hose]

Google search AHS wood boilers.

Ive heard the Tarms are very expensive but I like the large insulated storage tank. Easy to tie in with hydronic solar panels.

I would absolutely go with in floor heating but not the tubing under subfloor.
Wood does not have the mass to radiate heat that effectively.

I will search, thanks.

I have info coming on the Tarms, I'll post when I find out prices.

Ma-ma doesn't want radiant in floor. She wants baseboard. Hey, I've gotten at least 95% of this house my way, I have to throw her a couple here and there. However, my garage WILL have radiant in floor in the concrete. I won't mind laying on the floor in the winter to change the oil then. After all, I spend more time in the garage than in the house anyway.

 

[Floydian]

Infloor heating does limit flooring options for sure. Is that the reason for BBs?
BBs=convection
infoor=radiant
and you know which feels better cause you WILL be laying on your wonderfully warm garage floor.
Oh well- the womens's always seem to get their way.

I really like to see one of these gasification boilers working. They really seem
like about the best thing going.

Also have you thought of any kind of Air to Air exchange system for good indoor air quality? Without forced air these seem critical. IMO

Good Luck.
Floydian

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Also have you thought of any kind of Air to Air exchange system for good indoor air quality? Without forced air these seem critical. IMO

Good Luck.
Floydian

I don't know much about this. Please educate me.

The wood/oil combo unit I'm considering is a gasification unit.

I didn't know there were flooring limits with infloor. The wife was in somebody's house that had infloor and her feet sweat. So now she can't have it, no way no how. Sometimes I wish I irritated her on our first date. He-he, just kidding.

 

[MACDABS]

Wayne County Pa,
I am in the same boat you are , I have a large cedar ranch home with a hot water boiler baseboard heat. The boiler is oil feed and starting to show its age from 1990. I also heat the basement with pellets , but want to build a shop with in floor heat (60 x60) . I know a lot of my friends are starting to purchase the outdoor Mahoney type boilers that burn wood and coal. I just hate to be slaved to cutting and feeding the furnace all the time . Oil keeps going up , coal is dirty and no naturel gas in the woods around me.

I am curious on what you decide to do.


Thanks,
Macdabs

 

[DavidVT]

I heat a 175 year old farm house in Vermont with wood and oil. We get through the winter now on less than one tank of oil and quite a bit of wood.

In 92 we installed a full house 5 zone hot water oil fired system with one zone for domestic hot water. While this was a great step forward from the electric radiators my folks had installed in the early 70's, the cost of oil kept bugging me.

I installed an outdoor boiler and spliced it's output into the main first floor zone. Using valves I isolated that zone from the oil furnace.

A modern efficent oil or gas furnace uses a very small volume of water. Contrast that with the wood boilers that seem to prefer large amounts of stored heat in large tanks of water. Using one boiler for both forms of heat might have some efficiency issues to consider.

Just food for thought....

 

[Floydian]

New houses are built so tight now-house wrap under siding, tight windows, doors and very well insulated-that there is not a lot of replacement of air within the house. This is good for your energy bills but not so good for your indoor air quality. A lot of studies show inside air can more polluted than outside.
Search: indoor air quality
These air exchangers address this issue. Ive never installed one or seen one in operation but to me the idea is sound.
I plan on building a house for my folks starting sometime this year. It will have infloor heating and in my research I came across air exchangers. I have also been inside many new homes that can feel stuffy.

So try searching: air to air exchangers
heat recovery ventilators

Im still trying to educate myself on this so I dont know how helpful this is.
Im interested in any info you get back from TARM.

Floydian

 

[Bill Barrett]

Wayne,
If you must go baseboard check out these, this is just one brand.
Buderus Panel Radiators
Rad pannels come in many sizes and fit into interior design better than baseboard, and much better quality. Also I think they heat much better. Like alot of things been in Europe for years. They cost a little more but the 12" tall units btu to btu is almost the same.
Also you will have multiple temperature zones with baseboard or rad pannels and floor heat, more controls.
If your wife's feet sweat it may have been the floor was running too hot?
You need to get someone who knows whats going on. The only time a floor is designed to run hot is if the sq ft of the floor is small compared to the heat loss. Most of my system run high 70s into the 90s not usually a sweat issue.
Ok! Here is a muti-fuel unit. Yukon is a furnace but been around for years and tought you might want a look,Alternateheating is a boiler.
Wood Furnaces - multifuel and wood combination furnaces
Multi-Fuel Boilers, Updraft boiler

 

[Oleozz]

Have you looked at Keystone Mfg Co made in Schuylkill Haven, Pa.? They make hot water baseboard boilers using coal, coal/oil, coal/wood, etc. I have a 144,000 btu Keystoker that has worked perfectly for the last 18 years. They make a variety of BTU sizes.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Floyd- I will research them I plan on nbuilding a tight house, but I know that too tight is not good. There is not much I value more than fresh air, which is one big reason why I want a combo unit. I would just as soon live outside, winter or not. I can run the wood and open a window in the winter, yes I do that. When we are at work, or go away, we can switch over to the oil/propane part and still have a warm house.

Bill, I would prefer radiant in floor. I believe the house my wife was in had a poorly designed system. I have a friend with in floor and my feet have never sweat in his house. He told me that the poorly designed systems make your feet sweat. He is an engineer that designs fire sprinkler systems. He designed every aspect of his house and it is one of the most wonderful homes I have ever been in.

Oleozz, I will look into them, thanks. Hey, I live in Pa so all things being equal. I would buy from a company named Keystone.

 

[Oleozz]

I sold Alaska coal and wood stoves and stokers for six years and when it was time to put a unit in our house I chose Keystone. My friend has one and he has it in a small shed outside his house and pipes the hot water underground to the house so he doesn't have the mess of coal dust. Coal and wood units in the house are dirty and that is the biggest drawback, in my opinion.