OWB greenhouse retro-fit

[barkeatr]

Im looking for any general comments experienced based or not concerning the likely performance improvments I made to my OWB by building a greenhouse around it.

Basically i have built a slash greenhouse/insulated building around my central boiler, it has a wood storage component that is not insulated..

My CB is sitting in the insulated portion of the greenhouse, all except the fill door. Im hoping to take my CB out of the extreme cold to improve its performance, and of course to grow a few plants. I have put a magic heat heat exchanger in the chimney and it will be blowing heat into the insulated space that its in,the greenhouse. I burn a LOT of wood..the CB is a hog. I cut 75 percent of my own wood and enjoy every minute, so my primary goal of this is to have a greenhouse, but If i can improve the performance of my owb all by capturing exhaust and residual heat, then i will be happy.
WHAT AM I ASKING THE GROUP? I would be interested to know what other folks have experienced, or would even guesstimate what kind of performance difference i might see by taking my boiler out of the cold into...warmer temps

Im guessing i will be able to keep the greenhouse at least above freezing when its 25 below at night, and probably 80 or 90 degrees on a sunny winter day. I know the plants will suffer I will work that out...and Im not lookign for calculatoins and burning up this kind of effort ..just some comments...

I am aware that i could burn out my magic heat when my CB occasionally burns its chimney out...but at the same time I have seen the magic heats survive chimney fires before and they are not prohibitivlye expensive TO replace..

Im in the final stages of the construction, its framed, roofed and it performed the wood storage function this winter...I just installed the insulated solar glazing... i need to insulate the non glazed greenhouse walls next...so i suppose i should simply wait untill winter to find out but im wondering if anyone has any comments on doing simliar thing

Code wise, im aware what im doing is not entirly legal, and im messing wiht the warrenty on the boiler probably..but its five years old and im not worried. I have classified the building as agricultural to my local code guy, so its not a occupancy for humans..and he was OK with that.



thanks in advance

 

[welder15725]

I don't think taking you boiler out of the extreme cold will make it burn less wood. Those owb's are so well insulated. Mine owb would have snow on it all winter long, it would only melt around the door. Try and burn good seasoned wood. If it's alittle green it will clog you magic heat and start drafting on you through the door. I put a rain cap on mine so I didn't have to keep putting a bucket on every spring. Within a couple of days I had to take it off cause it was clogged. Have you though of coming off your hot water heating lines and installing a fan coil unit? It would take up alot less room.

 

[barkeatr]

i dont want to add more heat load to the wood boiler..so Im drawing heat off the exhaust of the OWB. If the greenhouse gets colder during the coldest parts of the winter that is OK. All my wood is dry maple, so the magic heat should be about the same as a regular woodstove operation.

my CB is fairly well insulated, but certainly not super insulated, but your probably right the performance gains will be small. will see..

 

[welder15725]

Sound great man. Like to see some pics after you get it all set up.