Switching to indoor wood boiler questions

[CWME]

I am looking at/trying to order an Orlan EKO 40 wood gassification boiler with 500 gal storage tank to heat my new 1400sqft ranch. The house has energy star windows and is really decent to heat. Last year I used a forced hot air furnace and epa stove to heat and burned about 4-4.25 cords of wood. The EPA couldn't keep up in the dead of winter being in the basement so most of the wood consumption was with the furnace.

I have a brand new New Yorker oil boiler installed for DHW and basebord heat.

1st question, is the EKO 40 going to be too big for my application? As stated the building is brand new, (R-30 in the ceilings, tight, etc.) I don't want to go too small but I also don't want an idling wood boiler.

2nd, The wood boiler will be piped into the existing boiler so that the oil is a backup. Can I use the DHW coil in the oil burner to extract my DHW or will I need a sidearm? Oil side will be off.

3rd, My chimney is 6" square tile 18' tall with a good draft, the EKO manual states 8" tile or round. Does anyone have experience with a 6" flue instead of the 8"?

More questions but this will get me through the purchase at least. Thanks in advance for any comments.

 

[Medman23]

If you haven't already checked it out, ********** has a forum section with a boiler forum that is an excellent resource. You will find all of the answers to your questions there.
For boiler sizing, you need to do a heat load calculation for your home. This will determine the worst-case BTU load required to heat your home. From there you can select the appropriate sized boiler. In my case the EKO 40 was too big, so I went with the EKO 25.
Your chimney should not be an issue if it has good draft now. The 40 will perform well using the 6" vent.

**********

 

[CWME]

Thanks for the reply Medman. I have been over to ********** a lot reading as much as I can. I ended up calling the dealer and they answered my questions. Sometimes the simplest solution is to pick up a phone. I need to remember that more often.

EKO 40 is too big without 800 gal storage min. He said EKO 25 with 500 gal would be a good fit. I only have enough $ to get 250 gal storage to start and he said that it would be ok for now.

The DHW coil on the oil boiler will still work due to a constant flow of hot water from the wood boiler/storage.

As Medman stated the 6" vent is fine with the 25 and 40 units. Getting into the 60-80's is where the 8" becomes a requirement.