Inside Wood Gasification boiler w/1000 gallons thermal storage

[3fordasho]

Looks great! I'm going back to watch your videos now.

I'm curious. Did you consider having the heat storage in your basement?

I've dreamt of a system with hot water storage in the basement hooked to antique cast iron radiators in the living space gravity fed.

There is no doubt there are advantages to having the system all in the building you are heating. 1000 gallons of 180F water in the basement would be very nice indeed.
In my case there was no way to get 2 x 500 gallon propane tanks in my basement with out excavating and knocking out part of a foundation wall. Also the fact that one of the reasons for installing
a boiler system is to heat multiple buildings which was my goal as well.

As far as gravity feed, I've heard those systems can be effective but definitely not practical in my case with the design of my house (four levels split, first two on concrete slab). Ideally I'd have radiant floor though out, but unless the house is designed for it from the start it's rather hard to retrofit - especially with fully finished ceilings on the first two floors (that would have to be ripped down to install radiant tubing for the floors above, then there is the existing concrete floors for the basement and next level up that don't have pex tubing)

 

[NSMaple1]

Gravity flow can be tricky. I'm in the middle of a power outage right now that I hope to hell ends soon (since 3pm yesterday). I happened to also be burning the boiler yesterday at the same time. And was almost done. So storage was pretty full. Which ended up a good thing. With all our zone valves manually opened, it was too hot last night upstairs (I had to close them after it got up to 25°c), and only adequate right now downstairs. But at least it is heating, without using any electricity.

 

[Marshy]

I have a Froling indoor boiler with a 820 gal thermal storage tank. I built a small 6x8 ft boiler room attached to my basement wall and put the thermal storage tank on the other side of the wall in a basement closet. My thermal storage tanks is modular and unpressurized. It's made by American Solartechnics. It's basically an insulated box complete with a liner for the walls and top. It has a 100,000 BTU/HR heat exchanger to charge and to dischare heat from the tank.

I will have to go watch the OP's videos. I have seen several people make similar storage tanks.

@3fordasho, is your storage pressurized? Did I read above that you're only charging to 180 deg F? Why not more?

My storage tank liner has a maximum continuous temperature rating of 185F so I have my controls set to 180F. With your system (if preasurized) you could to hotter.
S
Have you weight your wood during your batch burns? Do you have an average daily consumption yet? I know weather/climate is a big factor. I'm averaging about 50lbs of wood a day with lows in the mid 20's and highs in the mid 30's.

 

[3fordasho]

I will have to go watch the OP's videos. I have seen several people make similar storage tanks.

@3fordasho, is your storage pressurized? Did I read above that you're only charging to 180 deg F? Why not more?

My storage tank liner has a maximum continuous temperature rating of 185F so I have my controls set to 180F. With your system (if preasurized) you could to hotter.
S
Have you weight your wood during your batch burns? Do you have an average daily consumption yet? I know weather/climate is a big factor. I'm averaging about 50lbs of wood a day with lows in the mid 20's and highs in the mid 30's.

Yes the entire system is pressurized. I've run storage up to 85C (185F). The boiler goes into overheat mode at 88C so I don't go much beyond 85C. I've have to figure out the controller a bit more to see if I can raise the overheat set point. In overheat mode the boiler shuts down the inducer fan but the circulator stays running. Not sure what the motorized primary/secondary air inlets are doing in overheat mode. I'm not weighing wood yet but I will. So far on a once a day burn I've been loading the firebox about 2/3 full (6.7 cuft capacity). I've gone fuller the few times I've let it go 2 days between firing. The system has only been online a few weeks and weather has been all over the place so don't have a good feel yet for daily wood consumption.

 

[Del_]

That's a fantastic heating system you got there!

 

[Marshy]

Yes the entire system is pressurized. I've run storage up to 85C (185F). The boiler goes into overheat mode at 88C so I don't go much beyond 85C. I've have to figure out the controller a bit more to see if I can raise the overheat set point. In overheat mode the boiler shuts down the inducer fan but the circulator stays running. Not sure what the motorized primary/secondary air inlets are doing in overheat mode. I'm not weighing wood yet but I will. So far on a once a day burn I've been loading the firebox about 2/3 full (6.7 cuft capacity). I've gone fuller the few times I've let it go 2 days between firing. The system has only been online a few weeks and weather has been all over the place so don't have a good feel yet for daily wood consumption.

I'm in my second full heating season with my Froling. I would have to review my manual to be a 100% certain but from my memory the controls are as such;

The Froling controls are nice on mine. I know if I load too much wood the boiler will go into slumber mode where it shuts off nearly all incoming air, the inducer only runs at 5% flow to keep it barely burning and the circulators remain on until the storage reaches the set point. It will allow the storage to heat above the set point like 5 degrees. In slumber its very little added heat to storage though. If by chance the boiler jacket reaches over heat mode it will automatically turn on a heating zone to dump heat. The over heat temp setting is a stand alone Honeywell temperature switch that kicks on a zone. The boiler controls have an emergency mode as well which is set above the over heat Honeywell sensor.

I didnt go into that level of detail on my Froling video because I figured it would be too boring for the average person.

 

[NSMaple1]

I most always don't charge beyond 180. Heat loss increases the hotter everything is. And heat exchange in the boiler is greater the cooler everything is. Plus going past that would be into lap 3, making boiler out almost 210. Way more than I want.

 

[Marshy]

Here's my Booker video.

 

[svk]

Say, what does wood smoke smell like after gasification has occurred?

 

[Marshy]

Say, what does wood smoke smell like after gasification has occurred?

It's not your normal wood stove smell. Hard to describe. It's not as aromatic but smells like burnt creosote in a way.

 

[svk]

It's not your normal wood stove smell. Hard to describe. It's not as aromatic but smells like burnt creosote in a way.

Does it sort of smell like gasoline engine exhaust? Like a vehicle that was just started in cold weather?

 

[3fordasho]

Part 3: Heating loop to house and control: https://youtu.be/IHWn5doO3So

 

[NSMaple1]

Would be interesting to see some IR shots of all that to see where all your heat is actually coming from to keep the building that warm. Maybe radiating down and out thru the slab? My insulation job was a pretty cabbaged up affair. Well, still is actually. And my basement stays fairly chill all winter. I did do all my piping though, or as much as I could. Have even been thinking about removing some of it to get a bit more heat down there. But I think my basement windows are costing me heat. Plus part of a wall still bare - could stand to do more work at that stuff.

 

[avason]

I was looking for the double like button...great work! That’s impressive. Is HVAC your background?

 

[3fordasho]

Part 2, thermal storage details
https://youtu.be/wzJfHNMBBCk View attachment 778888

View attachment 779010

 

[panolo]

Does it sort of smell like gasoline engine exhaust? Like a vehicle that was just started in cold weather?

The moisture aspect of it yes does smell like that minus the gasoline. You really don't smell much wood. It's kind of dull.

 

[Marshy]

Does it sort of smell like gasoline engine exhaust? Like a vehicle that was just started in cold weather?

Not in my opinion, it still has a wood fire smell to it. I could try to capture some in a canning jar and send it to you.

 

[husqvarna257]

Say, what does wood smoke smell like after gasification has occurred?

Like others have said there is almost no smell. Clear exhaust ripples coming out the chimney when it is up to a high reaction chamber temp. I can go outside and smell that it is running a good burn.

 

[3fordasho]

Temperature monitoring on supply and return lines and a new heat emitter.
https://youtu.be/Oq3lpzplENA

 

[Marshy]

Temperature monitoring on supply and return lines and a new heat emitter.
https://youtu.be/Oq3lpzplENA

View attachment 783969 View attachment 783970

Very nice emitter. I have conventional base board hydronic emitters and the heat transfer efficiency really suffers below 160F delivered water temperature. Depending on the heating demands (dictated by outside temp and wind speed) they cant put out enough heat to maintain desired room temperatures below 145F delivered water temp. For my house and storage system that means I typically can go about 12 hours between firing my boiler and recharging my storage. I typically operate between 180-150F.

If I was to build a new house I would install in-floor heating everywhere I could. In-floor heating only needs something like 110-120F supply water. When you consider that you could get another 40F out of your thermal storage, in my case, the storage would just about double in usable size. I could probably get away with only one fire a day.