Inside Wood Gasification boiler w/1000 gallons thermal storage

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Do you have a link to that emitter? Yes, very interesting. Might have been my ears, they ain't what they used to be, but I couldn't hear the vid very good. Have a hard time trying to sell the other half on cast iron rads here, to the point I gave up - one of those might be different.
 
Do you have a link to that emitter? Yes, very interesting. Might have been my ears, they ain't what they used to be, but I couldn't hear the vid very good. Have a hard time trying to sell the other half on cast iron rads here, to the point I gave up - one of those might be different.

https://www.htproducts.com/fan-coil.html
https://www.menards.com/main/plumbi...-fan-coil/vfc-25gb/p-1525069779924-c-8518.htm

Has built in thermostatic control, 24vac output to control a valve or relay for a circulator, auto or manual selection of 3 fan speeds, the top damper is motorized. Menards can order the 19.6k and 24.6k btu sizes.
Menards says Westinghouse but it is a HTP product, in fact nothing says Westinghouse on the unit or instructions.
 
My first thought is that you are heating your storage building with those uninsulated copper lines. I have an attached heated shop but we turn it off when we aren't using it. I have 30' of uninsulated pex running to the water to air exchanger in the shop and then back into the basement. The water is always flowing thru the pex and the exchanger so it's enough to keep the shop at 50 or 55 on not so cold days. Turn the thermostat up to get the fan to kick on to increase the room temp.
 
My first thought is that you are heating your storage building with those uninsulated copper lines. I have an attached heated shop but we turn it off when we aren't using it. I have 30' of uninsulated pex running to the water to air exchanger in the shop and then back into the basement. The water is always flowing thru the pex and the exchanger so it's enough to keep the shop at 50 or 55 on not so cold days. Turn the thermostat up to get the fan to kick on to increase the room temp.


Believe me, there is no bare copper showing now. Even so the building the boiler and storage are in stays mid-50's more or less depending on outside temps. Not a bad thing but it took 3 fires a day in a Englander 30NC to do that before. I don't consider it lost heat as I want to keep that building above freezing all winter. I do wonder how much some of these OWB's are loosing to the great outdoors and this is one of the reasons I would not consider one unless it can be installed in an outbuilding.

Ran into a wood cutting buddy a few days ago and he is considering adding wood heat to his new place (wood seller-not a burner). He said a neighbor runs one of the outdoor wood furnaces (with insulated air ducts from the outside furnace through a basement window into the basement furnace) and he was strongly considering one - I just nodded my head and said to make sure you check out how it's working out for your neighbor - I can't imagine a more in-efficient way to burn wood.
 
I'm at the point where I'm considering removing some pipe insulation. Not very warm in my basement when it's winter out. I should really do something about my crappy basement windows though...
 
I'm at the point where I'm considering removing some pipe insulation. Not very warm in my basement when it's winter out. I should really do something about my crappy basement windows though...
I dont run my basement zone at all and it stays 65-68 through the winter. None of my pipes have insulation going to my zones though. My basement is not finished either. It helps keep the floors from getting cold.
 
I have an outdoor wood burner and when it's cold out the snow will stay of the roof. There is heat loss at the loading door but not enough to melt much snow unless it's mild out. I took all the tinwork off last summer and redid all the insulation just to make myself feel better. I also never insulated my pex lines inside my basement just to keep it a little warmer down there. A little more wood I'm sure but leaving the house for the day and forgetting to shut the smoke bypass rod likely wastes a lot more wood. I think I have enough wood.
 

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Seems like OWBs are pretty common here so I thought I would share my install of a Attack DPXL-45 downdraft gasification boiler + 1000 gallons thermal storage installed in an outbuilding about 90ft from the main dwelling. Currently heating a 3400sqft house and the 1152 sqft building the boiler/storage resides in. There is no heat emitters in the boiler building, Heat from the boiler, piping and storage currently has the building at just under 50F with about 0F outside right now.
I've tried to detail the system with a series of youtube videos that I will share here. Part one covers the boiler itself and near boiler plumbing: https://youtu.be/Su9x8uAiYlo View attachment 778887
Looks Great. I didn't see that you were preheating your domestic hot water. A pre heat tank with a side arm convection exchanger could take some heat off of your main hot supply to the air exchanger.
When the power fails do you have another power source say an auto start generator to power the air blower in the propane furnace?
 
From my experience sidearms and storage don't work well together, at least if you want to maximize your storage mileage. They have a tendancy to mess up tank stratification more as storage temps drop. A flat plate works much better. I do a simple preheat via 2 rolls of pex spread out directly on top of my storage tanks. Drops the hot water tap pressure a bit vs. cold, but still very adequate.
 
From my experience sidearms and storage don't work well together, at least if you want to maximize your storage mileage. They have a tendancy to mess up tank stratification more as storage temps drop. A flat plate works much better. I do a simple preheat via 2 rolls of pex spread out directly on top of my storage tanks. Drops the hot water tap pressure a bit vs. cold, but still very adequate.
I was thinking because the domestic water heater is not in the same building as the storage a side arm in series with the hot water into the house from the storage could be used. The side arm would be on a pre heat tank that had cold domestic water in and fed out to the domestic water heater cold in, be it propane or electric, I didn't see it in the videos. The side arm would only have hot water going through it from storage when the house called for heat and the circulator in the building with the boiler turned on.
A flat plate wouldn't thermosiphon on the side of the pre heat tank. It would need to be pumped from the bottom of the pre heat tank to the top. This would work but it would take a lot of heat out of the line from storage until the pre heat tank was the same temperature as the storage water coming in then the heat transfer would slow to almost nothing and the air handler in the furnace would receive water almost as hot as the storage, less line losses. A tempering mixing valve should be used on the output of the pre heat tank as it could reach too high of temperature.
 
I was thinking because the domestic water heater is not in the same building as the storage a side arm in series with the hot water into the house from the storage could be used. The side arm would be on a pre heat tank that had cold domestic water in and fed out to the domestic water heater cold in, be it propane or electric, I didn't see it in the videos. The side arm would only have hot water going through it from storage when the house called for heat and the circulator in the building with the boiler turned on.
A flat plate wouldn't thermosiphon on the side of the pre heat tank. It would need to be pumped from the bottom of the pre heat tank to the top. This would work but it would take a lot of heat out of the line from storage until the pre heat tank was the same temperature as the storage water coming in then the heat transfer would slow to almost nothing and the air handler in the furnace would receive water almost as hot as the storage, less line losses. A tempering mixing valve should be used on the output of the pre heat tank as it could reach too high of temperature.

Yes, that setup would definitely help and could work out well.

My main shortfall with sidearms comes when trying to heat DHW from storage, when not space heating. Many chose just not to do that, and just heat DHW another way in non-heating seasons. But if one wants to, a flat plate is indeed much better - you can circulate supply water slowly and get good heat transfer out of it in a short time & maintain stratification. I started out with just a sidearm, and added a flat plate - went from needing to burn every 3 days or so, to making it a week . So now in the summer I can do either - but I usually just let electrons do it, unless I want to also take a chill off on a cool day or have junk wood to get rid of.

I also think my last minute idea to stuff my storage with pex also helps me out a lot.
 
Me again Tim. Do you the the major difference between the Attack PROFI and the LAMBDA?
Completely different control systems. The lambda control adds an O2 sensor at the flue outlet and both primary and secondary air lnlet shutters are motorized and controlled by lambda control to maintain a certain oxygen content in exhaust stream. Adjusts on the fly as burn conditions change and can adapt to some extent for different types of wood. Lambda control should add a percentage point or two to the overall efficiency of the boiler and you don't have to manually set the air inlet shutters like you do on the profi controller set up. Slightly less standby loss with the lambda controller as it mostly shuts the air inlets when the burn is over where as the profi set up has fixed shutters so more airflow through the boiler when off.
 
Sounds good. Thanks. My father and I are both going to install a new system. He is looking for the Profi and I want the Lambda. We are looking at different thermal storage options and hope to place an order soon.
 
Hi Tim, About how long did it take for your boiler to arrive once you ordered it from New Horizon , Inc? I should be placing the order this week and need to start cleaning out space in my basement and figuring how I am going to attach it to my current system. Thanks
 
Hi Tim, About how long did it take for your boiler to arrive once you ordered it from New Horizon , Inc? I should be placing the order this week and need to start cleaning out space in my basement and figuring how I am going to attach it to my current system. Thanks
I seem to recall about a week for the first boiler and maybe two for the second purchase. #2 had to have the flue connection changed from vertical to horizontal and that involved moving the O2 sensor and temp probe in the flue outlet.
 
Sounds good. Thanks. I am placing the order today for one for myself and one for my father. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
Seems like OWBs are pretty common here so I thought I would share my install of a Attack DPXL-45 downdraft gasification boiler + 1000 gallons thermal storage installed in an outbuilding about 90ft from the main dwelling. Currently heating a 3400sqft house and the 1152 sqft building the boiler/storage resides in. There is no heat emitters in the boiler building, Heat from the boiler, piping and storage currently has the building at just under 50F with about 0F outside right now.
I've tried to detail the system with a series of youtube videos that I will share here. Part one covers the boiler itself and near boiler plumbing: https://youtu.be/Su9x8uAiYlo View attachment 778887
Hi Tim, I got my boiler and thermal storage in place and I need to order a circulator. I know you used the Grundfos Alpha2 but it looks like in your video that the shut off valves are 1 1/4 inch. The pipe coming out of the boiler is 1 1/2 inch. Do you know if Grundfos makes a circulator with an 1 1/2 inch output? I thought there would be a problem necking down from 1 1/2" to 1 1/4 inch. The pipe openings on my thermal storage tank are also 1 1/2 inch. Thanks for the help. Chris
 
Hi Tim, I got my boiler and thermal storage in place and I need to order a circulator. I know you used the Grundfos Alpha2 but it looks like in your video that the shut off valves are 1 1/4 inch. The pipe coming out of the boiler is 1 1/2 inch. Do you know if Grundfos makes a circulator with an 1 1/2 inch output? I thought there would be a problem necking down from 1 1/2" to 1 1/4 inch. The pipe openings on my thermal storage tank are also 1 1/2 inch. Thanks for the help. Chris
Boiler output/input is 2" on the Attack 45, I adapted down to 1 1/4" almost immediately and no issues. Looks like you can can get 1 1/2" flanges for the alpha 2:
https://www.supplyhouse.com/Grundfos-519604-1-1-2-Iron-Pump-Flange-pair-9577000-p
 
I have a similar setup
Econoburn 200
1000 gal storage in a dedicated building 125 ft from my house. Oil backup boiler. Cast iron rads throughout my house. Built it all myself except for the wireing
This will be year 14 running it average about 8 cord of spruce a year heating my log house.
 
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