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Control System But No Logging, Yet This is a picture of the control system that I built for my boiler system. It consists of an Arduino, 4x20 LCD display, 4 solid state relays, and 9 1-Wire temperature sensors. The control system controls which source of heat the house uses (boiler system or...

Was looking at getting a Central Boiler unit for our new home last year and instead decided to go with an indoor gasification boiler due to the higher efficiency and lower wood consumption. I ended up with an EKO 40 with 500 gallons of pressurized storage.

The reality of the situation in my state (and many others) is that we have adopted the "Castle Doctrine" which protects my rights of to defending myself or occupants from violence or intrusion that may lead to violence. This same law also protects me from civil suits brought by the assailant or...

To the OP glad we were able to help him make his decision. Seriously? I may be mistaken but I don't believe anyone in this thread has called for outlawing them. A few, myself included, have pointed out some of their flaws that we believe they have. How about instead of issuing a call to...

One of the positive aspects that I have failed to point out is that if he is even considering going the OWB route he can get a gasification boiler with thermal storage for the same amount of cost as an OWB. How do I know this? Because I was at the same crossroad last year. With a...

What if you could produce more BTU's from a less amount of wood and not even have to worry about burning nasty half rotted wood?

Getting caught up in the numbers is really just splitting hairs as there are a number of factors that influence how much wood is used. What it comes down to it if you had an OWB and a gasifier hooked up to the same home with all other factors being the same the gasifier is going to use less...

How do you believe they are exaggerated? I agree, when fed well seasoned wood they don't smoke all that bad. When fed green, bug infested, rotting wood they will smoke bad like any other wood burning device. What stops people from doing this in stoves, furnaces, and boilers? Safety. It is...

To be perfectly blunt all the "negative talk" about OWB's is just being truthful about their flaws. Now there are varying degrees of efficiency they can be run at, like any wood burning device, but by the fundamentals of their design compared to other ways of heating with wood IMO they are the...

Agreed But I have to say that I think that it should be beat to death over and over. It's time to start thinking more about efficiency. Just because wood is very plentiful for those of us who use it doesn't mean shouldn't be talking about it's conservation as the benefits of efficiency go...

If my calculations are correct even with a system designed for a temperature drop of 40 degrees (normal is 20 degrees) you're still talking about about velocities of 20-25 ft/sec. If I'm not mistaken this could lead to erosion of the PEX due to the water traveling so fast. I could be wrong as...

You know, I see both sides of this but would tend to agree with others about leaving the tree be. A tree that old is quite rare and that IMO makes it historic. With that being said it isn't my property and thus none of my business. Am I a "lefty" or "treehugger"? Nah. Sometimes I just value a...

I don't agree with this unless the boiler is sized to the heating load and is running at full combustion the majority of the time. If it is not then he is loosing efficiency due to smoldering and a thermal storage tank would help reduce this. With the thermal storage tank the boiler would end up...

I second the motion! Go with a gassifier and you'll go through less wood. I am extremely happy with my EKO purchase.

You can't think of it in terms of "burn time" but rather how much heat is produced and then stored. When I start a fire my goal is to have it burn as hot and fast as possible in order to get the best efficiency out of my wood and thus the most heat. I also base the size of my fire on the...

I keep pimping this around the forums but if you're thinking about going with an OWB you owe it to yourself to look into a gasification boiler with thermal storage. With a gasification boiler you can enjoy pretty much all the benefits of an OWB but you end up burning less wood to produce the...

Work with what ya got If the house is heated with baseboard I would lean towards an indoor wood boiler since you could hook it directly into the existing system. This would result in a complete pressurized system that doesn't need any water maintenance. In addition to that, an indoor boiler is...

I haven't been here very long but I have learned very quickly that it would probably be a bad idea to follow avalancher to a craigslist job site. ;)

I thought the same thing! It was 3:15 and I was sitting on the couch listening to the wind and it started to make this constant sound that resembled the sound a train makes. I ended up moving my wife and son into the basement until I could get a weather report to see what was going on because it...

I am starting out with 500 gallons of pressurized storage and hopefully next year I can expand to 1000 gallons. Hey thanks!