alternative energy setup

[ericjeeper]

I built an outdoor woodboiler to subsidize my solar panels, that subsidize my fuel oil fried water heater. I have lots of firewood to cut.. We have over 600 tree tops laying on the ground. Plus god only knows how many dead standing trees we have.
My father heated his house for 25 years from dead wood from the farm.,
here are some photos

 

[wdchuck]

Nice combo setup, do you get any credits from the utility for a multi-source system?

You are the first outdoor-wood-boiler owner that I've seen who splits the wood so small, most seem to like bigger stuff for long burns.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

That's a very complex system, just to heat a privy!

 

[ericjeeper]

I happen to prefer a nice warm seat.

My wife loves the fact that she has a warm place to go think.. I think, she thinks, That I should think about another hobby...
The outhouse is my mechanical room for the solar panels. contains the pumps, controllers and expansion tanks.\
The firebox was an indoor wood furnace, so it is only 24 inches deep. and the door is not huge. I figure I can fit more smaller pieces in there, over trying to just burn two big round pieces. It will burn all night.only thing that matters to me.
Two days ago we had a bright sunshiney day. solar panels were bringing in 148 degree hot glycol to the heat exchanger. So I just left enough wood in the firebox to keep it alive.The stove and the outhouse are sitting on a 4 inch concrete slab, over six inches of pinkboard that is the lid for my 600 gallon storage tank. six inches of pink board with a pvc liner. It is very efficient.(the tank not the stove)

 

[wdchuck]

I think, she thinks, That I should think about another hobby...
over six inches of pinkboard that is the lid for my 600 gallon storage tank. six inches of pink board with a pvc liner. It is very efficient.(the tank not the stove)

Mine is of the same thought as yours.

So, your water resevoir is a hole in the ground with a liner and lid.? One heelofa hot tub ya got there.

 

[ericjeeper]

basically a 4x8x8 foot hole

http://www.pbase.com/ericjeeper/solar
Link to photos of the solar setup. The woodboiler I just built two weeks ago. Took me over a day.. LOL

 

[wdchuck]

That's a sweet setup you have there, obviously works well and didn't cost near as much as a typical owb package. Not real PV savvy myself but that setup would fit here very nicely, and could heat my garage too. Never thought about a hole in the ground for heated water storage, the digging here would be easy too, sand where the hole/pipes would go.

What type of tubing did you use in the ground?

Any pics of the owb construction or is it a trade secret?

 

[ericjeeper]

from my house to the tank.

I used a piece of 5 inch corrugated field tile. Then I have inch Barrier pex. one going in one coming out.each are wraped with foam sleves.and then taped together and wrapped in that foil bubble wrap. The tubing is just a foot deep. I saw no reason to bury it 3 feet deep to have to come up to the surface at the house to go in above my slab height. and I went through the six inches of fown at the lid to a 22"x22" hole in the outhouse floor.
The tank has only water in it. along with 1,000 feet of 1/2 inch non barrier pex. I have 2 manifolds with six branches for the solar panels. and two with six for the house system.
Basically the water never leaves the storage tank. It is just my media for storing heat.. for the boiler. I simply used a sump pump, it pushes water up to the bottom of the boiler and returns to the tank from the top and is continually circulating as long as I have a fire.
The solar panels are a close loop glycol system with an expansion tank and its own controls and pump.
I have a controller that reads the storage tank temp. if the storage tank is below 95 degrees that loop is closed off and the house boiler takes over.
My wife is afraid if I ever die she will go nuts.I just hope her new husband has common sense or a bit more..
I am afraid she might try to save some money, by using that big storage tank for my grave.. LOL and instead of woodchips she will just fill it up with boiler and solar parts.. LOL

 

[ericjeeper]

I do get federal tax credits for the solar

Nice combo setup, do you get any credits from the utility for a multi-source system?

No credits from the utility. they do not make electricity. Just heat water.
Me and my county assessor are trying to figure out how the wording is for the Property tax write off.. she reads it one way I read it another.. we will see if I can sweet talk her into seeing it my way.. writing off about 36k of my property taxes, as I had an estimate of 24 k for my house heat and a 12k estimate for doing the solar. which I did both installs myself.
I can say it is nice burning wood for heat. My office is sultry 83.5 right now..
all I am spending is a little bit of effort for cutting the wood. and alittle gas., and two small pumps to move the water around through the floor.