Anyone have a wood and oil forced water boiler

[flyboy]

It seems from my searches that wood and oil fired boilers are hard to come by. The house I am buying has an oil fired boiler feeding radiant base board heat. I would like to find a dual fuel boiler to replace it with.

The only 1 I have found is the Tarm Excell 2200. But at $12,000 it would never pay for itself unless oil was nearly $10 per gallon. I am pretty sure an oil only fired boiler can be had for around $2k.

Anyone found one of these things with a real world price?

 

[Mike Van]

Harman makes add-on units, which is what I got. The SF 260 some 10 years ago, never regreted it for a minute. Back when I was looking there were only 2 oil/wood boilers out there. One was huge, the other tiny.

 

[muncybob]

There is also the Newmac wood/oil boiler. Considerably less than the Tarm but not sure how efficient it is.
Your payback would take oil to get to $10/gallon??? What do you base that on? I developed a spreadsheet to compare different scenarios for myself and payback is much less time for me with oil at $3/gallon. Everybody's situation would be different. Also keep in mind the possible $1500 tax credit you would get for an efficient wood burner...details have yet to be released though.

We hope to make a decision soon on a wood boiler...the Tarm and the Newmac as still on the sort list.

 

[flyboy]

The house was built in 1993 and is fairly efficient. I did not do an ananlysis on that number, it was merely a swag. I figure on going through about 600 gallons of oil/year on a 2100sq ft house in NH.

Just thinking on the screen here....

oil is around $2.25 now x 600 gallons = $1350/yr

After installation the Tarm would be $13k + and have an operational life of 20 yrs. Straight line depreciation would be $650/yr.

So the break even point on a 20 yr time would be $3.33/ with wood = free....which is NOT the case.

That Tarm is just WAY to much. Not even in the ball park. Maybe not $10 / gallon but much more than $3 / gallon.

 

[ktm rider]

I have a AHS multifuel boiler that burns wood/coal and has an oil backup. It was no where near the price of the tarm ( which I think is WAY over priced) The AHS is built like a tank and works very well and is quite efficient. Although I burn 90% coal.

http://www.alternateheatingsystems.com

 

[flyboy]

http://www.mainewoodfurnaces.com/Pricing.shtml

Found this one that is 2/3 the price of the tarm.

 

[muncybob]

Not sure how old your AHS boiler is, but I priced them recently and their pricing now is in the same ballpark as the Tarm units. Nice thing about the AHS and Tarm units is I believe they are gasifiers...meaning that since it appears your wood is not "free" you'll burn considerably less wood than a "conventional" wood boiler, so you need to factor that increased wood as an additional cost.
Have you considered a dedicated wood boiler with the existing oil unit as backup? We are also looking at this but must facor in the cost of chimney work for the additional flu. Nice thing about this is if one of the units fails and is inoperable you still have the other available...may not be the case with a combi-unit?

 

[flyboy]

I already have the double chimney, but the layout of the water pipes makes it difficult. It still may be the best option though....who makes a good gassifying wood boiler?

 

[ericjeeper]

I already have the double chimney, but the layout of the water pipes makes it difficult. It still may be the best option though....who makes a good gassifying wood boiler?

The main question to me is who makes a good affordable gassifying wood boiler?

 

[muncybob]

You may want to go here:
http://www.**********/econtent/index.php/forums/viewforum/21/

Lots of info on gassifiers. two "sales" that I know of is Tarm($500 off and free termover valve) and Econoburn(also $500 off...made in USA). There is also a dealer in Connecticut that sells Atmos boilers for really decent prices...seem to be proven European boilers but I think after the sales support would be lacking. Use the search function at The Hearth and you'll get a lot of useful info. I'm much more educated than a year or so ago...but I still can't make the decision!! We will def. do something soon though!

 

[ktm rider]

Not sure how old your AHS boiler is, but I priced them recently and their pricing now is in the same ballpark as the Tarm units. Nice thing about the AHS and Tarm units is I believe they are gasifiers?

My AHS is a multifuel boiler, not a gasifier (Wood Gun) model. A gasifier will not burn coal, which is why I bought mine. it was alot cheaper than the gasifier.

I believe the Tarm Gasifier requires a very large holding tank to get maximum efficiency out of the unit. The AHS does NOT require the holding tank.

www.Newhorizoncorp.com also offers a very nice gasifier. but I'm not sure if they require the pricey holding tank of not.

 

[cobequidkid]

It seems from my searches that wood and oil fired boilers are hard to come by. The house I am buying has an oil fired boiler feeding radiant base board heat. I would like to find a dual fuel boiler to replace it with.

The only 1 I have found is the Tarm Excell 2200. But at $12,000 it would never pay for itself unless oil was nearly $10 per gallon. I am pretty sure an oil only fired boiler can be had for around $2k.

Anyone found one of these things with a real world price?

These have a reputation for being built like a tank, not gassifiers though.

Benjamin Heating :: Home

 

[Marc]

Holy zombie thread revival. Good thing we're all well equiped with chainsaws for the zombie thread apocalypse.