indoor wood boiler

[outdoorsman0490]

Hey Guys,

looking into getting an indoor wood boiler. we recently moved from our 1150 square foot ranch, which I ran my hotblast 1300 with forced hot air. We now live in a 2400 square foot colonial, with a huge unfinished basement, not part of that square footage. We are going to be in this house for the next 20+ years, and I want to have our domestic hot water, and our hot water baseboards heated by wood instead of oil. I have done some research and have an idea of how I will hook it all up, and what goes into that process.

The model I am interested in is the Royall 6150 NS, but I would like to hear any feed back from people with it, or comparable models. Our house is pretty well insulated, and I can set up a dump zone either in the basement or the garage. I have my own tree service, so wood supply is not a problem. Also, where we are, there is only maybe 1 neighbor who would really see the smoke; its pretty woodsy where we are. I looked into the orlan eko-25, they seemed priced pretty well. I watched the guys video on you-tube, and I didn't really like that you need to store the wood for 2 years split and stacked and have a moisture content of 0; and I don't really want to only burn 4 cord a year. I was burning about 1 cord a month with my hotblast; and that was still not much in terms of work on my end.

What do you guys think; I know there is a Royall dealer in southern mass, prob a little over an hour from me.
If someone has this unit, what is your wood consumption and burn times.

Thanks

 

[NSMaple1]

I'm not familiar with the Royall, but can give some general stuff on boilers.

They are different animals from stoves & furnaces, having a liquid cooled firebox. That makes them very good creosote generators. So looking for long burn times from a boiler comes at the expense of long periods of smoldering & creosote production. There are ways to reduce that. Using dry wood is one, but that should be done anyway. (Moisture content of 0 is impossible BTW. 20% is about ideal). Keeping the boiler up to temp and the return temps above 140 is another. But periods of idling/smoldering will still make it. So the best setup for a boiler is to also install storage. That way it can burn wide open until the fire is out - then you draw heat from storage until you need to burn again. Combined with a gasifier like an Eko, and you will have no creosote issues. I used to have to clean my chimney with my old boiler 3-4 times a year, now with a gasifier & storage I haven't cleaned it in 3 years. And have no smoke. Storage won't work for everybody though, comes down to your situation & space & handiness to hook it all up.

So trying to burn green or wet wood with a boiler won't work as decently as trying to burn it with a furnace like a Hotblast. Even a gasifier like an Eko can creosote up & need regular cleanings if not used with storage & if using wet/green wood. A non-gasifier would be somewhat worse. And ranking by burn times isn't a good measure.

Hopefully you'll hear from some Royall people.

 

[Higs2013]

I've entertained doing this myself and I have look into wood gasification boilers from Tarm
Here is the link whole setup is real pricey
http://woodboilers.com/hs-tarm-solo-innova-50.html

 

[outdoorsman0490]

the video on you tube of the guy with the EKO boiler all hooked up, a 20 min video or so, said he has about 10K total investment into his system. For that much of a total initial investment, I would think that getting a bigger wood furnace, like the fire chief 700 or the shelter version, and spending a couple hundred in ductwork, having an initial investment of about 2500, and saving that $7500 extra towards using fossil fuel over the next 20 years I am in this house.
Anyone ever put the hot water coil into the wood furnace? would you hook that into a small hot water tank and tie it into your DHW?

 

[stratton]

Outdoorsman0490, Sorry for the late question but i just saw this post. Hey did you ever install the royal??? If not what unit did you go with?? Luke

 

[outdoorsman0490]

I just ran the hotast this past winter. Planning on getting the shelter furnace for this winter, the house is too big for the hotblast I have. I had central air put in the house, and I am going to be able to duct the plenum from the wood furnace into the ac ducts.

 

[stratton]

Outdoor, sounds good....