indoor wood boiler

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outdoorsman0490

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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
 
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.
 
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?
 
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.
 

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