+1 for Central Boiler. Good dealer here, and great service from the factory, and they make good on the warantees. Also good quality steel and welding, as well as build quality. They also work as designed and they do not smoke much with a good factory supplied stack height.
As for antifreeze in the boiler loop, that will keep the lines from freezing. Note that antifreeze reduces the heat transfer capacity of water. So it is less efficient if you use antifreeze in boiler lines. If you are going away in winter, you may have to use antifreeze there in PA. If you do, use propylene glycol and not ethlyene glycol. Ethenyne glycol is far more toxic. Or do not use it and pay someone to go by and toss in wood while you are gone, and keep your house from freezing in winter. I wood.
Your domestic hot water heater (DHW) will also work as a backup anti-freeze heating supply for the boiler loop. If the boiler goes out, and the water gets cold, the heat stored in the DHW will reverse and heat the boiler loop and boiler water. That will last for a few days, then it will all freeze up. The Hx action will reverse even if you have antifreeze in the lines though. I suppose that you can get frozen water in the DHW Hx lines from a sub freezing antifreeze lines running into your DHW Hx, and it would probably freeze the water side of the lines in the DWH sidearm or flat plate, and potentially explode the plumbing. Not good.
opcorn:
Also the CB site is correct in plumbing the DHW heat exchanger (Hx) in front of the home heating Hx. The hot water heater makes better use of higher temp water. Also you can use water to water (W2W) or water to air Hx for house heating. I have plumbed both. I would recommend using Flat Plate Hx for the DHW and W2W hydronic floor heating. I do not plumb the floor loop like they have in the CB pages. I use a Flat Plate Hx between the boiler loop and the house hydronic floor heating loop, and use a mixing valve to temper the floor loop temp. Otherwise it gets way too hot, and the temp varies in the boiler loop too much.
BTW: Woodmaster was our second choice. Taylor did not make the final cut. We asked a lot of energy comapnies, plumbers, and people with boilers on the MEN site. Almost all recommended CB or WM. I recommend CB highly.
