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Old 04-26-12, 06:40 PM   #1
strider3700
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Default Question for those with oil boilers for heat

I'm seriously thinking about moving. One of the places I'm looking at has a "newish" oil boiler and baseboard radiators for heat. For those of you with boilers I'm wondering if you've though of hybrid systems like using solar to heat the water or something else? This place is a very old farmhouse that appears to have been last updated sometime close to ww2 so insulation and air sealing is non existent. It does have close to 100 acres of woods included so I was thinking of adding an outdoor wood boiler to begin with, and eventually get solar water heating as well.

My thought was to have the boiler, the wood boiler and the solar all work on preheating a collecting tank of water that would then be pushed through the rads at first, pex tubing added to the floor eventually. The control system would be interesting but I think it's doable. My goal would be to have solar carry the majority of the heating during the shoulder seasons, the wood boiler after that for most of the winter and the oil as backup for when we're not there to feed the wood and the solar can't keep up.

Has anyone done or seen anything like this? thoughts?

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Old 04-27-12, 09:32 AM   #2
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Default Wood works, but it takes work (and time)

With the price of oil these days ($4 per gallon), you don't want to be burning a lot.
We are using 1/2 gallon a day and it's costing us $2 a day (at today's prices).

If you have tons of wood and tons of time to chop it, adding an outdoor HX sounds good.
(My oil burner can also use solid fuel).
You could leave the oil burner operational as a back-up. (Peace of mind).
You could put one of these Wood boiler heating systems intelligently engineered by Tarm Biomass » HS Tarm Solo Innova »
in your basement, and forget the outdoor boiler.

Adding a big storage tank may allow you to pre-heat the water when you have some spare time..




Or, if you can seal up the house and add insulation, your area should be ASHP friendly. (Think Inverter Mini-Split).
http://meetoncruise.com/ports/images/vancouver_temp.jpg
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Old 04-27-12, 11:43 AM   #3
strider3700
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thanks for the reply. The new house is actually on the far side of the country. About 6000 km's from here... it's not alaska cold but it is colder then here. Also electric power there is close to 3 times the cost here. about 18 cents/kwh. Still cheaper then oil which should be close to $5.50/gallon.
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Old 04-27-12, 12:18 PM   #4
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At 18 cents/kWh, an inverter ASHP could handle a major part of the heating season, without breaking the bank.

Even during the colder parts of the winter, if the day time temperatures get up above -13C,
it could give you a break from feeding a fire.

Since we have solid fuel capability, we might end up using wood again someday.
If our government continues on it's current path, I foresee a time when
we may not be able to afford to buy luxury items like fuel oil and extra KW hours..

Of course, the local supplies of wood might not last very long with millions
of people feeding ineffective fireplaces..
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Old 04-27-12, 12:51 PM   #5
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Yeah the place I'm looking at is 100 acres about 90 of that is covered in hardwood. If I'm careful about my harvesting I'll never run out of wood and the forest will barely miss what I remove. The area around it is surrounded by big forested plots as well.

My big old ASHP at the current house does a great job keeping the bills down. I suppose I'm spoiled though only spending about $40 a month to heat the place in winter. Insulation that I added after the first winter cut the bill in half... I see a lot of insulating in my future if we make this move.
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Old 05-14-12, 12:27 PM   #6
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Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by strider3700 View Post
I was thinking of adding an outdoor wood boiler to begin with, and eventually get solar water heating as well.

Has anyone done or seen anything like this? thoughts?
I designed a similar system for a coworker way back when. A wood boiler heated an 1100 gallon water tank, with gas boiler backup. The wood boiler was in the house next to the tank.

The control system was fairly simple. He had a four zone hydronic system with a thermostat for each zone. As long as he kept an eye on the tank temperature, and fired up the wood boiler as needed, each zone stayed at the setpoint temperature.

A fifth thermostat was in a central location. That thermostat was set to a lower temperature and controlled the gas boiler. If the tank temperature dropped too far to maintain temperature in the house, the gas boiler automatically kicked on.

He could keep the gas boiler from kicking by building a wood fire once a day in the evening if the outside temperature was above zero degrees F. If colder than that, he built a small fire in the morning.

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