[RE-wrenches] Outdoor woodstove/furnace and solar

[Ron Young]

I have one customer that has built his own system using an old woodstove with a series of buried interconnecting 4" air pipes and small computer fans that he picked up in a surplus store. It needs some tlc on a regular basis but at 4500' in the mountains of western British Columbia (i.e. pretty far north) he has tomatoes growing in his greenhouse in October. But I'm looking for systems that are pre-packaged like the Central Boiler brand that David Katz recommended and any specific experiences with power consumption and the viability of it off-grid.

Ron Young

On 2012-07-05, at 4:24 PM, R Ray Walters wrote:

> It definitely can work;  the old house I'm in now has a 100 yr old radiator system (not steam) that has 2-1/2" main lines. No pumps.  Every single pipe in the system has a slight  fall all the way to the boiler in the basement.
> 
> Ray
> 
> On Jul 5, 2012, at 6:14 AM, <dan at foxfire-energy.com> <dan at foxfire-energy.com> wrote:
> 
>> Seems I once ran into an off grid customer that had an outdoor wood boiler set up energy free.. the boiler itself is physically located below (Down hill) from the house and is plumbed with like 2" Pex so it uses gravity to circulate and a smoke stack tall enough (and insulated) to conjure a decent draft. they also have hot water lines running out to the diesel gen set for co generating heat. (Both for gen set block heating and for dumping exhaust heat). For thermal storage, they have an old dairy bulk tank in a walled off room with truck radiators in the tank connected to manifolds out side the room. the whole room was filled with recycled styrofoam peanuts. the tank loop is connected to the boiler, a kitchen wood stove and a radiant slab, the radiator manifolds are connected closed loop to SHW on the roof and domestic hot water. Yes, he's an old Vermont Yankee farmer.
>> 
>> db
>> 
>> Dan Brown
>> Foxfire Energy Corp.
>> Renewable Energy Systems
>> (802)-483-2564
>> www.Foxfire-Energy.com
>> NABCEP #092907-44
>> 
>> 
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Outdoor woodstove/furnace and solar
>> From: David Katz <dkatz at aeesolar.com>
>> Date: Wed, July 04, 2012 11:05 pm
>> To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>, RE-wrenches
>> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>> 
>> I have a Central Boiler brand of outdoor wood furnace.  It has an electric damper that has to be powered whenever the fire is burning, which draws about 50 watts and a small circulator pump that draws a bit less than 100 watts.
>> I stopped using it years ago because it consumed so much wood, but it worked great.  It was a great way to get rid of pallets.
>> Unfortunately it was most needed whenever there was not much sun, so it definitely increased generator run time.
>> David Katz
>> 
>> Sent from my HTC smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!
>> 
>> 
>> ----- Reply message -----
>> From: "Ron @ earthRight Solar" <solareagle at solareagle.com>
>> To: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>> Subject: [RE-wrenches] Outdoor woodstove/furnace and solar
>> Date: Wed, Jul 4, 2012 4:48 pm
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Hi Wrenches,
>> 
>> Have a client who wants to install an outdoor wood furnace for hydronic heating in his shop and home. Wondering if any have had experience with these. It seems like an intensive off-grid load because of fans and/or pumps. Any experience or model recommendations is appreciated, thanks!
>> 
>> Ron Young
>> earthRight - Solareagle
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