Testimonials
The wood boiler works great! I think it's the smallest one you sell. It easily heats our house, which is 2450 sq. ft., and if I would have had a little more time and a bit longer piece of the insulated boiler piping it would easily heat my shop as well. That's another 40 x 28 x 10' room size. All the hot water is just a bonus.
The water heater is heated with the 20 plate exchanger. Mounted vertically, the right side top fitting takes hot water in from the boiler while the lower right sends hot water out to the furnace exchanger. The bottom left fitting goes to the new circulating pump, which draws from the drain valve port on the bottom of the water heater. That water is pumped up to the plate exchanger, out the top left fitting, and back to the port that also has the pressure relief valve. All the connections to the water heater are with tees. So we have a continuous loop of hot water from the bottom of the water heater, through the new pump, through the plate exchanger, and then back to the water heater. It is pretty much the way you drew it out, except I spliced in the new pump instead off waiting for gravity to do it.
Just strictly based on $$, we've heated with the boiler for 5 weeks solid. We've used a little over a rick of paid for wood, which at that price was/is about $55.00. So we have a heat bill of $55.00 for 5 weeks or roughly $11.00 per week. In really cold weather, like this time last year, we spent about $250.00 a month for heat, cooking, clothes drier, and water heater. That's $62.50 per week for LP! Take out maybe $15.00 for the LP to cook, dry clothes, heat water, and we have $47.50 per week for heat alone. FOUR TIMES the cost of the wood we burned (although it hasn't been as cold yet). Even if the number does get tweaked a little as we get colder outside, there's no way that we are going to burn 1 2/3 cords of wood in a month -- so we'll continue to save.
Dave in Michigan
Update:
Just to let you know how things are working out with the boiler, I'll give you the short version. Best investment we've made in a long time! It’s a lot of work cutting the logs, but not entirely a pain. It's nice to get out and do something different and be outdoors.
In the last month, temps have been in the range of 0-f to low 30's. On average we load the boiler at 8:00 pm and it goes until noon or later without refilling. A load of wood is the width of the fire box, the height of the door opening, and 16 - 18" deep. We've been burning a mixture of cherry, hard maple, and beech. We could conserve on wood by dropping the temp on the aquastat and lowering the thermostat in the house (it's at 71-72 now but this is the first winter in years that we are warm while home)! That amount of wood also heats ALL of the hot water we use. That circulating pump I put in for the water heater is terrific! No LP at all for heat or hot water.
To combat the creosote a little, we just open the firebox door once in a while and let the fire really get hot. Doesn't affect the water temp much because the door is open, but it get's hot enough to burn and turn the creosote into crusty residue which we can scrape off the firebox walls.
Dave
Update:
I just got back from logging again. We try to get out once a week. The last 3 loads averaged between 5,000 and 6,000 lbs. per load truck/trailer! We are renting a splitter on Sat. -- too many logs 20" and larger. We average about 25% wood that can be burned now, and keep the rest for the next 2 years. Glad things are working out for you. You have a great product line, and terrific service.
Dave
