I can relate buddy. I’ve bought quite a few triaxle loads over the last 16 years & it’s a great help but it’s still a lot of work.
A different point of view.... Can you invest the new boiler money in "tightening" and insulating both houses? I once read something while I was making building decisions. I don't remember the exact wording but as close as I can get is; the more you pay attention to your insulation and air infiltration, the less your source and type of heating system matter's. That stuck with me during our build as it's hard to stick to this thinking (and spending) in the summertime. Insulation, and I'm not talking about fiberglass, is the gift that keeps on giving! Anyways this might delay a newer gasser boiler until it "chits the bed". FWIW I don't have half the heat load as you, but do heat our small house and 40x64x16 shop (house upper 70's and the shop 60) including dhw here in Maine with 6 (128 c/f) cords a year with our indoor gasification boiler.
We have done some updating on insulation during different projects but I’m sure we could do even more. I also would be interested in what the efficiency ratings would on our boiler vs yours. I bet there is quite a significant difference. Thanks for your suggestions. I do get focused on one thing & forget about other things that ugh they help reduce wood consumption.
My hats off to you guys that are able to cut and spilt that amount of wood. Even if I had to buy that much wood, It would be hard to come out for me. Time is precious and with raising three kids and keeping the house up and the honey do list, There is no way it would profit me to put that kind of time into it.
That’s a lot of wood. I’ve seen coal boilers that have 1 ton hoppers. Can run for weeks without loading.
Wow, I don't feel so bad using 10 cord a winter now, hats off to you for doing that much firewood a year but if you use 25 cord of wood I can't imagine what it would cost with propane! How many times a day do you have to fill it?
I couldn’t agree with you more about time being precious & investing that time in your children’s lives. We only get that opportunity once & although it sometimes seems long in the day to day trials when they are young those years go by so quickly.
We fill it twice a day. Once in the morning after chores & same thing in the evening. About 2 heaping 6 cu.ft. wheelbarrows.
We may have had this conversation before Dennis but was this in your childhood years with your parents or on your own later in life or perhaps both?
In childhood then I worked on a few other farms. Basically done with it shortly after getting married. So we are talking 50's and 60's. I had a fallout with the guy I was working for so hired on with a fellow who owned a feed grinder and went farm to farm. I ran that for a couple years then except for helping my FIL I was done farming. We talked long and hard about going bigger but the debt scared both he and I.
[QUOTE="Farmchuck, post: 1341404, I also would be interested in what the efficiency ratings would on our boiler vs yours. I bet there is quite a significant difference. [/QUOTE] I really wouldn't have a guess, but all the gasses that without gassification is basically what creosote is and I understand that's a good portion of the woods btu's. I only have a fine dust in a section of my chimney pipe that's close to horizontal for about 7'. Same for the clean out drawer, just a fine dust so in my thinking, everything that could burn has. I'm sure there's some information about this on the internet somewhere that's not part of a sales pitch.
This makes me think a gasification boiler would be a significant advantage, (with a couple 500gal storage tanks) BUT... would require wood that is "properly seasoned". Which would make for a tough transition. (I haven't heard of anyone with an owb "seasoning" their wood to 20-25%)
People heating large buildings, greenhouses, etc. use them. May be something you want to consider for the future if you have the equipment. Would save an enormous amount of time. I have zero vested interest in this company. It's just the first website that came up in google search. May be worth looking here or at other comparable units? The Log Boiler - Top Load Wood Boilers
I know there is a company or two out there making "whole log" top loading gasifiers...what I don't know is how well they actually work, since we all know there is no way a whole log would ever be under 20% (dead standing ash may get close though) might be a reasonable compromise between old school OWB and new? I think, not sure though, that there is a small company in PA that makes a top loading gasser...called the Conestoga Champion...not much info online about them...we had looked at one of their standard front loaders at an equipment show a few years back...seemed to work well, but in the end it was just too much money to gamble on a small company that may or may not be around tomorrow. These guys seem to have some sort of tie to the Conestoga Champion line Country Folks Business Directory - Country Folks Business Directory about the only thing I can find online about them...I don't think these guys are Amish, but they seem to run their company like they are! (no online footprint)
The manufacturers will tell you only seasoned wood but you can burn marginally seasoned wood in a OWB gasser no problem. I think they say that to meet their air quality claims. You get a little smoke compared to the dry stuff but not a big deal at all. As for gasser vs conventional, I have very little doubt you would cut your wood consumption in half. I used to burn an old wood stove in the house then switched to a gasser outdoor boiler. I burn half the wood plus I now get DHW. My FIL heats about twice the sq ft with his gasser vs my BIL and his 6048 on about the same amount of wood.
I believe the same goes for cat vs non-cat wood stoves. (Although a lot of people won't/don't believe thats possible. Because they believe their hundred year old black box is the best...)
I would tend to agree with the above...my brother doesn't have much wood that is more than 1 yr CSS (more like 6 mo) and he is finding that their HeatMaster G10k is doing fine on it (nothing dripping wet though...I'm sure that would not work out well at all) They fired this thing up mid November after plucking the CB 6048 off the pad and replacing it with the G10k...he (brother) said a week or two ago that its looking like a 60% reduction in wood usage. Been able to do once per day fills, instead of twice. (firebox is much smaller too) For me, living down the street, it takes a bit of getting used to driving by and you can't tell if the boiler is running or not...there was always a tell tale trail of smoke from the CB...and sometimes a cloud blowing across the road that people were braking/slowing before driving through The HM G10k either has nothing coming out the stack, or sometimes just a light trail of steam.
Man, thats awesome. 60% reduction is incredible! I'm having a bit of trouble understanding the "log boiler" using seasoned logs though...
