Are the newer style gasification boilers less troublesome?

I thought about putting a UPS in the back of my boiler cabinet. On a G4000 there just isn't enough room to put one that can run everything for more than a few minutes. I'm not sure how the batteries would do in the cold ( <40F ) too.

 

Should be ok...probably doesn't get that cold in there with everything that is going on there (unless you did a really good job of insulating)
I have some UPS units in unheated outdoor control panels at work...no issues, not a huge load on them though either.

 

I took a before and after pic of loading this afternoon. Didn’t rake any ashes and filled it up with my usual ugly chunks of all shapes and sizes. Closed the door and done. Not saying this to brag, just showing that nothing special is needed for my unit.

 

How are pieces that are large gassing enough for your boiler to function properly ? The more surface area you have for the wood to be charred on the more wood gas you make.

 

I don't know. Let me start by saying this is the only owb I've owned. I went with a gasification unit because I live on 1.5 acres in a neighborhood where we all have similar sized lots. I was afraid of smoking my neighbors out and having them complain if I got a conventional unit. I was sold on the term "virtually smokeless" and it has lived up to that description. I bought it to get rid of junk wood that I can't sell. I had read that these could be finicky/not run properly with wood that wasn't split somewhat uniformly or with wood that was too big. I slowly introduced more odd ball and bigger chunks and realized, if I can fit it through the door (and pack small pieces around it) it will burn it with no problems. This is the 11th winter with this unit and I do bare minimum cleaning/maintenance (moving coals around, carefully positioning logs, etc.) and it just chugs along with most of my neighbors having no clue that it's burning wood to heat my house. Portage and Main has zero complaints from me!

 

Just a picture I took this morning before loading it. Thats what was left from the previous picture I posted

 

Well the smallest wood master is the clean fire 300
That they rate at 150000 btu boiler is 11,000. Next one up is the clean fire 500 at 200,000 btu hours. The 500 is about 3000$ more and I’m sure one of these 2 will heat what I need. 2300 sq ft house with 2x6 walls and 24” of fiberglass in attic and a 900 sq ft shop insulated 2x4 walls all the way around and 12-16” fiberglass in ceiling. The shop is basically half the whole garage with 10 ft walls and a flat insulated roof built inside the main peaked roof of metal garage

 

I'd go for the smaller boiler if it was me. Mine is rated at less max BTU and they say it will heat 4k of well insulated space. I'm heating 3k ( 2.200 sq ft house + 800 sq ft basement ) and it doesn't even struggle. My house has is very similarly insulated to yours.

 

Agreed...the gassers run better when they have load...so going "too big" is not an advantage

 

was looking for used ones in the area and another wood master dealer had a approximate sizing chart now I’m more confused. Basically according to the chart i should have a 500/700

 

I hate those "sq footage" sizing charts...misleading...they even admit it in their disclaimers!
What do you heat with now? Do you have heating bills from recent winters where the place was heated totally with "fossil fuel"? If so, then you can come up with a realistic BTU load...

 

It’s a propane boiler in house Weil McLain CGA gold so the older less efficient style boiler. Go through 2 500 gallon tanks a year roughly. Garage is a forced air 45,000 btu heater 2 250 gallon tanks a year there usually.

 

I have the cga 3 or 4 pretty sure it’s the 4

 

Is that a hanging "unit heater"? (typical garage heater) probably 80% efficient if so...need the efficiency rating to calculate BTU's "used" by the building...

 

So it appears that your house is using about 76,861,680 BTU's per year (propane is 91,502 BTU's/gallon...x 1000 gallons....x .84 (% efficiency) =76,861,680 BTU's to the house) Unless you have all gas appliances, then some of that is going to them too...but probably not a ton...most of the "heavy use" would be taken up by the OWB, as long as you tie in for your DHW too...
How long would you say your heating season is...from when the heat often starts running (more than once/twice per day) to when its basically over? (on average)

 

45,000 btu heater in shop. Heating season varies usually October to may ob average

 

500 gallon tank only holds about 400 gallons in actual use. They fill to about 80% only

 

When looking at the ratings make sure you make your buying decision on size is based off of the steady state BTU's / 8 hour burn rate the boiler provides. A G4000 can max out at around 100k but the steady state is 68k. My toaster bank on my geo is 55k BTU so I knew I'd be good with the boiler that provided the 68k steady state.

This is for temps <10F or 0F in my case.

 

the clean burn 300 & 500 ratings

 

I'm heating 1800 house, 1800 sq basement (lightly insulated), 500 sq garage to 60*. Even down to 0 my boiler doesn't even get challenged. I'm going to hook a 1000 sq ft shop up soon, but even then it won't be pushed anywhere near capacity. Here are the specs on it:


5,000sq.
Max burn 232,000/hr
8 hour burn 112,000 BTU/hr
Water 195 gallons
Firebox 28 x 30 x 36