Gonna buy a boiler, fill me in.

Looking at an EZBoiler, made locally, free delivery etc. I dig, they install. Bought the larger model, rated up to 7500 sq ft. I'm heating 2400. Shop is 1600 & house is 800. Three heat exchangers. 2 100,000 BTU in shop & 1 50,000 in house. Separate T Stats on each. Putting in the good pex etc. 45' of pex into building, buried 4' in a 8" corrugated pipe. I'm on a slab, so gonna come in through the wall. Ask questions & guide me please, I only wanna do this once. Thanks.

 

Heat exchangers are gonna be stand alone fan forced. I have no central system here other than the wood furnace, & that's gotta go. Too much of a space hog to leave it in the building. Two hanging heaters for shop & a horizontal for the house. Attic install.

 

I'd say don't skimp on the pex tubing from the owb to the house and to the shop. Get good insulated PEX.

 

Ordered the solid insulated stuff. Not the wrapped. Read here it's a bit harder to work with, but worth the money & time. Boiler company so far has been very helpful & gets good reviews from their existing customers. I've talked to a few. My main goal is twelve hour reloads & no wood & furnace in the shop. As well as theromstaticily controlled temp. I'm excited about this project, little apprehensive as well, big investment.

 

Going to buy a boiler or did buy one?

 

Going too, I think I've decided on the EZ boiler, but haven't paid or committed yet.

 

I was perusing the ez boiler sure. I didn't see if their boilers are an open or a closed system. Open systems are ok, but much less efficient.

 

Open system, I know they're not as efficient as a closed system, but they're also in my price range. I like the simplicity of the set up as well as having some working knowledge of these boilers. Several friends have OWB's of the open variety that I've helped feed when on vacation etc. They'll do the same for me. I expect to burn a fair amount of wood, but I already burn 10-12 cord per year. It's got to be more efficient than my 1970's wood furnace. If I can load at 12hr intervals & have even steady heat I'm happy. Another bonus is bigger splits = less time processing wood. I've got at least 15 cord that'll be anywhere from one to three years dry on site now. I can make 15-20 cord per year without too much trouble so I can stay ahead. Yes I know that sounds insane, but it's my recreation & "downtime" in the woods. I have no "neighbor issues" as far as burning & don't make much smoke anyway, even out of this old furnace. I'm really curious to see how/if my wood consumption changes drastically or not. A year from now I'll have a much better idea.

 

I would say you've definitely thought this out. Going from what you have, you'll probably be ahead wood wise with an open owb.

 

Thanks Horkn, I'm hoping to burn same or a bit less while having the convenience of the the T Stat & steady temps.
Edit: It'll be nice to have the living area in the 70's & shop in 60's for working.

 

Only thing I can add is to add a hot water heat exchanger, to heat your domestic hot water from your water heater. Ours is run through a double jacket copper tube and in the winter or electric bill actually goes down from only 2 of us showering. Also the wife loves the hot water that would cook me like a lobster straight out of the tap. As you mentioned, go with the good pipe . Previous overo skimped on ours and we have a 3-4' wide path every spring and fall that melts from the stove to the house.

 

I forgot to mention this install does include DHW as well. Plate exchanger. I have propane now, & get by easily on one tank per year, so l'm betting that drops even further.

 

I have almost the same unit as an EZ boiler. one thing I learned with the blower in the door design you have to pull that blower when you shut down the boiler for the year. also the cool door and hot fire cause water to condense on the door and drip down onto the door seal. eventually that water will work its way to the bottom of the door seal and will corrode the bottom of the door seal. which only gets worse with time. I replaced mine after 5 years of burning 30 cords a year. i replaced it with 3/8 thick hardened steel. now, I paint the lip every spring with a fresh coat of por-15. also the place those round boilers corrode is right below the door on the inside of the firebox. since that is where the ashes sit all burning season. I learned to clean the owb every spring and shop vac out all the ashes. then lay down newspapers and soak them in oil to preserve the burn chamber. the guy that told me to do that said he finds the oily newspapers the following spring when he cleans his owb. I didn't believe him until I saw the newspapers in my owb the following spring. if i could do it all over again I'd build/buy one of these owb's. HOSS Furnaces | Tennessee Outdoor Furnace most importantly they are double welded.