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[Jon_E]

Made a big decision in a big hurry during the week between Christmas and New Year's, decided to replace my old leaky Central Boiler Classic with a brand new G200.  It arrives tomorrow!

Phase One will be a straight up swap with some temporary connections to existing plumbing and electrical.  Phase Two will be in the spring, when I can pour a new pad, rebuild my wood shed, reconfigure my layout, and get everything the way I want it.

I am looking forward to not having to worry about the possibility of catastrophic failure with the new unit.  Sadly ironic, the old OWB must have suspected it was on the way out and mysteriously slowed way down on the rate of leakage.  Too late!   

[Crow]

 Congratulations  Jon_E. 

[hondaracer2oo4]

It may have been the best hurried decision you ever made! You won't believe the reduction in wood usage if your wood supply is less than 25% mc and spilt in 4-6 inch splits.

[BIG AL]

After a small learning curve you won't be dissapointed.

[Jon_E]

It may have been the best hurried decision you ever made! You won't believe the reduction in wood usage if your wood supply is less than 25% mc and spilt in 4-6 inch splits.

Yeah, that's one thing that I have always done, in spite of the early assumptions that the old OWB's were capable of burning anything.  Admittedly, I've burned a fair share of wet wood, oversize pieces or stuff that you should simply not put in a gasifier, but that's rare.  I have always used a woodshed for the current year's firewood, and last year I finished another woodshed so that I should have at least three years of wood under a roof.  The smaller shed holds six full cords and the larger one should hold between 12-14 depending on how high I stack it.  I cut everything to 20" long and split so that I can pick up any given piece by the end with a gloved hand.

[mlappin]

Don’t be afraid to put the random chunk of unsplittable stuff in, I place the ugly stuff on top after filling per normal.

[slimjim]

Jon we are just south of Lebanon, NH. And finished with the Chip boiler but route 4 I expect to be a bit slick so we will camp out here for the night then a quick stop in Rutland in the early AM then on down to you, I would expect ETA to be around 10 AM.

[Cabo]

You are going to be very happy with both the boiler and Richard's install.  It doesn't get any better.  Sounds like you're right up the road from me Richard?

[FrozenMongrel]

I'll just echo what everyone else said. I don't think you can go wrong with both the g200 and Richard's work. I'm amazed at how easy the g200 I bought this fall is to run and maintain for a gassifier. My 1 year supply of wood I had on hand instantly became at least 2 if not 2 1/2.

[hondaracer2oo4]

Up and gassing?

[coolidge]

Jeez Honda, give the adult beverages time to cool, ohhh wait that's after.

[Jon_E]

Well, it's up and running!  Had some minor "traction" issues withe the Magic Liberty Bus    but we got that all sorted out, yanked the old Central Boiler unit (which immediately disappeared in the back of a friend's dump truck), set the new G200 and fired it up.  Wanted to use my old pumps (Taco 007) but they decided not to cooperate, leaking just as bad as the old boiler  , so replaced with new Grundfos (which is a better pump anyway). 

First photo is the old junker, second is the new unit in place (temporary until spring), third is the first firing (little smoke, mostly condensation from the cold water jacket and ambient moisture from the day and the road trip, fourth is the refractory chamber after the first load fired off.  I just missed catching the gasification burn but the little coals are still glowing.  If anyone is wondering about why we didn't put the new unit on the old slab - the piping arrangement for the old and new are completely different.  I will be putting in a new slab in the spring, if I can't convince myself to relocate the entire unit to another part of my yard, next to my garage.  The white PEX that we didn't hook up, goes to my as-yet-unfinished garage and will be hooked up soon.  The G200 appears to be oversized for the current heat load but will be perfect once I have everything else hooked up that needs to be. 

I'd been cutting and splitting all my wood to 20" and that's perfect for the G200 firebox.   

Sufficient adult beverages were consumed following the initial firing and during the "monitoring" phase of the process. 

[hondaracer2oo4]

Cant wait to hear about the reduced wood consumption!

[FrozenMongrel]

Nice! You'll enjoy running that I'm sure!

[fireboss]

Don't forget to heat that pool in the off season we swim useuly from April till October it's very inexpensive to do !