Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: Bluegrass Wood Burner on February 09, 2018, 04:25:36 PM
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I'm thinking of moving my boiler this coming off season. It's too close to the house and the smioke has stained the corner of my roof overhang. Also staying muddy and messy where I'm moving firewood in to boiler area all the time. What is your estimation of the cost to move it around 75 feet and what kinda difficulties am I faced with in splicing? I just have the 4 pipe wrapped , 2 blu 2 red with electric power cord inside. It's 1 inch pex. One red going to heat exchanger in air handler the other going to hot water heater 2 blues as returns. I should have thought this out more when I put it in but I was in a hurry. We bought the house at auction and wanted the heat installed asap.
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This is what I have and will be installing it. I'm hoping there is a kit for splicing.
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I would just replace the existing line so you don't have any splices. Otherwise you are risking it all (old and new) getting ruined if it leaks.
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I would go all new also. Nothing worse than heating the ground for no reason. It sucks having to bury a line again.
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I agree, if you're as close as you sound like to the house it seems hardly worth splicing outside as was mentioned. I'd splice just inside.
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Only other options are
1. putting another section of pipe on the stack to get it above my roof edge.
Option#2 Is to pour a new pad and completely turn boiler around so its facing away from house and that would get the smoke stack further away from the house.
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Definitely no splices underground!..
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Bluegrass- how many feet do you have buried right now? In other words, how much would you be obandoning?
One thought, you should be able to replace with two lines instead of 4, unless you have a copper domestic coil in the owb. One set of lines can run the occasional draw of a flat plate and your steady heat load.
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Haste always makes waste in hindsight. Having gone the "budget" screwup route, my fix was to use 6" PVC pipe. The bends are expensive, but if you can use a straight run you might get out for slightly over $5/foot. I was able to cram two pair of 5 wrap lines through the 6"pvc (minus the corrugated pipe), it was a SOB at 35 degrees and by myself, but it's in the ground and sealed, and if the line were warm and flexible it may be possible to pull it all out and replace if needed - without digging. If you were set on using what you have and splicing, this is would be my approach.
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I would also stay away from splicing. The corrugated stuff is near impossible to keep from leaking with an underground splice and once there's water in it, it's junk. I also don't much care for the idea of the domestic coil in the stove- flat plates are cheap and much easier to deal with than 2 extra lines in the ground IMO. If it were mine I'd either just abandon the existing line in place or dig it up and sell it, then install a foamed line such as Thermopex or Rehau, perhaps Logstor if it's cost effective (32mm is overkill in many short run applications like this unless the heat load is large) to the new location. Then add a 20 or 30 plate exchanger in the house for domestic water, to simplify the system
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That foil wrap pipe is worthless...
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I have foil wrap and have done temp loss on both of my runs. My 95 ft run has less than one degree temp loss and my 150 ft run is 1-2 degree loss. It is buried 6 ft deep but it has worked very well for me.
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125' Foil wrap here, working good. Need to keep it dry. Neighbor has 90' laying on top of ground for 3yrs, doesn't seem to burn an excessive amount of wood.
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For most people the foil type will fail after a while, some get lucky, if you can keep all the moisture out of it, it may work for a while but eventually, the tile will crack or condensation will fill the pipe and cause tremendous heat loss. Putting it 6 ft in the ground will get rid of all the symptoms but can be really problematic when the pipe fills with water. Do yourself a favor and get a decent product, Thermopex is now available in a 25 mm size that works well for many applications and has a lower cost.
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Very few people are happy with the foil wrap for more than a few years.....
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I prefer to think of foil wrap as a fine product, they ship it in a protective corrugated plastic pipe for protection which should be removed before use. What you put the foil wrapped lines in is up to the purchaser; preferably something leak and crush resistant.
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If it was just for shipping protection, they would use the cheap drain tile. The stuff most companies use is quite a bit stronger and more expensive than the standard stuff.
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I was being facetious.
The stuff makes great drain pipe though, gave some of mine to a coworker, he loved it.
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This whole debate on foam v. bubble/foil has one thing I keep noticing. The guys up north where water ponds near the surface during the spring thaw have issues with flooding the corrugated pipe.
People in the mountains or further south seem to not have those issues. I'm beginning to think that the spring thaw in flat terrain is where the flooding is coming from.
Just a thought as to why there are mixed reviews.
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Well I know if I need to move it now is the time to do it. Just want to be sure of some things. My son is a concrete pourer and finisher and will be pouring my pad. The back of the boiler will only be turning 45 degrees from where its at now so the pipes in the current pipes in the ground are good and the connections will be easy made. No splices will be needed. I don't have a pad now just two footers so I'm gonna have a 12x12 pad poured over the top of the current footers. Basically the boiler will just turn in a different direction. My plans are to drain all water out of boiler, disconnect all pipes and electrical wires, move the boiler completely out of the way, form up the pad, put a section of drain pipe around all the pipes coming out of ground as water tight as I can make it, dig all dirt down to 6 inches below top of form and remove dirt. Put 3 inches of dense grade gravel in the pad form and pack well. Put a cattle panel section cut to length instead of rebar. Pour the slab and replace boiler to proper place. Hooking everything back up as normal.
Any suggestions on any of this would be appreciated and considered.
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Attached is a diagram of before and after
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:pic:
Picture of how it is now
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Try again.
Picture of before
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Would you have a pic of the back of the furnace? Where the piping enters?
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Attached is a diagram of before and after
My phone can't open that format.
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Ill try. Not good at picture attachments
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two more angles
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Good pictures.
That's a beast of a recirculation pump. :)
Sounds like you got a plan there. If you have any plans of running another line into the stove at some point you might want to form a section separate that could be lifted out to ditch in another line. A lot of times we just overhang the back of the stove over the edge of the pad so adding a line isn't an issue. Life always seems to bring something new.
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That recirculating pump is coming off. When I hook the boiler back up the return line is coming into that side at the bottom. I'm having mixing problems with temps being inconsistent. The Armstrong pump was over kill to the problem. Ended up costing me an arm and leg in extra electric bill.
Back to the pad. So you feel I should not pour around the pipes that come up out of the ground. But let the pad come right up to the edge?
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I remember you mentioning the mixing pump last winter.
As far as the pad goes, I'm not sure how the legs on the furnace are. If they are coming right off the tank in front of the piping I wouldn't see a reason to pour around the pipes and block yourself in. Your preference.
The picture shows how I usually overhang the stove.
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Overhang the back of the stove then but down weed barrier and cover with septic stone, river rock, or pea gravel
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Thanks for the tips. Ill keep you posted