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[Jbuck]

Just located this site, seems to be one of the best sources of information I have found thus far.  I was lucky enought to be able to retire this past July at an early age (50) so will have the time to load an OWF twice a day, my closest neighbor is a little less than 1/2 mile away and I own the house he lives in , I also own several acres of timber so I will have acess to wood.  With this in mind I began to consider a OWF and there is a CB dealer in the county.  Stopped in to get some information from him and kind of felt like I was dealing with a window salesman.  I advised him what I wanted to accomplish and he recommended a mod. 6048, I was a little surprised by the price but not scared off, then he informed me if I committed prior to a date in January he could reduce the price by a thousand.  (I don't like this tatic,  just tell me what it takes to buy your product),  What did scare me was the fact that his estimate was double the cost of the furnace for all the equipment necessary to install it.  Guess my question is should you estimate the cost for materal to install to be about the same as what you pay for the OWF it's self?  I do want to put the unit approximately 100 feet from the house and a great deal of the cost was the underground insulated pipe he priced at $12.45 per foot so I could reduce that a bit by moving closer to the house.   Thanks and I really do find this site informative.

[woodywoodchucker]

I can tell you that these boiler heat well and work great, however you are the one that will be cutting 10 to 15 cord of wood a year and then loading the boiler atleast twice in 24 hours. And then there is atlot to learn about how to operate the boiler. Seems like no 2 are alike.I have the 5036 and wish I had gone with the 6048.I only heat my house, I have a Baxi Luna wall mount LP furnace for back up and hot water.I dont think that it would be worth the effort to hook up my demestic hw to the wood boiler.Baxi heats water so cheeply.

[NewToIt]

Hi.

In response to the cost issue,  my boiler cost me $7,000 (out the door and delivered) while the install cost me about $2,000 (+/-) more (I did install myself).  The parts for install add up fast.... $400 for water to air exchanger, $300 for water to water exchanger, hundred ft. of underground was $1000, $100 or so in pex, and what I didn't anticipate was the cost of all the fittings... every time I turned around I was buying another 10 or so brass fittings/valves at $10 a pop!  Bet I had over $400 in just that department. Oh, and I almost forgot the $700 for the heat exchanger and blower unit for the pole barn!

Despite the initial cost, I couldn't be happier with the end result.  House is warmer than it's ever been, endless hot water, and I keep the barn at 55 degrees all the time (70 when I'm out there)! 

So glad I got the next size bigger stove than was recommended.... that was my best move.  Cost was more, but I can honestly say that I can easily go 24+ hours on a single fill.  Haven't had to fill in the morning yet.... I just rake the coals around before I chuck some wood in every evening and its good to go (helps with ash build up as well). Some may call me a liar, but I speak the truth.  Keep in mind that my house is easy to heat and barn is well insulated, and that every one's heating situation is different causing results to vary.

[rosewood]

if you want to save money and have time , build the pex your self. i did for the cost of around $220  . only get 4-5deg heat loss at 100' distance.hx 400k btu flatplate and circ,-plus fittings ,copper etc, im at maybe $1000 and thats high. however i did pay $440 for taco 14oo series pump for constant circ pump from furnace to house to bring my total up. not sure if u get one when u buy a factory built .

[R W Ohio]

Did you say 400,000 btu flatplate? What are you heating?

[Jbuck]

Thanks Rosewood, I'll keep that in mind.  R.W. I just finished looking at your son's homemade unit.  I am very impressed.

[rosewood]

r.w ...heating 2600sq ft log home. soon to be built garage with room above. flatplate is 40 plate , my heating requires 90k btu so i have more than i need for later down the road. what kind hx do you use?

[R W Ohio]

rosewood,

I use a 19X22 3/8 X 5 1/2 in. thick 140,000 btu water to air HX in the supply air of a gas furnace to heat the house. And I built a 52" sidearm for the DHW. The sidearm is 2" on the outer with a 1" copper going through the center of the 2". We started the OWB the last day of September and turned off the gas to the furnace and the water heater until June.

RW

[ckbetz]

Jbuck, from my experience if you have a better location for dropping off and loading wood to your furnace and it happens to be a little farther from your house, pay the extra and put it there.   I put mine close to the house to save on pex, trenching, electrical/gas lines, etc.  It's close enough that I can see my aquastat, I thought that would be very handy, and it is.  But it's not as easy to get wood to as I'd like.  I'm thinking of moving it for easier access this summer and also so I can install a newer, more efficient pex system. 

[Iceman]

if you want to save money and have time , build the pex your self. i did for the cost of around $220  . only get 4-5deg heat loss at 100' distance.hx 400k btu flatplate and circ,-plus fittings ,copper etc, im at maybe $1000 and thats high. however i did pay $440 for taco 14oo series pump for constant circ pump from furnace to house to bring my total up. not sure if u get one when u buy a factory built .

how do you build the pex yourself? 

[NewToIt]

I think he must be referring to the underground pipe, not the actual "pex" lines!

[Russ Brumit]

You can make your own insulated pex by wrapping the pex with solargaurd (foil on both sides with bat insulation in the middle) . First you seperate the supply and return lines with a 2" strip of foam board and then wrap the pipes with solargaurd using zip ties to secure it all together. I was told to wrap it loose. Then you will need to place this in 4" PVC pipe. I bought 20ft sections and glue all conections good . This should be placed below the frost line. I would also lay down some sand in the trench to help pull away ground water.  All said and done its around 5-6 dollars a ft.  If you need help just give me a call .

[mikenc]

Make my own underground pipe to. I used 1" pex slid 11/8'x3/4" armflex over both lines thin tie wrapped  lines together then wrapped with solar guard and tie wrapped and taped again. I also installed 3/4 make up water line to boiler. Pulled all through 6" sch 40 PVC. Buried 3/4 PVC conduit in same ditch for power supply.

[dirtryder]

The biggest enemy to heat loss in the underground pex is ground water. If you get ANY water penetration into your pipe it will suck the BTU's out like a magnet. Installing PVC is OK but if any joint should fail, break, or pull apart........ Just be careful making your own. I purchased a 250' roll of 1" O2 barrier pex wrapped in insulation and put in the black flexible drainage pipe for $4.80 a ft. I have about 3 degree loss @ 150' to my house. For me it wasn't worth the effort to make myself. Since I am not here to endorse anyone I will not post where I purchased all my "extra's" from........unless you shoot me a PM then I will be glad to. Yes, figure on a couple thousand (at least) extra for hook up parts.

[markc]

i built my own pex  underground pipe and it was quite a job everything people have said about the water sucking your btu is correct,the reason i did my own is 225 ft of what i have underground runs thru a diveway that consantly has triaxel dumptrucks thru the summer running over it so i felt i had to have schd 40 but it was about 8.00 per ft with 2 runs of pex-al-pex 1 ", schd 40 3" pipe with 3  dato slots cut in the top to put foam in 700.00 worth of closed cell slow rise high density foam and then pulled 4" corragated drain pipe over that and foamed it 30" underground for a total of 275' to house and100'to shop but in the 275' run i loose 2 degree in temp  but my boiler sits where i want it ,and all my mess is away from house
i just didnt feel comfortable with all that money in ground and big trucks going over it with out schd 40