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[nstueve]

Hey Guys,
Collecting some more info. The wife and I decided to wait this year on the boiler (currently running LP). I wanted to correctly size how many BTu unit I would need for the house...

Total Square footage = 4400sqft
Includes 1500sqft burried basement with no windows and 616sqft garage.

Right now the basement us unfinished and we don't spend much time there but eventually we want a bedroom bathroom down there. The garage us used for oil changes and if it was at 50*-60* I'd be happy.

Insulation is pretty good. There's no heat plumed to the garage, but it takes enough from the house to melt snow off the cars. We have 1000gal LP tank and have used about 1/2 of that so far this winter and it's been pretty cold and snowy here. I can't really put a # on how many gallons of LP we've used over each month but assuming about 400 this winter. From what I can tell we have 2x4 walls with roll insulation covered by late 70's verticle 3/4in wood siding with vinyl over that. Not sure if there is another layer between the vinyl and the old wood siding.   

I'm after a regular boiler b/c we don't have $10K for a Central or P&M boiler alone. No gasifier since we would probably throw paper trash in it to reduce the amount of bags we haul into town to throw away. Thinking about Earth 360 (250K) or 400 (275K).  It could be possible that this boiler would heat a hot tub in the future.  We will place within 75-150ft of the furnace to keep insulated line cost down. Will also be doing a plate or side arm exchanger for hot water heating. Will probably add individual radiant heaters to garage and living room. Living room has vaulted ceiling and we just don't get the air flow from the central HVAC system to keep temp even with rest of house. Garage doesn't have HVAC run to it so I just assumed a separate heating element in there that I can isolate and turn off and on in there when I want heat. 

I also need to stress that there won't be anyone to load it from 6:30 am-5pm. We leave for our office jobs and wouldn't be home to load it durning the day so long burn times would be nice.

Thought on boiler size??? 250K-275L (peak) BTUs enough?

Scott was helping before with sizing but now that we have a better handle on what we want and the ability of the house to keep heat in... THought a re-examination would be good.

[racnruss]

Hello fellow Iowan! 

[nstueve]

yea I am @ work right now. I'll probably be over here more in the future as I get my OWB installed. Right now I spend most of my time in the chainsaw groups since I fix/repair/modify them one the weekends.

[Scott7m]

If thats your goal to be able to load it to the gills id go with the laregest that earth offers if thats the brand your focused on. 

We dont reccomend the earth models with ash pans and even the folks at earth will tell you they like the 505 better than the 500. 

[nstueve]

If thats your goal to be able to load it to the gills id go with the laregest that earth offers if thats the brand your focused on. 

We dont reccomend the earth models with ash pans and even the folks at earth will tell you they like the 505 better than the 500.

Yea I wouldn't mind bumping up to $5600 for the big one but if you completely oversize will it burn more wood than if you had one properly sized for your house? Or will it just burn longer?

I'm hoping for 12hr burn times so I can fill once in the morning and once in the evening when I get home. And maybe add a little more at night before we go to bed. If we have errands to do in town after work I don't want to worry about running home to fill the boiler. I have a 35min commute into town so once I'm home I'm staying there and when I'm in town I want to get all the errands run that I can.

Is everyone happy with a boiler without ash pan? I guess it just makes operation for the wife easier/cleaner if she can pull the drawer and dump instead of shovel clear to the back of the boiler. What do you use to shovel out the boiler if there is no ash pan? I do have a mig welder so making a long shovel wouldn't be that hard.

[racnruss]

Hello nstueve,

I live in Des Moines, PM'd you once before too.

Just for some information that may be helpful?  but my friend Tony lives by Macksburg, Ia and just installed a Nature's comfort 250.  He is heating an old farmhouse out in the wind.  It's probably 1000 ft per floor.  2 full stories plus full basement.  He gets 24 hour burns and if above 20 he can go 36 hours.   

Now, his kids are grown so its just him and his wife using hot water and they turn house down if they are going to be gone all day.  But he is real happy with it. 

It does have ash pan which is real handy, plus the chimney extends down into the firebox almost to the bottom and it is surrounded by a water jacket.  Ive seen a new 250 for sale for $5950 in Webster city I think.

I also have a friend by Norwalk with an Auquatherm boiler.  It is a round firebox with just a hole in the top to let the smoke out. And he absolutely HATES that thing.  He can't put wood in it fast enough.  It wore him out and he finally just gave up.  It was cheap to buy and now he sees why.  So, look for the stove design that is built to try to capture as much heat off the wood as possible before letting it out the stack.  May cost a little more but worth it for burn times and wood consumption.

BTW, where are you located in Iowa?

[nstueve]

Hello nstueve,

I live in Des Moines, PM'd you once before too.

Just for some information that may be helpful?  but my friend Tony lives by Macksburg, Ia and just installed a Nature's comfort 250.  He is heating an old farmhouse out in the wind.  It's probably 1000 ft per floor.  2 full stories plus full basement.  He gets 24 hour burns and if above 20 he can go 36 hours.   

Now, his kids are grown so its just him and his wife using hot water and they turn house down if they are going to be gone all day.  But he is real happy with it. 

It does have ash pan which is real handy, plus the chimney extends down into the firebox almost to the bottom and it is surrounded by a water jacket.  Ive seen a new 250 for sale for $5950 in Webster city I think.

I also have a friend by Norwalk with an Auquatherm boiler.  It is a round firebox with just a hole in the top to let the smoke out. And he absolutely HATES that thing.  He can't put wood in it fast enough.  It wore him out and he finally just gave up.  It was cheap to buy and now he sees why.  So, look for the stove design that is built to try to capture as much heat off the wood as possible before letting it out the stack.  May cost a little more but worth it for burn times and wood consumption.

BTW, where are you located in Iowa?

I'm 2miles west of hwy 65/69 north of Indianola. Basically strait east of Theisen's Farm Store. I'm not sure of the design in the Earth boilers but when I was looking origionally I knew the NC boilers were around (winterset dealer), and there is a Heatmor? dealer (stainless I think) down on hwy 92 just east of Martensdale.

There were a couple things I learned about both boilers. First is that the NC boiler construction is outsourced to several factories; a few of which were notorious for bad welding. I'm sure this is not the case with yours. The other thing I learned about the heatmor's was that the stainsless was really thin and there were some insulation problems or something else I read about people having to fix. There is enough work and expense with a boiler that I really don't want to get one just to have to repair it right away. I was looking at a Shaver but gave that up after the questionable reports I was reading.

I just want the Toyota Camry of boilers if that makes sense??? Will last forever and work really good without breaking or needing modification right off the bat. I'm sure there are a few problems with all boilers but I wanted to get one that had very few problems reported and one in my price range. Earth has good prices, good construction, and uses quality components from what I hear. Don't get me wrong, if I find a Shaver for $1000 I'll jump on it.

Earths Woodsman 505 is 375K btu 1/2" fire box and 315gal = $5600
Natures Comfort boilers are $5000 for the 120 which is 120K btu

I realize the btu values are just the max that they peak at but a 4'x3' fire box would allow long run times on the earth. too. Not sure on the NC 250 specs. Also not sure on the Earth fire box design.     

[nstueve]

check that...

Earth's chimney stacks are inserted 1/2 way down into the burn box.

[racnruss]

We live pretty close.  Maybe I'll need some chainsaw help sometime.

The dealer in Winterset was excellent with customer service for my friend Tony.  He delivered it for free and set it on a pad that he had cast and brought with him.  Tony did most of the work but the dealer (chris) helped him hook up all the electronics and such.  I bought my sidearm hx from Chris and he builds them himself much higher quality than some and made locally.

Haven't head of any leaking NC's.  Of the three I've been around personally build quality is good.  Just sayn for about the same money you could have an ash drawer, underfire air, and a chimney extended into firebox with waterjacket surrounding chimney also in firebox.  Ridgewoods just look cheap to me, hence the aquatherm story.    I bet my buddy would sell the aquatherm cheap.  he lives south of Norwalk and you could use your skills to exetend the chimney down into firebox?