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[Belknap]

I am looking to buy a OWB.  I live in NH and want to heat my barn and log home.  Around 8000 sq ft. total.  I have force HW in house and radiant in the barn.  I was looking at the P&M 350 but heard they were having problems with their firebox rusting out.  Does anyone know about this and is anybody running the 350.

[boilerman]

With 8,000 ft which includes a radiant barn to heat, you are going to want all the btu you can get, in a NH winter environment. The Central Boiler Eclassc 3200 has the highest btu output of any EPA qualified furnace listed on the EPA site. The P&M 350 is about the same size output as the CB Eclassic 2400. I run a 2400 and love it, but I think you would be working it flat out with that heatload.

[MattyNH]

 Well if you decide you want to look at the Central Boiler..Great dealer in Dover..Janco Classic Wood Boilers.. Bruce Poulin, great guy..Me being a non Central Boiler owner..He helped me out.. (603) 767-3729 is the #.. I personally don't know anyone that owns a P&B boiler..Ive seen the set ups at the Fryeburg Fair..Seems to be a well built boiler..I don't know anything about the fire boxes rotting out.. Where about in NH you live? Im assuming in Belknap county lol.. I live in Belknap county...You got a lot of options of boilers out there!

[Belknap]

I live in Gilford, NH.  I have been doing some research and also looking at the emypre 400 pro series.  The only thing that bothers me is the water jacket only holds 115 gallons which does not seem like very much.

[boilerman]

Belknap, since you are talking about what may be a large amount of infloor heating, a small 115 gal water jacket would concern me as well. That 400 size model would also be in the Eclassic 2400 and P&M 350 size catagory. The E3200 can give you 100,000 more btu's than those models. I know that very few owners are happy when undersized.

[MattyNH]

I live in Gilford, NH.  I have been doing some research and also looking at the emypre 400 pro series.  The only thing that bothers me is the water jacket only holds 115 gallons which does not seem like very much.

Well howdy neighbor..Alton here.. Well less water your gonna have a way quicker recovery time than reheating a boiler that holds a huge amount of water..If the boiler specs out to heat the sq footage your wanting to heat..You shouldn't have a problem..

[Belknap]

Boilerman have you been happy with the e2400?

[J Cooch]

Bigger is almost always better. Do not undersize. Spend the money to save the aggrivation. You will not regret the decision in the long run. You will not be happy when it hits -15 and your boiler is tapped out.

[boilerman]

Belknap....I'm currently into my 3rd heating season with my E2400. Has ran awesome with no problems or issues.

[willieG]

rough guess would be 320,000 btu per hour and that would go up with high cielings or poorly insulated areas

if this guess was close, you should likely size your OWB to 1 1/2 times your heat load  so you would be in the area of 480,000 btu per hour

like i said this is a rough guess, you should do a heat loss on your heating areas and come up with a better idea of your actual needs

im not sure how hot you want to keep your barn (that could get your heat load down some) but radiant floor heat  may only produce about 30 btu per square foot (depending on the size of floor loop pipes and length) if your barn is not very tight (inuslated well) you may require more heat that that

[Belknap]

Thanks for all the great input.  The house is a ranch style log home with finish basement.  I have oil forced hw for heat and dhw about 1150 sq ft. per floor.  The breezeway between the barn and house is 325 sq ft with radiant heat under the wood floor supplied from the gas fired wall hung boiler in barn.  The barn has radiant in the slab for the first floor which is 2700 sq ft. and 10 ft. ceiling.  The second floor is going to have radiant under the floor which is also 2700 sq ft..  I have 2 x6 walls with r-19 batt and then I am going over the whole thing with 1/2 rigid foil faced insulation.  The ceiling is cathedral about 12' high.

One other thing I am thinking about doing is adding solar hot water off the boiler.  I had thought about doing solar hot water before the boiler but then I saw people using the boiler for storage which I thougt was a good idea.  Does anyone have any ideas on this thought?

I have been reading alot about different boilers and everyone seems to have positives and negatives.  The empyre seems to be a good boiler but the storage is only 115 gallons.  If I was to put solar on this I think I would have to add storage.

Any feedback on these ideas would be greatly appreciated. 

[Scott7m]

You could add solar, it doesn't take a huge unit to make enough btu for domestic hot water, i personally however prefer the ones with there own storage tank, even though I already have the boiler.  Why, I'd because you have to have a near ideal situation for the boiler and evacuated tubes to work well in conjunction, boiler must be higher than solar Heater and so on.  One thing I like about the ones with permanent tanks is putting them up on the roof to keep them away from debris from lawn mowers etc, also there are many tubes that simply can't handle hail storms, regardless of what they say.

  The smaller water capacities are that way for a reason.  I'm running an empyre phase 2 right now and it nay holds 60 gallons, works flawlessly though.  Often times folks think more water means more efficiency and that's far from the truth. 

[MattyNH]

You could add solar, it doesn't take a huge unit to make enough btu for domestic hot water, i personally however prefer the ones with there own storage tank, even though I already have the boiler.  Why, I'd because you have to have a near ideal situation for the boiler and evacuated tubes to work well in conjunction, boiler must be higher than solar Heater and so on.  One thing I like about the ones with permanent tanks is putting them up on the roof to keep them away from debris from lawn mowers etc, also there are many tubes that simply can't handle hail storms, regardless of what they say.

  The smaller water capacities are that way for a reason.  I'm running an empyre phase 2 right now and it nay holds 60 gallons, works flawlessly though.  Often times folks think more water means more efficiency and that's far from the truth.

I 100% agree with you on that...My boiler only holds 60 gallons of water as well...Real quick recovery time..Less water more efficiency..No different than my oil boiler..

[martyinmi]

  The smaller water capacities are that way for a reason.  I'm running an empyre phase 2 right now and it nay holds 60 gallons, works flawlessly though.  Often times folks think more water means more efficiency and that's far from the truth.

Right again,Scott.

There are a lot of boilers out there that just sit and smolder and only cycle a few times/day. I looked over a good sized one at Christmas time that has a 400+ gallon capacity. There had to have been nearly a half inch of creosote all over the ripples on the top and on the sides. This fella has nearly the same heat load as I do, but he burns WAY over twice the wood. When he loads it in the evening you ought to see it smoke when it cycles the first time.