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[Sparkyt33]

Hi guys!! (and gals)

My dad had a triple bypass earlier this year, and can't walk up stairs anymore.  So his new bed in in the den.  I bought a wood stove fireplace insert to keep him toasty.

My question is...how can we pipe that scolding temp to the oil burner water tank, basically by passing the oil burner and saving thousands of $$ a year on sky high oil.

I've read a dozen posts on here about outside stoves....how hard isit for an inside stove hook up?

From reading posts in here, i figure i'll need an additional circular pump and heat exchanger?   But regulating the temp would be near impossible.   and if i let it be, i dont wanna blow the pipes. 

I'm googling around for a company that installs this sort of thing..but nadda.   I figure a grand or 2, maybe 3 to get it all working right.

Thanks for your help.   Sorry for rambling on

2004 New Yorker Low pressure oil burner.

[Scott7m]

What your talking about doing is not easy to do, and you also have to consider how poor inserts work, you would probably be shocked at how much wood you'd have to place in a insert to ever bring your boiler system up to temperature, check out YouTube and search elite 100, they are indoor boilers, simple, phase 2, just amazing little gassers that could easily do what your wanting on probably on about 1/4 the wood of something your talking about, if at all possible

[Sparkyt33]

Thanks, i did that.  About 4-6 grand on ebay.  Plus a few hundred for a plumber to hook it up.  My oil cost is about $3k a year (when prices are high) $2k when low.   Plus i figure wood cost would be 4 to 5 cords, = $700-1000 on avg. around here.   So i save a grand or 2 a year.

So would take a 3 years to break even.   Not too happy about that.  Plus forking over $6 grand up front in this economy is probably a non starter.

As to your wood consummation.  It would be the same... for my dad likes it scorching hot, so the vent is all the way open and burns way hot.   But since there's no regulator, the fire would have to be checked every couple hours to keep the temp high enough.
I m shooting in the dark here.


Actually my friends dad is doing it himself, that's how i got onto this..  Coils, and some pack he said.. dunno, all greek to me.   I'm sure his cost will be less than $500.  But i dont feel right paying him to do mine.

This is how I visualize it....

Insert woodstove fire place heats up the coil pack with water leading to and from the main water system / tank.  New (or existing) circulator moves water through the pipes.  When it hits 170 degrees, i turn on the oil burner.  Since the temp is above the burner kick on temp of 160, it shouldnt turn on.  On the sub 30 degree days, im sure the wood stove wouldnt be able to keep the temp over 160 and thus the oil burner would kick in to help out.   

I know its much more complicated than that.

[Scott7m]

Actually an elite 100 is 6995,

Your "insert" is not a gasification unit, not by any stretch of the imagination.  The elite 100 operates over 2000 degrees, an insert may get to around 900

How much heat do you think is going to go up the chimney?  I mean there are a lot of stuff your not considering, it's far more complicated than ya think..  An elite 100 can operate at 89% eff, exhaust temps on them run around 285-305 degrees