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[mlappin]

If your just heating a smaller home thats pretty well insulated, a smaller water volume would work fine. When I'm done between the wood boiler and waste oil boiler I'll have almost 700 gallons of water. Plan is in the shoulder seasons heat all that water with the waste oil, get it up to temp and shut it off for the day. Between feeding cows, hauling hay, plowing snow and what not we might go weeks at a time and not even spend ten minutes a day in the shop, but when we do need it, want to get it warm now, which where the large amount of hot water will come into play.

[woodbutcher]

Just talked to a CB dealer in my area last week. He told me he was at the CB plant and seen every kind of boiler made in there plant. They check each and everyone to look at the good points and bad. He could sell a block of ice to an Eskimo. Almost had me convince in a CB. He installs too. They have a large water jacket. The larger the sq. ft you are heating the larger the water jacket. I just don't like all the electronics on the CB. The simpler the better. I use a Taco 0011 in each building and he told me that was a waste, a 007 is all I need to run the system. I know this is not true. There are a lot of things to consider. He said it would pump to 15 ft. But did not tell you that you loose volume. At 15 ft. you are only pumping about 1-2 gal. of water.
My 0011 will pump 34 gal,/min and the higher the head the less water until you get to around 34 ft. I would rather keep the water moving than only getting around 1-2 gal,/min. out of the 007. I know everybody don't agree, but if it works don't fix it. Every salesman will tell you that there OWB are the best on the market. It's up the the individual to get all the fax's from a plumber before he make a decision on what is best for his setup.

[dukethebeagle]

i`m glad i got this storage part going.why you say.
last year i saw some talk on hear about the boiler buddy.
i would never pay for one but i had an old water heater so i tied it in.
to my suprise it did help even as primitive as it was.
now i`m no expert but full burn for twelve hours,not sure
but heat from the wood for six and lots of coals to keep the heat there.yup
i live in southern canada so -20--30 is often.so it chews up wood no matter what you heat with
we are gone 14 hours a day.80 or so gallons is not enough.
when its really cold the blower can start alot
and it seemed with more water i was able to keep the water up to temp longer after the wood was gone
have not decided what i will do yet but all the discusion sure helps.

[woodbutcher]

Slimjim
I'm aware it does take more to get the boiler up to operating temp. I start my boiler early in the fall and make sure everything is working. It sometimes takes me 2 days to get it up to the 175 degrees that is preset at the factory, I can't adjust my temp. I start it up slow, using small sticks and wood that would not be much good to burn in the winter. I believe a slow start up is easier on the boiler.You don't want to start up a boiler with a roaring fire. Once the water is up to the 175 it don't take a lot of wood to keep it at that temp. I'm not restarting the boiler every time the temp drops, it only drops to 170 degrees and then it kicks in. I'm glad everybody has and onion on thick firebox, stainless verses steel, and large water jacket verses small jacket. Whatever your preference, you do have a choice. If it weren't for different choices we would all be driving the Henry Ford car. Same goes for boilers, we have a choice, and everyone has an opinion on what is the best way to go. Maybe if I had a boiler with a small water jacket from the start, I would prefer that over the large one I have now.   

[Sprinter]

Water jacket size alone has zero bearing on efficiency.
The calculation requires water volume AND wood volume in cubic feet. And this only gives you a total btu output, NOT a btu per hour figure.
This is where your max GPM flow and lbs of fuel per hour come into play, divided by the net firebox volume over lbs of fuel per hour, yields max btu per hour output at full burn.

Many homebrew stoves learn this the hard way, if they didn't use available formulas specific to wood stoves to figure this out.

Feeding two houses with any Empyre is a daunting feat, unless you don't mind constant monitoring and feeding.

Any water volume can be made to work as long as the fuel consumed per hour can be made to match the demand.

[martyinmi]

I've got to beg to differ with you on the Empyre's Sprinter.
A friend of mine EASILY heats his 2500 sq. ft. home plus his 15600 CUBIC ft. shop (30'x40'x13') with a Pro Series 400.

[yoderheating]

woodbutcher, how many gals does your cl400 hold. I didn't realize central made a small firebox/large water jacket furnace.

[Mr. Maple]

"The calculation requires water volume AND wood volume in cubic feet. And this only gives you a total btu output, NOT a btu per hour figure.
This is where your max GPM flow and lbs of fuel per hour come into play, divided by the net firebox volume over lbs of fuel per hour, yields max btu per hour output at full burn."
   Sprinter-if I am calculating right then a CB EClassic 3200 firebox is 40x48x30, which translates to 57,600 cu. inches correct?If I divide the 410 gallon water jacket into this figure I come up with 140.49, or is there a factor I have missed or done  wrong?

[woodbutcher]

yoderheating
You got to remember my CB is 15 years old. When I bought it has a large firebox and holds 400 gal. of water. CB had the bright idea that putting the air intake for the firebox on the side of the boiler. They called it the cyclone air. It works but the wood on the opposite side of the air intake don't burn to good. It didn't take CB to put the air intake back on the door where the original had it. My firebox can hold a lot of wood. One winter we went away for the weekend and the temp. by day got to 30 and down to 20 at night with a 10-15 mph wind. I filled the firebox as much as I could get in. After we got home I was sure the boiler was out. Had the house set at 70 degrees. When I opened the boiler door I couldn't believe my eyes. I had lots of wood left. The boiler went 4 days before I had to add wood.

[woodbutcher]

SIZE OF WATER STORAGE

On furnaces without forced air draft this is a major consideration. Heating of the water takes a long time and it is important that a steady supply is always present. Small tanks in units without forced air draft just don’t hold enough hot water between burn cycles. Extra in-house storage tanks can be added. In forced air models the replacement of hot water is very quick and efficient. Unburned wood in a forced air system will instantly produce heat when the draft fan kicks on. These systems are more efficient and burn less wood. However there still needs to be sufficient water around the firebox to reduce the number of burn cycles. Even on small furnaces having forced air systems the absolute minimum for efficiency is 125 gallons capacity, increasing to 300 gallons on large furnaces.
Taken from   http://www.outdoorwoodfurnaces.org/guide.php

[yoderheating]

125 to 300 gal is not a lot of water storage.

[dukethebeagle]

this debate could go on forever,but i've seen a farmer in northern vermont who had a 160 range boiler outside and he said he had 1000 gallong reserve in his basement.did take a long time to get up to temp but when it was up there it took very little wood to maintain that temp.he would heat his house,two garages and a shed.he ran it 365 days a year for hot water for the hot water in the house and in his dairy barn.who knows

[Crow]

 It's not how big it is, it's how you use it.

[dukethebeagle]

hehehe!!!!!

[Jwood]

Good one Crow!