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[heatthefarm]

Can the Econoburn EBW 300 be plumbed into a heat exchanger? I presently have an unpressurized outdoor boiler that is plumbed into a heat exchanger. It sits 250 ft from my house. I would like to put the EBW 300 40 ft from my oil boiler and run underground pex 40ft to my oil boiler. I can place the EBW in a shed that has a chimney in it. The EBW is a pressurized system.

[slimjim]

It can be done but in my opinion it is not a good idea, Please think of this scenario, You have a raging fire going, it's very cold outside, you leave to go grocery shopping with the wife, while gone for a few hours the power goes out and your automatic generator fails to fire. You now have a real issue at home because if you are lucky the relief valves on your system just popped and puked out the anti freeze and or water, they don't reseal as often happens, you now have a real mess to clean up. Worst case scenario you now have a steam bomb, you could burst lines or blow up the boiler if the relief valves fail to open. Remember, wood fires cannot be shut off like an oil or gas fired unit when the power goes out, they MUST have a non powered dump zone that is capable of dumping at least 20% of the rated heat load on the boiler without the use of power, this is typically done by using a normally open zone valve leading to a heat zone directly above the boiler that always dumps that 20% in a power outage. It is an illegal install here in Maine to install the unit without that zone, insurance will not pay off a claim if not installed to code, Please be careful.

[RSI]

It can be done but in my opinion it is not a good idea, Please think of this scenario, You have a raging fire going, it's very cold outside, you leave to go grocery shopping with the wife, while gone for a few hours the power goes out and your automatic generator fails to fire. You now have a real issue at home because if you are lucky the relief valves on your system just popped and puked out the anti freeze and or water, they don't reseal as often happens, you now have a real mess to clean up. Worst case scenario you now have a steam bomb, you could burst lines or blow up the boiler if the relief valves fail to open. Remember, wood fires cannot be shut off like an oil or gas fired unit when the power goes out, they MUST have a non powered dump zone that is capable of dumping at least 20% of the rated heat load on the boiler without the use of power, this is typically done by using a normally open zone valve leading to a heat zone directly above the boiler that always dumps that 20% in a power outage. It is an illegal install here in Maine to install the unit without that zone, insurance will not pay off a claim if not installed to code, Please be careful.

Maybe I need to read this again but I didn't see an answer to his question.

Why do you want to plumb it to a heat exchanger? Is there a problem just directly plumbing it into the house system? You should be fine using a heat exchanger but I wouldn't unless you need to keep the water separate.

[slimjim]

That is exactly why, I would like to see it completely separate, it could be anti freezed, it can have it's own relief valve and expansion tank, safety wise IF he ever had a failure, by separating the wood boiler from the rest of the system, he would know that his problem will be outside rather that under his house

[RSI]

Ok, that makes a lot more sense.

[slimjim]

I just get nervous about indoor units placed outside, HTF knows the risk and is willing to take the precautions that need to be met.

[RSI]

There is really not much difference between the Enonoburn indoor and outdoor models.

[slimjim]

I thought their outdoor models were non pressurized?

[RSI]

Nope, they are all pressurized (unless they changed something recently but I doubt they did)

[slimjim]

OK, the only onesI ever dealt with were indoor, the biggest thing that concerns me is safety in an overheat from a power outage, I have seen the aftermath of burst pex lines from poor installations.