Boiler shed?

[Sumboodie]

Adding a waste oil boiler to my place and thinking of putting it in a shed.

Would be enough room that I could forklift oil totes, room for 2 so one could thaw while it's drawing off the other.

Maybe section it off and stick the air compressor and backup generator in there as well.

Would heat just the shop for now, but could heat the future house too.
Both would still have natural gas heat as backup.

This sound crazy?

 

[nadogail]

Adding a waste oil boiler to my place and thinking of putting it in a shed.

Would be enough room that I could forklift oil totes, room for 2 so one could thaw while it's drawing off the other.

Maybe section it off and stick the air compressor and backup generator in there as well.

Would heat just the shop for now, but could heat the future house too.
Both would still have natural gas heat as backup.

This sound crazy?

Not at all.

 

[Sumboodie]

Now trying to figure out size and design.

The area I had in mind is centrally between the proposed house and the existing shop, near the power meter, gas feed.

Buttt also near the well.

If I build the shed 8x8ft, I'd need about 1ft sills to contain a 500 gallon leak.

 

[Sumboodie]

Related topic...

Shed for boiler.

I can buy a pre-built shed, around 4k. Likely will need 1k ish to wire and insulate.

20ft conex is about 4k. They said about $800 to spray foam under the floor and then walls with 2x4 subwalls. (So only about 7.25ft wide and 7.75ft tall). That's a poverty package model, new/1 trip are 6200 and high cube is 6500

40ft is 8500

Build from scratch... not sure on cost. I'd guess 4k isn't off by much.

 

[MortyNTenon]

I have thought about doing this also, only on a smaller scale. 50 gal oil, 50 gal of hot water to keep temps stable inside the box. Divided in half incase of a fire and a diesel startup fuel supply if the fire goes out at 5° and I'm gone for a couple days. Working on a mini split instead though, I need a/c/

 

[HoosierBuddy]

I'm curious about your supply of waste oil. Is this a "sure thing" you can get as needed?

Problem would be if you spent thousands on this and then your supply dried up.

 

[fitter30]

Have u looked into the maintenance cost and frequency that has to be done to a waste oil burner. Check out some waste oil burner forums.

 

[mike93lx]

Related topic...

Shed for boiler.

I can buy a pre-built shed, around 4k. Likely will need 1k ish to wire and insulate.

20ft conex is about 4k. They said about $800 to spray foam under the floor and then walls with 2x4 subwalls. (So only about 7.25ft wide and 7.75ft tall). That's a poverty package model, new/1 trip are 6200 and high cube is 6500

40ft is 8500

Build from scratch... not sure on cost. I'd guess 4k isn't off by much.

I'm surprised you can get a pre-built shed for 4k. I just built a 8x8 and was into it for a little under 3k of materials. My price out for a 16x16 I have coming up has that at about 6k, excluding the floor

And that's all mainland pricing

 

[Sumboodie]

I'm curious about your supply of waste oil. Is this a "sure thing" you can get as needed?

Problem would be if you spent thousands on this and then your supply dried up.

It's easy to come by from shops as well.
From work it's new oil, just a mix of HDMO, PCMO, ATF, diesel, Wireline grease, gear oil, etc.

I have about $800 invested so far. Probably $1500ish after plumbing it. And shed cost, bit it'll be used for other stuff too.

 

[Sumboodie]

Have u looked into the maintenance cost and frequency that has to be done to a waste oil burner. Check out some waste oil burner forums.

Yeah, annual cleaning which takes maybe an hr.

 

[jblnut]

Not quite sure what sort of area you are in but a used grain bin can be had for almost nothing most of the time. A couple guys by me have converted them into workshops and storage sheds with minimal effort. If you can deal with a non square building area inside they're great solid structures. The one I helped finish we built 4x16' wall panels and stood them up around the outside and just screwed them to each other before we insulated and sheeted the insides. He put a flat ceiling up top and blew insulation above it.

Looks like a regular grain bin from the outside except it has a garage door and man door in it. It's a really neat deal.

I'm in the hell yes crowd to the waste oil furnace. If you have a constant source it's a no brainer.

 

[Aileron]

If you put the boiler in a shed and seal the shed up tight with insulation, where will the boiler get is combustion air from?

 

[jblnut]

If you put the boiler in a shed and seal the shed up tight with insulation, where will the boiler get is combustion air from?

Pretty simple to put in a dryer vent or something along those lines to let air in as needed. Most spaces aren't going to be that tight anyway so I'd be surprised if enough air doesn't get in without an actual inlet vent.

 

[Sumboodie]

If you put the boiler in a shed and seal the shed up tight with insulation, where will the boiler get is combustion air from?

Outside

 

[nadogail]

Will you have enough room for boiler maintenance? Tube Cleaning and replacement, pump maintenance and occasional replacement?

When you get a forklift involved swapping totes, you may run out of room in a Shipping Container.

 

[jblnut]

Will you have enough room for boiler maintenance? Tube Cleaning and replacement, pump maintenance and occasional replacement?

When you get a forklift involved swapping totes, you may run out of room in a Shipping Container.

Shipping containers are wide enough to have two pallets or totes next to each other so swapping them shouldn't be an issue

 

[Aileron]

Outside

Figured that but when I serviced boilers the first thing i looked for was the air inlets for the rooms. I have found screens stopped up, blocked off etc and sizing. I had one building when i was running the boiler and the next minute the tune was way off. It was industrial facility and they were turning exhaust fans on and off as needed and sucking the air out of the building. I had a hospital power plant having trouble and noticed the roll up garage door was open. I asked and was told they only had it open for me to get in and out. I told them drop the door as i want the building in the condition it will normally be in. Installed a magnahelic gauge in the building and went into a negative. The call was they had shown 0% air on their combustion meter by one of their maintenance techs.( meter was bad but building didn't help.)Most all the inlet air fans and louvers didn't work and you couldn't access them without building scaffolding .Had a boiler in another building that would work for a week but go down on the weekend. Found the inlet duct was sized too small and general contractor would close the door for the weekend.

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[Aileron]

Pretty simple to put in a dryer vent or something along those lines to let air in as needed. Most spaces aren't going to be that tight anyway so I'd be surprised if enough air doesn't get in without an actual inlet vent.

gues that would work on up to 24,000 btu.

 

[Sumboodie]

gues that would work on up to 24,000 btu.

It uses a 3 or 4" duct.

 

[jblnut]

guess that would work on up to 24,000 btu.

My 180,000btu LP boiler has a 4" intake/exhaust.

What's the 24,000/btu number referencing?

 

[86turbodsl]

OP is in Alaska, so i'll give my Michigan perspective. I use waste oil for my shop heat. I moved all my oil storage inside the building heated space for the year's supply. I have pallet rack with 3 oil barrels on it. I got tired of trying to pump cold oil during heating season. It gets significantly harder x10 when it gets cold especially as the oil gets thicker. I use a mix of 15w-40 diesel oil, gear oil, low viscosity 0w-10/20 modern synthetics, whatever i pickup or are given. I also use WVO from a restaurant. None pump well down near freezing temps. Same goes for gravity out of the barrels. I don't know what you're using for a burner, but something to think about.

 

[Sumboodie]

OP is in Alaska, so i'll give my Michigan perspective. I use waste oil for my shop heat. I moved all my oil storage inside the building heated space for the year's supply. I have pallet rack with 3 oil barrels on it. I got tired of trying to pump cold oil during heating season. It gets significantly harder x10 when it gets cold especially as the oil gets thicker. I use a mix of 15w-40 diesel oil, gear oil, low viscosity 0w-10/20 modern synthetics, whatever i pickup or are given. I also use WVO from a restaurant. None pump well down near freezing temps. Same goes for gravity out of the barrels. I don't know what you're using for a burner, but something to think about.

Yup, that's why the plan for the shed will fit 2 totes. One feeding the boiler, the other thawing out. Switch when empty.

Was going to setup a tank and pump it, but realized it's already in "tanks", why make more work.

Not sure how much I'll need, my gas boiler ran about 3000hrs last year, but that's total run time, not just when it's fired the burner. Lots of time it's running the pumps just circulating through the floor.

 

[86turbodsl]

For a data point, i have a 2500ft2 space, 14' ceilings. I ran thru about 600 gallons of oil last winter. It all depends on your insulation and the temp differential.

 

[Sumboodie]

For a data point, i have a 2500ft2 space, 14' ceilings. I ran thru about 600 gallons of oil last winter. It all depends on your insulation and the temp differential.

Would be nice if that's all it takes. Have enough oil now for several years.

 

[Sumboodie]

Gathering parts for my outdoor used oil boiler setup and wanted to put it by anyone that does this **** in the regular.

Planning to run insulated pex into the shop from the connex and a water/water heat exchanger. Tempering valve (130*) and a zone valve? on the gas boiler primary loop controlled by T Stat.

Boiler outside would maintain 160-180*.), aka old school noncold start. It's an 85% cast iron Burnham.

Call for heat would open zone valve plus kick on pump at boiler and pump for floor heat.

If it fails to get the temp up (doesn't light, etc), 2nd thermostat that's set a bit lower would kick on the gas boiler and it'd work as it normally does.

This make sense or *** backward?

Inside the connex, planning on a hanging water/air modine off the boiler to keep it 50* or whatever.
It'll be running antifreeze, so not worried about freezing in case it doesn't light.

Floor heat pump... how do I wire it so.it can run when either boiler is heating?

 

[jblnut]

What do you have between the gas furnace and thermostat to control the pump now ? I have a Taco box that the thermostat feeds into and starts the pump. My IBC boiler has its own small pump inside it and fires when it sees the water temp drop below its set point.

I have an OWB tied into the LP boiler so similar sort of setup, just a different heat source. I set my mixing valve as low as it goes to minimize the drop in water temp going back to the stove and had to shut my LP furnace off as I didn’t think it was good to set it at 85f. The water is circulating through the floor around that 95f temp and works great.

I can post some pics if you think it’d help

 

[Sumboodie]

Have a pump/zone control that the thermostat connects to. It tells the gas boiler to turn on as well as the pump on the secondary loop.

Water going in the floor is at 130* for winter. I dial it down to 100* in spring and fall to help with the building getting too warm during the day.

Plan to tie into future house as well, so shop and house will be heated off used oil. We make around 200-300 gallons a month at work and generally are happy to get rid of it vs paying.
Last I saw it was something like 0.75/gallons for US Ecology to take it.

 

[nadogail]

Have a pump/zone control that the thermostat connects to. It tells the gas boiler to turn on as well as the pump on the secondary loop.

Water going in the floor is at 130* for winter. I dial it down to 100* in spring and fall to help with the building getting too warm during the day.

Plan to tie into future house as well, so shop and house will be heated off used oil. We make around 200-300 gallons a month at work and generally are happy to get rid of it vs paying.
Last I saw it was something like 0.75/gallons for US Ecology to take it.

Your plan seems well thought out.