wood boiler in combo with mini-electric??

[Swiftlegend]

Studded in a 28x35' pole building with attached lean-to, Putting in R19 kraft batts and putting up 5/8 plywood. Mounting electric in conduit and my air lines on outside to make more readily adaptable in future use. Keeping tin roof for now, and putting a 5-10mil prodex insulation in and keeping open rafters to allow more incoming light from custom made polycarbonate ridge cap.

The building may grow into a business. I am about thinking long term and being as eco-friendly and cost effective as I can. I believe in using a combination of wood since per million BTU white paper studies show it is still cost effective. Once natural gas goes up(it will once missouri collapses in on itself with all the fracking) wood will be the cheapest again. I have a good wood furnace in my house already.

I am "thinking" of going with a Woodmaster Flex fuel combi boiler with either a mini electric boiler or solar thermal. Or solar helping with electrical usage on the mini electric. I can stoke the fire when I am about to leave for the day or in the evenings(when I still have a day job), then the mini or something can kick in to make sure heat doesn't drop off to much?? It is only roughly 1000sq ft , but it can get mighty cold where I am. I do not want it to get below 60 inside during the winter. There was already a full chimney installed as well. So this unit could be on inside, or anything else, to get the radiant heat from the flue as well.

I do not have propane, natural gas, on property yet. So that is a factor.

So anyone got any ideas on if this or similiar setup can be efficient. In most boiler systems for heating alone for solar, it would require like a 500gl tank haha.

Ps- I am in the north midwest, where on average it is 20F in winter.

 

[Jackfre]

Wood heat is a great hobby I earned my spurs on that statement burning wood for many years. At this point I am done with it. I have no idea of the effectiveness of Prodex insulation but 5-10 mil of anything doesn't seem like much. Do you own the wood lot? If you are going to build to a business do you have time to handle the wood? When I was in business I found that I could build anything but a 30 hr day, which is what I needed most.
Cost on these combi systems is usually pretty high. For that size space I'd look at a Rinnai EX-38. Simple install, reliable and efficient.

 

[Swiftlegend]

Thanks for the feedback.

When I said it was still cost effective to burn wood, would you believe that was paying firewood prices? $170-200 cord cut and split. I still get my wood by the truckload, but yes in the future when I am super busy I can change over to straight pellet, or just have the guy drop the wood where I need it cut and split.

I also do my own splitting right now to just stay in shape and enjoy the outdoors. I mean, beats a gym membership.

Gasification burners will burn hot and fast to maximize efficiency, so you have to dump the access to use later into something that can retain the "work"..IE: water to use later. My fear is the water temp will drop off to fast and thought if a small mini electric would kick in when needed then I may have 24hr heat for the best price overall.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Studded in a 28x35' pole building with attached lean-to, Putting in R19 kraft batts and putting up 5/8 plywood. Mounting electric in conduit and my air lines on outside to make more readily adaptable in future use. Keeping tin roof for now, and putting a 5-10mil prodex insulation in and keeping open rafters to allow more incoming light from custom made polycarbonate ridge cap.

You will lose massive amounts of heat through the roof ! Typically a roof requires AT LEAST DOUBLE the amount of insulation that is in the walls.

I am about thinking long term and being as eco-friendly and cost effective as I can.
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I am "thinking" of going with a Woodmaster Flex fuel combi boiler with either a mini electric boiler or solar thermal.

Wood is an excellent heat source if it is readily available and ypu have the time to prepare it and stoke the boiler. Electric resistance heat is THE LEAST COST EFFECTIVE form of heat, period (unless you happen to live somewhere that has really cheap electric rates).

Ps- I am in the north midwest, where on average it is 20F in winter.

Good candidate for a mini-split heat pump ! Some will heat down to below 0F, but all will produce heat above 35F. Because you are just "moving heat" from one place to another they are VERY COST EFFECTIVE to operate. Not cheap to install.

 

[theoldwizard1]

When I said it was still cost effective to burn wood, would you believe that was paying firewood prices? $170-200 cord cut and split.

When you winter temps regularly fall below 0F, that is a terrible price !

I am assuming it is for a "face cord" (14x48x96) not a "full cord" (48x48x96).

30 years ago, My Dad would buy a whole trailer of green, "mixed hardwood". It was uncut, so it was about 100" long (width of a semi-trailer), but it was about 8' tall and the length of the trailer (40'?). I know it was under $500.

 

[TheEquineFencer]

I mainly use a Taylor (non-pressurized) wood fired water heater in my shop. Almost all my wood is free or someone pays me to go cut my wood. If they have a tree they want gone that's either down already or safe to drop that's close by, I'll go get it. I usually charge enough to cover all my cost plus just a little for my time, that's why they call me, I'm cheap.

It's a little work, but almost no cost most of the time.

Having back up heat source is a good idea. When I'm away for an extended time, the shops a cold hole. Radiant heat in the floor helps, it take a day or so to get cold inside.

I like the non-pressurized water heater over a boiler from a safety aspect.

 

[Swiftlegend]

Thanks for the further advice guys! Good info.

The wood pricing was per "loggers" cord, not face cord.
$85-120 per loggers cord on a truck is pricing around here depending on if it is hardwood and how far haul is.

I will look into the non pressurized boiler.
The electric mini-boiler would be just "maintaining" the heat if you will, figured the heat already got to temp, I just don't want it to fall below temp. Don't know then how expensive it would be..

The Prodex insulation has an R value up to 22R for the 10M thickness. I could run that stuff twice if need be to have two air gaps. One beneath roof steel, then one between the layers.