ot lp gas boiler or continue using wood.

Way OT but it does have to do with my farm shop. My wood boiler is causing me some headaches lately. My house is only 734 sq ft lower floor which is hydronic in floor. The upstairs is only 534 sp ft. Forced air with a heat exchanger. Thinking of going to a LP boiler just for the house. Does anyone use a LP boiler for their house? How much fuel do you go thru? Planning on just keeping the wood stove for the shop only. Wondering what brand you've used and how long do they last? No sure if I should stick with wood or switch. Thanks steve

I can't really recommend a good propane boiler. I found that as I got older the glory of cutting and just generally handling wood became a job I did not like doing anymore. So I bought a corn/pellet burning boiler. I have been using it for the last ten years. I heat a 2500 square ft. house and a work shop. Usually 600-700 bushels of corn will heat both all winter.

I really like not having to bother with loading a stove with wood several times each day. Also my wife's heath issues where effected by wood smoke. The corn stove is much cleaner inside and out.

My stove is a locally built stove/boiler that is no longer made. There are several brands that would work well for your size of heating demand.

We have a burnham boiler (propane)that runs our in floor heating system for our house, 1400 sq feet. We use it as our backup system as we use our wood burning stove as much as possible. It has been running for the last 20 years with no problem. It also has a zone that heats our hot water. The propane truck only shows up twice in the winter and once in the summer. About $800 a year, depending on the price.
Tom

boiler is very efficiant. i put in floor heat for a guy in town for a fairly large garage-shop. bought a wall hung on demand water heater from menards about $500. think about 90000 btu. think i tied the water pump to thermostat, when the water started to moove the burner started to heat. been going about 10 years

If you only heat with wood, what the heck do you do if you have to go out of town in the winter?

We have a Utica brand boiler which is roughly 25 years old and has been trouble-free. It ran on propane for about five years before we converted to natural gas; I'm sure it would have been just as trouble-free if we had stayed on propane.

The only real problem with propane is its wide price swings. You can easily pay $1000 to heat one winter and $2500 the next. But if propane is your only option to wood, I'd say make the switch. You never know when an injury or illness is going to make it impossible for you to heat with wood. And you'll have a hard time selling a house where wood is the only source of heat.

(quoted from post at 21:39:39 03/03/15) I can't really recommend a good propane boiler. I found that as I got older the glory of cutting and just generally handling wood became a job I did not like doing anymore. So I bought a corn/pellet burning boiler. I have been using it for the last ten years. I heat a 2500 square ft. house and a work shop. Usually 600-700 bushels of corn will heat both all winter.

I really like not having to bother with loading a stove with wood several times each day. Also my wife's heath issues where effected by wood smoke. The corn stove is much cleaner inside and out.

My stove is a locally built stove/boiler that is no longer made. There are several brands that would work well for your size of heating demand.

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I keep telling people that eventually both wood pellets which are hugely popular here in the Northeast, and corn for stoves will be delivered by auger truck like grain, into a bin in the garage or wherever convenient, and then augered to the stove. Do you know of anyone doing that yet? Or any I dictation so of anyone working on it?

(quoted from post at 07:46:13 03/04/15) If you only heat with wood, what the heck do you do if you have to go out of town in the winter?

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Who has the time or someone to watch things so you can go out of town in winter? Winter here is a 24/7 struggle to keep things alive, thawed or unstuck.

Don't have solid numbers for you because it's our first winter in our new house. 1536 sq ft main floor with 3/4 finished basement. In floor heat both levels using ultra high efficient boiler by Weil-Mclain. 500 gal tank was at 55% when heating season started. Bought 340 gallons to fill it around New Years and the frost line is a little above half this morning. This is in sw WI and the boiler also heats the domestic hot water.

We have several wood pellet supliers with bulk delivery trucks, here in central NY.
Loren

Standard efficiency LP and natural gas furnaces and boilers easily last 25 years and much longer. High efficiency units (90+ percent) last 10 to 15 years. Plan to clean the furnace heat exchanger every few years (easy). The flue needs to be checked, but will almost never need to be cleaned if everything is operating right. Initial investment is low for standard efficiency units. My experience is it's best to invest in updating insulation and sealing drafts first before investing in high efficiency heating system. Also install a combustion air supply to the furnace.

Any reputable heating contractor will inspect your house, size a heating system, and can make some insulation recommendations as part of an estimate.

The wood-propane decision depends on your health, a source of free wood, and if you have a better use for your time. Propane prices should follow low oil prices for the next few years. Can you tie a propane boiler to the wood burning boiler so you can easily switch between the two?

If you plan to sell eventually, figure most people are not interested in a 100 percent wood burning heating system. If you will need to install a different furnace before the place can be sold, why not do it now and get some of the benefits for yourself? I would talk to some heating contractors and do some homework.

We got our corn sold for $5.50 a bushel, that makes heat $3500 per year.

If you want to keep using your wood boiler to heat shop and house here is one way to do it tied to your gas boiler.If you want to go to a warmer climate in January, no problem. Just don't let your wood boiler or any piping freeze. The electrical is not shown in the drawings. I would say the boilers keep the manifold supplied with hot water. As the load removes the heat from the water the boiler or boilers will re-supply the manifold with their high and low limit controls.

I have a drawing showing zone valves used with this manifold system. To use zone valves you would need another manifold to mount the zone valves on and a pump to pull the water back into the return side of the manifold.

Another control would be needed on the Hot side of the manifold to power up the control to turn on the zone valve pump and open zone valves as the thermostat requires.

The one picture came from a Califfe, Idronics, journal of design innovation for hydronic professionals, #10

The drawing is how I want to re-plumb my system. The hydraulic separator and manifold piping are sized by Gallons per minute of the pump or pumps.

That second picture was put on by mistake. I do not know how to remove it.

Just a question on these boilers. Do you use anti freeze in the loop? If everything goes down and no one is home you would have miles of busted pipes! Would like to know.

Thanks for the replys.i thought about a corn/pellet boiler just have found a dealer anywhere close to my area.After my little leak on the wood stove bad weld on the inside just alittle squirt hole. Just happen that last real cold spell we have. No heat in the house ,didn't notice it till I got hm from work checked the fire and water in places it shouldn't be. So I need a different option.Thanks I do run alittle anti freeze my boiler is a closed system and not hooked up to my hot water . Also don't get away during the winter between my job and the animals nobody seems to feed and water like we do if we leave. Just like knowing our animals our taken care during the cold months. Thanks again. steve

(quoted from post at 06:38:04 03/04/15) We have several wood pellet supliers with bulk delivery trucks, here in central NY.
Loren

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Do they auger it into the homeowners bin?