water heating

[stevekc84]

Gents,
I have read through the thread and have found your information very interesting and informative. I have a 150 year old house in the Northern part of Illinois here in the US of A. We still have the large cast iron radiators which are heated with a hot water boiler system. I am trying to figure out how to utilize a rocket stove or a sawdust stove to add an alternative fuel source for the boiler.

My options for location are:
1. In the basement close to the boiler where I could vent out with the boiler.
2. remove the facing off my fireplace and put in a rocket stove or masonry heater and tying into the existing flu of the chimney (clay tile lined).

I believe option one is the best because it gives me flexibility for testing. I can easily tie into the existing piping system of the house with unions for ease of disconnecting to make changes. I need to work with some of the figures Nedreck shared earlier to figure out my system.

My boiler system has an expansion tank built in and the system has all the safety valves in place.

[cab]

You can't use more than one appliance per flue....

[canyon]

Cab you must mean that codes don't allow you to have more than one appliance per flue because of course you can...

stevekc84,
If you are the inventive tinkering type that really wants to put in the time, energy and money I hope you keep us updated so we can all benefit from your experience. There are all kinds of wood fired boilers that are efficient and ready made and worth studying in depth. Check out the Hearth.com boiler room forum.
Keep in mind that you will put isolation valves for whatever you do along with the unions and you must have a pressure relief valve and ideally an expansion tank for any section you add that can be isolated by closing the valves. Also, your existing expansion tank was sized for your existing system and might not be large enough for the additional volume you add, this is something to calculate.

It would be much simpler and cheaper to first build option #2 as an independent system that gives most of your heat where you need it in a way that is comfortable to utilize (sit or lay on) and learn from the experience before tackling the complex rocket boiler. But perhaps you are already a boiler maker? What is your fabrication experience?

[kupa]

To Donkey
I like your advice about water heating posted jul 19 2010, I should like to know about
power output (kw) of such kind of system and feeding intervals, in a specific size of a system
for example (6" or 8" or 10")
Thanks

[Donkey]

I've got a 15 gallon tank inside an 8 inch system somewhat similar to what is pictured in that post.
I can't give you output numbers but I can say that 3 loads of wood will heat the water to just this side of boiling.
About 20 minuets for a good hot shower and once it's hot, it can be fed while people take (modest) showers about 5 minuets apart, back to back until everyone's had a crack at it. Once, during a workshop, we ran 10+ showers in a row and we boiled the tank at the end (while a shower was in progress) and popped the safety valve doing it..