Adirondack case guy
Well-known Member
This will be the third year that the wife and I have heated without petro products. The last two years we were very confortable with a "Fireplace Extrodinair" and a "Harman P61 Hybrid" wood pellet stove. The hybrid portion of the Harman is copper coils that I fabed up on the sides of the stove to supplement my radient heating system. For the last two years they have kept us very confortable in our 2380sq.ft. single story ranch with 1800 sq.ft cellar. The other 580sq ft is on an insulated sand ballast heated by passive solar. Our domestic hot water is heated by an evacuated tube solar collector system tied into the radient heating system with a dual coil water storage tank, and thermo controls built into the Differential control unit of the solar system . My electric is suplimented, with a Mariah VAT that I installed. Oct 21, 2010(should have put up a Skystream 3.7)
This year I installed a new Bugarus Boiler in a home that had a "Royall" combo wood/coal addon boiler hooked to a leaking "Utica" boiler. Customer wanted it all gone. I took the Royall home and tied it into my radient heating system in my home. I set it up in my 1152 sq.ft. Fab, and tractor shop. Thus far the Harman hasn't had to run at all, and my shop will be heated full time for the first winter since it was built in 92. We have lit the fireplace on occasion, and have burned the Royall about every other day, as we are able to build up enough thermo mass to carry us a day without adding heat. That will change when cold weather sets in for the winter,
I'm kinda lazy and would rather build a gizmo to work for me than do the work myself so to get wood to my Fireplace from the cellar to the first floor where the fire place is I built a Dumb waiter. It is constructed from overhead door track and rollers and an 1100# HF 120V winch mounted in reinforced trusses in the ceiling adjacent the fireplace. To get the wood from the stack in the end of the cellar to the dumb waiter I stripped down an old electric feed cart and made the "wood transporter cart". It also works well to go out onto the blacktop driveway and get wood off the piles out side.
This year I installed a new Bugarus Boiler in a home that had a "Royall" combo wood/coal addon boiler hooked to a leaking "Utica" boiler. Customer wanted it all gone. I took the Royall home and tied it into my radient heating system in my home. I set it up in my 1152 sq.ft. Fab, and tractor shop. Thus far the Harman hasn't had to run at all, and my shop will be heated full time for the first winter since it was built in 92. We have lit the fireplace on occasion, and have burned the Royall about every other day, as we are able to build up enough thermo mass to carry us a day without adding heat. That will change when cold weather sets in for the winter,
I'm kinda lazy and would rather build a gizmo to work for me than do the work myself so to get wood to my Fireplace from the cellar to the first floor where the fire place is I built a Dumb waiter. It is constructed from overhead door track and rollers and an 1100# HF 120V winch mounted in reinforced trusses in the ceiling adjacent the fireplace. To get the wood from the stack in the end of the cellar to the dumb waiter I stripped down an old electric feed cart and made the "wood transporter cart". It also works well to go out onto the blacktop driveway and get wood off the piles out side.