My cousin uses a boiler on his dairy farm. The heat their house and the water for the milking parlor and probably burn about the same amount as you do. They lit it around 15 years ago and it's run non-stop since then!
I went thru about 10 cords, and thought that was a lot. But you crushed it with 40, wow. I wish I had a stove that only needed to be loaded once a day. It would make my sleeping a lot easier. Nice job Nate, very impressive.
There is a startup here which uses a smaller version. I watched it burn large rounds. The stack was raging hot with exhaust gases. Therefore, I find wood boilers terribly inefficient. Web4deb and I have both used rocket mass heaters to keep our geodesic domes warm last winter. They are very efficient. I used free wood pallets from craigslist for fuel. Learning how to design the inner stack is priceless. Rob, Is the stainless still working? Firebrick for me has worked great.
another excellent and highly interesting & informative video. Thanks for making these videos, they have answered many of the questions I had been having about setting up an aquaponics operation in a colder climate.
Thanks, Sean! My wife tie-died it herself! Not sure about the greenhouse floor heating. We didn't pour any concrete in our greenhouse/fishhouse - we just have crushed granite on top of the dirt. Could be a good way to heat though!
We'd love to have you out for a tour- just give us a week or two advanced notice, and don't plan on a Thursday (harvest day). Regarding the greenhouse- it handles the wind just fine. The folks who say that quonsit greenhouses with double layer poly won't work in high wind load areas don't usually know what they're talking about. Our houses take sustained 50-60 mph winds on a regular basis. So long as the plastic is inflated it's just fine!
Pretty cool. I was just learning about using oil in a hydronic system the other day. I think I'll just stick to a gas vent system for my house and greenhouses. I'll be building a mass heater under each structure. A small fire each night in the wintertime before going to bed can provide enough heat for a 40' x 40' greenhouse all night that way with proper underground venting that requires probably about half the wood this uses, and no electricity at all. Simple tec from before the roman Empire to heat their baths. If it's really cold in the morning, you build a even smaller fire before going to work. It may not be as technical as this, but can be regulated on mili volt dampeners to cool things down if they start getting above the required temperature mark.
Thanks, Matthew. We keep out water between 70-75 degrees with our heated coils in the tanks. In regards to heating the air, we use heat exchangers and fans. Check out our video titled: "Heating a Greenhouse" - In that video we talk specifically about our heat exchangers and how the heat actually gets into the greenhouse! Hopefully you'll get some good info/ideas in that video!
Hey Mike. You'll be consuming the same amount of Btus with the same amount of carbon output. The best you can do is choose a renewable resource. Thanks for the feedback - we'll keep the videos coming.
Keep up the great videos. What temp. do you try to keep the aquaponic water at? Do primarily get the btu's in through the greenhouse air or do you have a water to water heat exchanger?
We use a pex coil because copper will kill the fish otherwise. That said, we don't use any copper or brass fittings/tubing in our system. Pex is considerably less expensive than stainless steel.
Chris might be talking about geothermal heating, I save about 70% using this system and paired with solar it's an unbeatable combination they can be used for heating and cooling! electricity , etc. no need for wood at all unless in very, very extreme conditions???-30 ? even then it should cut your cord expense about 70% or more.
Hey Nate... a question as far as heated coils within the fish tanks to maintain the ideals of 70-75 F Are there any issues with using copper pipe such as Copper toxicity leaching and adversely effecting the fish .... and are there any copper brass fitting in the systems you are using and or are you using water heat ex-changers with stainless? Thanx Nate! GW
Well, we don't need heat during the day. We don't actually burn any wood during the day. All of our heating needs are at night. Greenhouses tend to stay pretty warm so long as the sun is shining (even when it's really cold out!).
Does this size furnace work to heat both of your greenhouses? What size are your greenhouses? Thanks for putting out the videos. The information is priceless!
Thank you so much. We're working on our setup and I can figure out the BTUS for the greenhouse, but I wasn't sure how to calculate for the aquaponics system too. We're planning with an end goal of 2-20x48 cold frame greenhouses plus the fish house (with 3 or 4-500 gallon fish tanks ). I was hoping if that furnace could power your setup, it would work for us as well.
Great info, in theory you could mix up some solar panels and use electric heating combined with the wood boiler seems like it would be extremely efficient, maybe even grow plants that are used to a hotter climate.
I recently built agreenhouse to build an aquaponics system. I would love to come out and check your guys set up. How do you guys protect the greenhouse from high winds?
It requires that we scrub the flue a couple times a year, but besides that it's not too much of an issue. Lot's of creosote comes out of that furnace though!
Any idea what the C02 output is on a boiler like this ? I was looking into pyrolysis myself as if offers a way to sequester the carbon generated in the burn in the form of bio-char (high carbon charcoal). Its one of the concerns I had for my business as I want the smallest footprint possible. Its still a great idea I just worry about the CO2 output of burning "40 cords of wood per winter". As always great videos great info keep up the good work.
If the wood sat on the mountainside and decomposed, I think the CO2 output would be the same as burning it. Strange to us, but growing the tree is what produces the CO2; its release into the atmosphere is simply delayed until the tree dies and decomposes.
Also, bio-char is great stuff in the tropics, but everywhere else in the world it will actually consume all the nitrogen in your soil and be a very expensive mistake.
Wood boilers are great, but what happens if you can not get out to stock it? I have a wood furnace, and occasionally get back to it "almost: to late to get it fired back up. Love those big burn boxes! Do you have a backup. Kind of same issue with rocket mass (I like that method best personally). Also surprised you went with passive air (automatic baffle) as opposed to forced induction. Those boilers are even better with green wood, also will get up to heat much faster.
We make sure someone can go out and stoke the furnace! Otherwise, we start losing plants and fish ... and that's a bad day! It's not super fun to venture out at 11pm in -40 degrees to stoke the furnace, but someone has to do it! Too much green wood doesn't burn as well plus it emits A LOT more creosote when it does burn.
Gasification boilers are the only way to go. Its not about burning more like this furnace but burning better and less. No matter what, water heating is the only way to go no matter what type of boiler. Heating air is the worst.
I just love my old basement wood burning boiler/heater. It's just one of those old fashioned one from the 80ies connected to a bunch of equally old heat elements and lots of pipes. The only thing Im concerned about would be the poor underpressure from time to time. One can see a little string of smoke puffing out when I stack it with too much wood at the same time. But water radiotors give so much heat and tit is well distributed in the rooms.bla blabla wood blabla I burned my thumb bla bla🐿
My cousin uses a boiler on his dairy farm. The heat their house and the water for the milking parlor and probably burn about the same amount as you do. They lit it around 15 years ago and it's run non-stop since then!
Holy cow, 15 years?! That's incredible. Good to know other folks are having just as much success with their boilers! Thanks for sharing.
You're welcome, Matt! So glad you've found them helpful!
Great to hear we have helped you in your research, Austin!
I went thru about 10 cords, and thought that was a lot. But you crushed it with 40, wow. I wish I had a stove that only needed to be loaded once a day. It would make my sleeping a lot easier. Nice job Nate, very impressive.
Great idea, I always wanted one of this outdoor ones. Thanks for your to shoot the video.
There is a startup here which uses a smaller version. I watched it burn large rounds. The stack was raging hot with exhaust gases. Therefore, I find wood boilers terribly inefficient. Web4deb and I have both used rocket mass heaters to keep our geodesic domes warm last winter. They are very efficient. I used free wood pallets from craigslist for fuel. Learning how to design the inner stack is priceless. Rob, Is the stainless still working? Firebrick for me has worked great.
another excellent and highly interesting & informative video. Thanks for making these videos, they have answered many of the questions I had been having about setting up an aquaponics operation in a colder climate.
Thanks for the comment, Rj!
Thanks, Sean! My wife tie-died it herself! Not sure about the greenhouse floor heating. We didn't pour any concrete in our greenhouse/fishhouse - we just have crushed granite on top of the dirt. Could be a good way to heat though!
And maybe some day we will, but we're trying to grow the business on a budget for now. Thanks for the ideas though!
We'd love to have you out for a tour- just give us a week or two advanced notice, and don't plan on a Thursday (harvest day). Regarding the greenhouse- it handles the wind just fine. The folks who say that quonsit greenhouses with double layer poly won't work in high wind load areas don't usually know what they're talking about. Our houses take sustained 50-60 mph winds on a regular basis. So long as the plastic is inflated it's just fine!
Pretty cool. I was just learning about using oil in a hydronic system the other day. I think I'll just stick to a gas vent system for my house and greenhouses. I'll be building a mass heater under each structure. A small fire each night in the wintertime before going to bed can provide enough heat for a 40' x 40' greenhouse all night that way with proper underground venting that requires probably about half the wood this uses, and no electricity at all. Simple tec from before the roman Empire to heat their baths. If it's really cold in the morning, you build a even smaller fire before going to work. It may not be as technical as this, but can be regulated on mili volt dampeners to cool things down if they start getting above the required temperature mark.
Also, digging all your videos!
Thanks, Matthew. We keep out water between 70-75 degrees with our heated coils in the tanks. In regards to heating the air, we use heat exchangers and fans. Check out our video titled: "Heating a Greenhouse" - In that video we talk specifically about our heat exchangers and how the heat actually gets into the greenhouse! Hopefully you'll get some good info/ideas in that video!
Hey Mike. You'll be consuming the same amount of Btus with the same amount of carbon output. The best you can do is choose a renewable resource. Thanks for the feedback - we'll keep the videos coming.
Keep up the great videos. What temp. do you try to keep the aquaponic water at? Do primarily get the btu's in through the greenhouse air or do you have a water to water heat exchanger?
We use a pex coil because copper will kill the fish otherwise. That said, we don't use any copper or brass fittings/tubing in our system. Pex is considerably less expensive than stainless steel.
Thanks!
We love rocket mass heaters and think they're very neat, they just don't scale to commercial operations.
Matt, did your heatexchanger/blower come as one component? Do you have a brand name for the unit?
Chris might be talking about geothermal heating, I save about 70% using this system and paired with solar it's an unbeatable combination they can be used for heating and cooling! electricity , etc. no need for wood at all unless in very, very extreme conditions???-30 ? even then it should cut your cord expense about 70% or more.
Hey Nate... a question as far as heated coils within the fish tanks to maintain the ideals of 70-75 F Are there any issues with using copper pipe such as Copper toxicity leaching and adversely effecting the fish .... and are there any copper brass fitting in the systems you are using and or are you using water heat ex-changers with stainless?
Thanx Nate!
GW
Well, we don't need heat during the day. We don't actually burn any wood during the day. All of our heating needs are at night. Greenhouses tend to stay pretty warm so long as the sun is shining (even when it's really cold out!).
Does this size furnace work to heat both of your greenhouses? What size are your greenhouses?
Thanks for putting out the videos. The information is priceless!
Hey Carmen! This furnace is only setup to heat our aquaponic greenhouse (2000 square feet)
Really? I thought the furnace fed the heat exchanges in the greenhouse too?
Carmen Igoe Yes our aquaponic greenhouse is fed by the furnace via heat exchangers. It's 2,000 square feet (20x100)
Thank you so much. We're working on our setup and I can figure out the BTUS for the greenhouse, but I wasn't sure how to calculate for the aquaponics system too.
We're planning with an end goal of 2-20x48 cold frame greenhouses plus the fish house (with 3 or 4-500 gallon fish tanks ).
I was hoping if that furnace could power your setup, it would work for us as well.
Great info, in theory you could mix up some solar panels and use electric heating combined with the wood boiler seems like it would be extremely efficient, maybe even grow plants that are used to a hotter climate.
I recently built agreenhouse to build an aquaponics system. I would love to come out and check your guys set up. How do you guys protect the greenhouse from high winds?
It requires that we scrub the flue a couple times a year, but besides that it's not too much of an issue. Lot's of creosote comes out of that furnace though!
His is a bit larger than yours. It can take 4' logs. They use an overhead winch to lift some of them into it! ;-)
Paul is a master lumberjack! He and his chainsaw are two peas in a pod.
Would of been nice to see the greenhouse that was being heated and the set up
You're welcome. Thanks for watching.
Hi, where did you find the radiator? I'm having trouble finding that kind. Thanks
So how do you cut those logs into short rounds? Your rounds look EXTREMELY uniform.
Does the pitchiness of pine cause any issues?
Any idea what the C02 output is on a boiler like this ? I was looking into pyrolysis myself as if offers a way to sequester the carbon generated in the burn in the form of bio-char (high carbon charcoal). Its one of the concerns I had for my business as I want the smallest footprint possible. Its still a great idea I just worry about the CO2 output of burning "40 cords of wood per winter". As always great videos great info keep up the good work.
If the wood sat on the mountainside and decomposed, I think the CO2 output would be the same as burning it. Strange to us, but growing the tree is what produces the CO2; its release into the atmosphere is simply delayed until the tree dies and decomposes.
But are the trees coming from a sustainable forest?
This was super informative; thanks! I don't think my rural home build will need 40 cords tho!
You're welcome Nik Fiorito - Hopefully not! That's quite a bit of wood.
What did you use to perform your heat requirement calculations, is there a website or spreadsheet that you could point me towards?
Google Greenhouse BTU calculator- several will come up.
Also, bio-char is great stuff in the tropics, but everywhere else in the world it will actually consume all the nitrogen in your soil and be a very expensive mistake.
How big is your greenhouse and how low do the temperatures get in winter?
Wood boilers are great, but what happens if you can not get out to stock it? I have a wood furnace, and occasionally get back to it "almost: to late to get it fired back up. Love those big burn boxes! Do you have a backup. Kind of same issue with rocket mass (I like that method best personally). Also surprised you went with passive air (automatic baffle) as opposed to forced induction. Those boilers are even better with green wood, also will get up to heat much faster.
We make sure someone can go out and stoke the furnace! Otherwise, we start losing plants and fish ... and that's a bad day! It's not super fun to venture out at 11pm in -40 degrees to stoke the furnace, but someone has to do it! Too much green wood doesn't burn as well plus it emits A LOT more creosote when it does burn.
You should think about building a nicely sized wood shed or at least an awning over your boiler.
Geothermal uses the earth to heat and cool.
Gasification boilers are the only way to go. Its not about burning more like this furnace but burning better and less. No matter what, water heating is the only way to go no matter what type of boiler. Heating air is the worst.
I just love my old basement wood burning boiler/heater. It's just one of those old fashioned one from the 80ies connected to a bunch of equally old heat elements and lots of pipes. The only thing Im concerned about would be the poor underpressure from time to time. One can see a little string of smoke puffing out when I stack it with too much wood at the same time. But water radiotors give so much heat and tit is well distributed in the rooms.bla blabla wood blabla I burned my thumb bla bla🐿
you have a female name