E-classic cords burned

[superwd6]

....DO NOT USE THIS STOVE WITH RADIANT HEAT. 
  You have plumbing issues, Not wood boiler problems. If your oil boiler hooks directly into the infloor with no mixing device to lower temp, you have problems. Your oil boiler should also be protected against cold water returning to it as "shocking" boiler with cold water causes condensation with high acid content.

[renegadecj]

I have one strong suggestion....DO NOT USE THIS STOVE WITH RADIANT HEAT. 

I am pleased with the E-Classic so far.

DoctorB

I would disagree with your statement about not using this with radiant heat.  My radiant system is in concrete (and some gypcrete as well), but my radiant system regulates the temp of that water.  I have a main loop which goes thru a heat exchanger, to pull heat from the E-classic.  It drops that water temp only a little bit...maybe 10-15 degrees or so to keep the radiant loop up to temp.  The water returning to the e-classic is lower, but still quite warm, and the wood boiler has no problem keeping up, even on the coldest of days.  The exception would be when we are on vacation, and shut the system down, and turn the heat in the house way down....it takes some time to recover that temp again!

[irallen]

5 cords since mid-October to heat a drafty circa 1850's farm house w/ 2500 sq ft. Using seasoned maple and birch cordwood, (although a bit damper than I was expecting). Heat exchangers on domestic hot water tank and in forced air plenum. The electric hot water tank never comes on anymore and I'm down about 350kwh every month. The boiler is running at 185 degrees. We're keeping the house at 70 degrees which works until the outside temp goes below zero. Then we light the old parlor stove in the living room to keep house temp up. Same scenario as our old oil burner system.

Except the oil burner never comes on anymore.  : ' )

[doctorb]

Thanks for your input on radiant heat.  I do have the remixing system as you described.  The purpose of the remix is to lower the temp of the water about to enter the radiant system.  The water exiting the radiant system (temp approx 120 degrees) is partially remixed to cool the water coming from the furnace and partially returned to the furnace.  The volume of flow through the radiant heat system is unknown to me, but it must be fairly high as it uses a 1 1/4 inch pipe (prior to branching into three subzones of radiant pipe) while all my baseboard is 1 inch, or possibly 3/4 inch.

Regardless, the water temp returning from the radiant system is significantly lower than the 185 degree temp inside the furnace, and the 180 degree temp of the effluent returning to the E-2300.  Certainly, during the "warm up " phase of the radiant heat, owners are going to see an increased use of fuel.  Once my bricks are up to temp, it is certainly possible that my wood usage would drop.  I also should place a programable thermostat on the radiant grid so that, when we cool the house a few degrees (4) at night, the system doesn't run constantly.

Anyway, I do appreciate your input and suggestions.  I do think that, if a house was entirely heated with radiant heat, that the wood consumption would be higher than the same house heated with hot water baseboard or radiators, because of the "inefficiency" of requiring the lower temperature of the radiant system. 

We discuss fine points!  I really shouldn't care too much.  The cost of an extra cord of wood over the winter is nothing to worry about when your oil bills are $0.00!  The total cost of heating my house used to be around $5 - 5.5K!

doctorb

[Shagy]

I believe there is much confusion on this subject. Here in NY and to the East most talk of Face Cord. 4'X8X16"-20".. other parts of the country use Full Cords to define a cord. 4'X4'X8' I see another thing that if looked at like a heating pro is the Sq footage of a home. It is only a small part of the equation. Heat loss is EVERY thing ! You can have a 10 X 10 corn crib .....Only 100 Sq ft but try heating it. Some homes resemble a corn crib and expect to heat it with very little fuel. Aint gona happen

[terra8186]

I own a central boiler 6048.  I have burned around 8-10 cords this year of cottonwood (128 ft3 is a cord).  I started on October 1.  The best thing about the 6048 is I burn chuncks of wood unsplit.  The logs are 2 foot diameter cut in sizes that I can pick-up.   I also haven't cleaned or removed any ash from the stove yet this burning season. 

Last year and the previous year I was burning 30 cords a year.  I was heating a 40x60 pole barn and a 30x30 shop plus my house.  I turned those on only when the temperature's went below 15 just so the lines wouldn't freeze. 

[doctorb]

Thought I would rekindle this thread now that the end of the heating season begins to creep northward.

This was my first year with the E2300.  I started December 10th and burned until yesterday.  I burned a total of 10 cords (full 4X4X8 / all hardwood) heating a 4500 sq. ft house with 2 separate basements and 2 separate oil furnaces/HW systems.  I thus require two complete heat and hot water exchangers in my one house.  Inefficient, you bet!  You should have seen my oil bill in previous years.  No oil used this year.

At the beginning of the season I burned split wood intended for a standard wood stove or fireplace.  Later in the year, the wood diameter got larger, and I think that I burned less wood mixing the large diameter logs with some smaller ones.  It was one of the coldest winters we've seen in these parts for quite a while.

I am not dissapointed with the wood consumption.  Based on these figures, I am going to put up 12 - 14 cords for next winter over the next couple of months so I can begin heating in November and continue well into April.  Experience of others?

Doctorb

[gyro jr]

This is my 2nd heating season with the e-classic. I am heating 4800sf with radiant heat in central NJ. I have the dual fuel, but have not had the time to run propane to the unit yet, so let's say it "wood only". I burned an honest 10 cord of mixed HW. Many have posted that they have a better result burning smaller wood, I have better luck with larger rounds, preferably 12-20" and 24" long. Time to start collecting for next year!

[muckamuck]

I posted earlier but this is an update.  I heat an old 5000 sq ft house in central Massachusetts (formally used 1600 gal of oil a year including domestic hot water).  This winter I started Oct 13 and ended about March 1 and burned 11 full cords of fairly dry maple. I switch over to oil at this time.
Muckamuck

[MrMojoinCO]

Liveing in central colorado at 10233ft ele. it's still winter.  The 2300 heats just the house at this time.  It's about 2000 sq ft.  The e-classic was new in oct. and since then we have burned 9 full cords of bettle kill lodgepole pine.  The wood was split and dry.