hello everyone,
I am looking for some feedback on water storage for wood boilers. I have an hs tarm dual fuel wood boiler in my detached garage. It is vintage 1982 and a bit undersized for my 3000 sq. ft. turn of the centry house. Tarm recomends an 850 gal. storage tank. I have no intention fo buying one but i could fabricate one if necessary. I realize that you get the most out of your wood when it is burning at "full throttle". I have a 110 gal insulated steel tank on hand. I am thinking of using it as a dump zone in the spring and fall when the boiler makes a bit too much heat. Most of the winter the boiler heats the house while burning at almost "full throttle". I have to load it about 3 times a day if the temp is below 15 f. Some people claim they load once a day with a storage tank. I wonder if they load more than once a day when it is colder out? I don't use the oil burner at the other end of the boiler because it is in the detached unheated garage and I would have to use a winter mix oil which costs money. My backup is a gas fired boiler in the basement which is integrated via an aquastat on the wood boiler, a double pole relay and a couple of zone valves, pretty simple setup. A thermostat on the dining rm wall set at 58 f or so will trigger the relay and turn on the gas boiler when the wood boiler cools down at 430 in the morning, but I wonder if i had a big storage tank if I would make it through the nite and not have to burn any gas at all. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated. This is a great forum and source of info. and is quite entertaining at times. Thanks for all your help.
Mike
