Hello everyone,
I am trying to figure out if it is worth it to use a water storage tank for my wood boiler. I have an HS TARM multifuel boiler, vintage 1982 It is a bit undersized for my house. I use a natural gas boiler as a backup not the oil burner on the tarm unit. The wood boiler is in the detached garage so to use the oil burner I would have to use a winter mix which cost more money.The wood boiler is tied into my gas boiler via some Zone valves and aquastats which choose which will fire according to the water temp in the wood boiler. My question is whether or not to use a storage tank with the wood boiler. According to what i read, HS TARM recomends an 850 gal. storage tank. I understand burning at "full throttle" gets the most energy out of the wood. I presently have a 110 gal. steel tank that I may use as either a storage tank or dump zone in the spring and fall. Last season my system was only partially hooked in to the house so this year I Have tied it in completely to heat the entire 3000 sq, ft. turn of the century house. I have no intention on spending big bucks on a water storage system like the one hs tarm offers, although I am capable of building one similar to it. I figure I will burn about 10 cords of wood this year and I am sure I will be re-loading about 3 times a day in cold weather. Some people claim they load once a day with a water storage tank, I have a hard time believing that,especially since most of the big outdoor boilers are pretty wastefull. I am no genious, just a backyard engineer hoping to make it to the front yard soon. Any of your thoughts are of great interest to me. This forum has been a great help to me and even entertaining sometimes. Thanks.
Mike
