The purpose of this site is to chronicle and share experience in developing a domestic wood boiler / solar heating system. The hope is that this might evolve into a helpful resource for others who are undertaking similar projects. Welcome, and please feel free to contribute, ask questions, or just poke around. You may contact us by email at .
The primary system documented here consists of an Orlan EKO 25 wood gasification boiler, a heat storage tank, a traditional oil boiler, solar hot water panels, an indirect domestic hot water tank, a hot tub, and a home-brewed controller.
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| Background and history: How this project got started - problems, goals, earlier projects. |
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| Heating system design: Plumbing, layout, and basic control logic for hybrid wood/oil/solar heating system. |
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| Hot Water: Evolution of the Domestic Hot Water (DHW) plumbing and controls . |
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| Status, Charts, and Graphs: View real-time status or graphs of live and/or historical data: temperatures, inputs, controller outputs. Data from multiple projects is kept in a database. One or more may be 'live'. Data for any period can be downloaded in spreadsheet format for analysis. |
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Controller Hardware: Embedded controller and assorted interface electronics for controlling the system. |
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Schematic: System wiring. |
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| Controller Software: Software for controlling the system. |
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| Heat Storage: Theory, design, and construction of heat storage system. |
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| Solar Panel: Design and performance data for solar hot water system |
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| Life Of A Fire: An overview of system behavior during the course of a fire. |
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| Journal: Season-by-season results, performance data, lessons learned. |
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| Insulation: What's the best approach for insulating our thermal storage system? Analysis and performance data. (incomplete) |
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| Temperature measurement: Lessons learned in the delicate art of temperature measurement. (incomplete) |
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| Black Plastic Coil Solar Hot Water System: Simple low-cost domestic hot water system using black plastic pipe with a circulator pump and controller. |
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