Technical > Home Improvement > Boiler heating pipes and extended power outage.

reply to PSWired

Re: Boiler heating pipes and extended power outage.

reply to norbert26

Also check with your insurance company. Wood burning stoves are something they really dislike. You need to report you have one or want to get one and see what they have to say. A home just west of here had one in an attached garage. It caused a fire that burnt part of the garage, and insurance was denied. That was with State Farm.

I see you're turning into one of these nannies around here, too.

A properly installed wood burner isn't any more dangerous than any other form of heating. In an emergency (such as an extended power outage during an arctic cold snap), I've got an endless supply of wood around here to keep my house safe, and my family warm.

I haven't had to fire it up yet, and I may never have to, but it's there if we need it.

You're absolutely right - properly installed and maintained, wood burning appliances can be very safe... But if yours wasn't inspected and approved regularly by a WETT certified tech, and if your insurance isn't notified; you will be up shit creek if anything ever happened.

That ain't 'nanny' stuff; that's just a fact.

Thank you, but I've been around long enough to know how things work. I abide by all of my insurance regulations, right down to having our trampoline enclosed within our fence.

I gave the OP an idea to consider. Nothing more.

reply to Chinabound
Why would you assume I am a nanny because I point out an insurance issue? I love wood stoves. But many insurance companies do not. It is financially irresponsible to not check with your insurance company concerning it. I pointed out something I have witnessed and something that is well known in my field of work. Nothing more. I wasn't saying you or your stove isn't safe.

reply to LazMan

reply to Lurch77

Listen, don't get stupid. I offered advice about checking with insurance. I wasn't telling people what to do. Ultimately I don't give a shit what you do. It's common knowledge in the HVAC industry. I'm not going to sit here and find specific details for you. If you want them, go get them. Do a web search for wood stoves and insurance to start you out. If I'd known you people were going to get so stupid over a bit of advice I'd have kept it to myself.

reply to Lurch77
Well, thank you for acknowledging that... but why do you and many other people feel the need to point out the obvious?
Inspections, permits, insurance regulations, etc.? They sour every conversation here. Of course... they are important, but do not need to be a part of any conversation in this forum unless specifically asked about.
I gave the man a couple of ideas to consider. That's all. He can take care of the requirements himself, as I did, and I assume you do too when it comes to your family and your home.

Just so people here know, Lurch and I are personal friends. We have plenty of respect for each other - at least I do of him. I wouldn't be telling him that he needs to do something I'm sure he already has done.

reply to Lurch77

reply to cowboyro

reply to Chinabound
In the case of a wood burning solution since there is no basement that would require it on the main floor. This would heat a few rooms due to the house layout. A better option on a wood burning theme is they used to have wood burning boilers. I imagine this could be tied into the existing heating pipes and distribute heat to each room as the existing gas boiler does now. However it too will require a genny to pump the water through the finned baseboards like the gas boiler. This leads us back to start with a basic genny for now and later go from there. As far as insurance they are heck but it shouldn't be an issue if whatever was installed was up to proper codes.

reply to Chinabound
edit: Not worth it. Sorry this needlessly detracted from your thread, norbert26.

reply to norbert26
As previously mentioned, a proper glycol mix in the water will protect the pipes from freeze down to your most likely hard freeze point. If you had PEX tubing for the water to the rads, that CAN freeze without bursting (not recommended, but it will recover when thawed).

Don't forget that warm water (room temperature or higher to begin with) with glycol will take a fairly long time to freeze even if the power goes out, and even if it gets close to its freezing point it will still not freeze quickly as long as it's circulated (ie. a poor man's backup can be hooking the circulator to an inverter connected to a couple of car batteries for a few minutes every 30 minutes).

Best bet is to get a small inverter generator (Honda or Yamaha) and have a few cans of gas around. The boiler/circulators draw very little power, and if your house is even moderately insulated running the generator for 15 minutes per hour and firing the boiler then will get you through the worst if you layer-up - this presumes that you want to 'sip' gas and make a small supply last as long as possible.

if you provide the make and model of yer pump, and the size of your system, i can give you an estimate wether glycol will require a pump change. if it would have to be changed, no biggie as 90% of residential hydronic pumps have the same flange-flange length, no mods necessary. pumps are bout 200 max. cheaper than a dedicated auto genset. glycol is about 10-20 a gallon, with most rezzy systems using 20-30 gallons max

-j
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if it aint broke, tweak it!!
currently on FiOS (kick aZZ!)