Significant
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Heating & Cooling Systems

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Spa

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Ozark Exotica
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The Heating System

During the winter the heat exchanger in the house heating system return air ducts uses water from the outside wood fired boiler to heat the house. Another heat exchanger attached to the hot water heater uses hot water from the outside wood fired boiler to heat the domestic hot water. The wood fired boiler also heats the hot tub water and the slate floor in the Spa.

The wood fired boiler which heats our house and hot water is a Central Boiler Model CL 17.  It was installed in 1985 and is still in excellent condition.  The existing exhaust stack was custom manufactured in Sept. 2002 using two cylinders of  non-magnetic stain less steel with a half inch of ceramic insulation in between.  The walls of the boiler are 3/8 inch thick steel and the bottom plate is ½ inch thick steel.  The fire box is 41" deep by 30" wide by 35" high (25 cubic feet) with a 24 X 24 inch door that is 38 inches off the ground for easy filling. 

The heating system holds about 200 gallons water treated in December of 2002 with Romar #922 water treatment that protects all metals in the system from corrosion at a cost of $366.00. The boiler is located 15 feet from the house  (fire insurance codes called for a 10 foot clearance). The CL 17  BTU rating is 200,000 btu/hr. and has a hydrostat that opens a damper door using a solenoid at 140 degrees water temperature.  When the water reaches 160 degrees the current to the solenoid is cut off and the damper  closes.  A small circulating pump in the crawl space runs constantly circulating the hot water from the boiler through a box built of 2 inch foam, that is 18 inches under the ground, into the house.

The hot water goes to a heat exchanger attached to our hot water tank and then on to a heat exchanger in the return air duct in the house hot air heating system before returning the water to the boiler.  A second circulating pump sends hot water to the Spa.  Here the water is sent to a heat exchanger to heat the hot tub. A second set of valves directs the hot water to rubber pipes in the floor, both circuits from the Spa are returned to the boiler.

The temperature and time settings for the wood fired boiler are totally controllable with the Honeywell "Magic Stat" digital thermostat.  There is a separate thermostat for  the electric furnace. The controls are in the hallway.  We burn about  7 cords of wood at a cost of about $500 for a average Winter keeping the house at 76 degrees during waking hours, 69 degrees at night.   An hydraulic wood splitter goes with the house.  I buy 24 inch long rounds of logs which I split into pieces.  It takes about 4 or 5 days to split the entire 7 cords. Our first back up heating system is a 200 amp Electric furnace.  There is a King wood fired heater in the masonry alcove in the great room as a second back up in case the electricity goes off.  There is a ¼ Hp blower mounted below the boiler, controlled by a spring wound timer, that blows air into the fire box through the open damper. This is used to quickly rekindle or start fires conveniently.

If you have ever heated with wood you will love this feature.  On average, once a month I empty ashes in the boiler with a grain shovel, running them through a screen made of expanded metal into a 55 gallon barrel.

Pieces of charred wood larger than ½ inch stay on top of the screen and are accumulated in ½ of a 55 gallon barrel on the ground. When all the ashes are removed the charred wood is put back in the boiler to rekindle the  fire.

There is an insulated duct running from the north wall of the kitchen, under the kitchen floor to the Spa.  During sunny days when the Spa is warm, opening the South wall window allows warm air to come into the kitchen while cool air on the floor flows to the Spa.

During the summer we have a time clock that turns on the electric hot water heater on for 1 ½  hours at 5 AM and gain at 4 PM for our hot water needs.  A spring wound timer can bring on the water heater at any time for a long as wanted for laundry, extra showers etc.