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Where the heat goes RENEWABLE FUEL With the downstairs converted into a cabinet shop, an old bank barn is where Merv and Travis turn logs into fine cabi- netry. The upstairs serves as storage for kiln-dried wood and shop space for a large planer and moulder. The heated area is roughly 2,600 sq. ft. and includes three zones for the main shop floor, office, and spray booth. The office receives heat from fin tube baseboard, and the main shop floor has two large fan coil units hanging from the ceiling. “We had to get a little creative when it came to heating the spray booth area. With the spray gun running on one side of the booth, and other projects drying on the other, we couldn’t afford to have air movement interfering with the ventilation system,” explained Merv. To solve the problem, three cast iron hot water radiators, once used within the home, were installed in the spray booth. HOUSE The 2,250 sq. ft. farmhouse was like most turn-of-the-century homes with central hallways, above and below, with smaller rooms. Merv and Travis gutted the house room by room, tear- ing out horsehair plaster and staircases while also eliminating a few non-weight bearing walls to open up and enlarge living areas. With a revamped floor plan, new hardwood staircase, tile flooring, and a new, luxurious Wenger kitchen, the old house was ready for a new heating system. Previously, the home was heated by the old (now recycled) radiators connected to a greatly-oversized, cast iron sectional oil fired boiler. It, and the 275-gallon fuel tank that fed it, were disassembled and pulled out of the basement piece by piece. APARTMENT The detached apartment, just 60 feet from the house, shares a wall with the mechanical room. Next to that, a 2,000 s.f. equipment garage that Merv plans to remodel, then heat with a simple exten- sion to the existing system. “We stubbed-out a feed line for a fan coil unit last year; that’s what I’ll use to heat the big garage.” An aquastat on the big tank tells the wood boiler when it needs heat. As long as the Wengers are there to stoke the wood boiler, hot water is supplied to the buffer tank. From there, it moves out to an extensive array of pumps, valves and control panels that temper the water and send it on its way, underground, to the home, woodshop and apartment. If the Wengers aren’t there to fuel the wood boiler, two standby oil boilers (each, 150 MBH) are at the ready; though, when they’re active, heat goes directly into the system, bypassing the giant buffer tank. The oil burners draw fuel from a new underground, 500-gallon, double-wall tank supplied by Highland Tank. “Last winter we went away for a long weekend and left with a strong fire in the boiler,” said Merv, “The buffer tank had enough 30 MAY 2011 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com Where the heat goes BARN + SHOP The apartment’s domestic water needs are met by a 60-gal- lon indirect water heater from Bradford White that, like the larger one in the home, also receives its heat from the wood- fired boiler. ALL UP IN SMOKE, MINUS THE SMOKE; DOLLARS SAVED Last winter the Wengers burned seven cords of firewood to heat the house, apartment, and cabinet shop. “Looking at old heating bills, it was easy to see that we saved between eight and ten thousand dollars last winter alone, and we were a whole lot more comfortable than ever before,” said Merv. “That number will rise with energy prices,” added Travis, who has already cut and stacked 50 cords of firewood a short distance from where the boiler stands. At a hardwood average of 20 million BTUs per cord, that’s a billion BTUs in storage, or an equivalent to 7,200 gallons of fuel oil! A WORK IN PROGRESS As part of the garage heat conversion, Merv plans to change the wood kiln’s electric heat source to draw BTUs from the new hydronic system. “When we do that,” added Travis, “the heat conversion will be complete.” But before that, Travis and Merv will soon pull the siding off the apartment and hang two-inch styrofoam insulation on the exterior. Then, both the house and the apartment will receive an ‘insulation overhaul,’ as Travis likes to refer to it. Before year’s end, both buildings—which lack ductwork— will receive air conditioning for the first time. The Wengers will install 15 to 18 SEER, multi-zone Fujitsu ductless heat pump systems in the apartment and the house. “We focused on heating needs for lots of reasons, but we didn’t want to ignore the need for year-round comfort, and it gets awful hot and humid here,” concluded Merv. “I have a feeling we’ll be a lot more comfortable in years to come.” l FON thermal mass to heat all three buildings until we returned. The oil boilers never kicked in.” On the same token, 12 hours is needed to bring the tank up to temp from a cold start. In the summer months, the big tank, once at peak temperature, will provide the property with enough BTUs to heat domestic hot water (via indirect water heaters) for about five days. BTU HIGHWAY To transport hot water to the house, apartment and shop, the Wengers installed 500 feet of 1-1/4-inch, insulated Uponor EcoFlex tubing, buried four feet underground—including one 25-foot section that was tunneled under the driveway to feed the farmhouse. EcoFlex provides a supply and return line centered in