1948 Axeman 130

LsFarm wrote:Hi Larry, neither the Keystoker or the AA130 will add any humidity to the house.. the problem in the winter is that when the cold air in winter is heated, it needs to have a lot of moisture added to the heated air to keep the % humidity in the comfort zone... and neither the keystoker or an AA boiler will add humidity to the air.

With either heat system you need to add a full time humidifier in your house. The above post has a link to a good humidifier.

An AA boiler is a very good unit, I would recommend it for a hot water baseboard or hydronic floor heat system . by the way you can use hot water hydronic floor heat with wood floors..

Hope this helps...
Greg L.

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Yrs ago I burned a Alaska stoker in my basement . Couldn't touch anything in the house because of the shock you would get because it was so dry. Since I switched to a boiler system w radient floor heat it is very comfortable no more shocks . My wife will occasionally runs a humidifier in the bedroom when she has a cold other than that none needed . I think burning a stove at 400-500 degrees really drys the air . The boiler at 160 -180 dosent so much . Dave

I agree with flyer5.

I have a 1100 ft2 RR house w/ ~ 800 ft2 basement (the rest of the basement is the garage).

I am running TWO 2500ft2 whole house humidifiers, 1 upstairs and 1 in the basement, and the house still gets slightly on the dry side when we have a really good cold snap (teens or lower temps).

I can't wait to get a boiler installed since I already have existing baseboard in my house. I'm hoping to make that happen by this summer.

Good luck in your quest.

Larry Bowen wrote:Back to the thread, would the house be as warm with baseboard hot water(can't do floor radiant, hardwood floors) I could always have a zone for the basement to keep my warm floors. Would the AA130 with baseboard hw have enough btu's to do the job my hot air does minus the dry heat problem? I do, because of a previous project have 3/4 copper run to most of house for baseboard HW, and I don't have a domestic coil for the 70k, and I'm determined to get off the electric grid for domestic hot water. Two more points for the AA.
Larry

I would think that a boiler in the 130,000 btu output range would have enough to heat your house. You say you are already doing it with a 70,000 btu stove. The 100 to 130 thousand btu boilers are good for most average sized houses, you should not need anything bigger unless you have a very large place. The boiler will throw off some heat in the basement. If you have a large basement or want the basement as warm as the rooms above you will need to add some radiation in the basement, especially in the areas furtherest from the boiler.

Personally I think hot water heat is the best of them all. If I were building a new house my choices would be 1st in floor radiant hot water, 2nd cast iron radiators, 3rd fin baseboard. For an old house my choices are 1st cast iron radiators, 2nd fin baseboard. In the reading and researching into installing radiant floor heat in an existing house it does not seam to be that practical. These are my opinions base on my personal observations, others may form different opinions based on the same information.

I have hot water copper fin type baseboard and this morning the indoor humidity is 20% so in the winter you will still probably need a humidifier if you want more humid air.

No matter how you cut it, the physics of 'relative humidity' will give very low indoor heated air humidity in the wintertime..

The cold air in the winter even if at 100% relative humidity at say 25* f will be only about 20% relative humidity if heated to 75*f...

Put another way, Hot air can contain a lot more humidity than cold air... that is why on a cool night following a hot humid day, we get fog and dew, the humidity condensed out of the air as it cools...

So in the wintertime, you need to add humidity to your house... no mater what... I have lived in nothing but hot water floor/baseboard heated houses for the last 45 years, and all of them needed a humidifier in the bedrooms so that we didn't end up with dry sore throats, cracked lips and other assorted low humidity ills...

A good console humidifier with easlily refillable water containers is a must.. unless you have a hot air system with a ductwork mounted humidifier.... I put one of those into one of my baseboard heated houses, so I could have air filtration and full time humidifier... it was worth the work... can't make it happen inthis old hodge-podge house though.

Greg L

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Neato Dave.

I know who you sold that 130 to.

Hi larry here is some info showing how much SQ Ft that the A-A 130m & the AHS 130m will heat I dont think you wil have any problems heating what you are looking to Heat You May also want to look at the EMF 520 aswell good luck

http://www.alternateheatingsystems.com/coalboilers.htm

http://www.axeman-anderson.com/pdf/anthratube.pdf

http://www.efmheating.com/d520.html

cArNaGe wrote:Neato Dave.

I know who you sold that 130 to.

You must be a local as well . News travels fast up here in the boonies . I am looking forward to seeing it in action . Dave

I don't want to beat this thread to death , I am grateful for the fact you guys took the time to reply,but Iwould like to know where that 12-15 gallons of water I add to my air goes. I half expect to open a seldom used door and a tsunami water surge comes barreling out and sweeps away everything but my very stout stoker. Is it going up the chimney,? in the log walls? Through my insulation?

Hi Larry, that humidity goes out the door when you open it, up the chimney, but most of it works it's way through the paint, drywall, insulation and out the vents in the attic..

I had a plastic roof put on a previous house, it was impervious to moisture from either side.. I had what I thought were leaks through the roof,, but what was found was that the plastic roof was cold and the moisture from the house was condensing on the underside of the roofing,, and finding places to leak back into the house... a bunch of addtional vents were needed to vent the moisture...

In another house, the eve vents were blocked by insulation jammed in the roof/wall junction, the attic had no venting... The amount of moisture making it through the paint and drywall [sheetrock] was amazing,, I had icesicles hanging from the roof rafters.. The moisture deplyed the plywood, and I had to replace all the roofing and plywood.. all because the person who insulated the ceiling was too generous with the insulation and blocked the airflow from the eves..

So the humidity leaves the house to the dry outside air everyway it can.. from everywhere it can.

Greg L