Building a Chimney for a Kb8 Boiler

Olllotj · Post by **Olllotj** » Wed. Jan. 28, 2015 11:55 am

Soon I will be building an attached garage with a partitioned boiler room specifically for a brand new Keystoker KB8 that has been sitting uninstalled in my basement for a few years.

What type of chimney, size and height would be optimal for the keystoker boiler? Flu outlet is 9" and net BTU is 162K, Gross BTU is 192k.

Location is Western NY, and elevation is about 1650ft

lzaharis · Post by **lzaharis** » Wed. Jan. 28, 2015 12:15 pm

Hello Neighbor,

Ideally your chimney should clear the garage peak but the higher the better.

My block tile lined chimney barely cleared the peak of my converted school house roof
and I bought a chimney extension from Rockford chimney supply and added 3 feet +- and
its made all the difference for my hand fired Switzer coal and wood boiler.

SO you could have the chimney built to 16 feet and add the stainless steel extension to
add 3 feet of height(including the cast chimney cap collar.

A sixteen foot tall 8 by 8 tile lined chimney with a three foot extension and rain cap
is slightly more than the square area of your flue so that should be plenty of area
and height for it.

You also want to anchor the chimney to the peak either at the end or on the side of
the garage. I have a 1 inch steel tube bolted to the eave of my home which is connected
to the chimney with a steel strap that surrounds the chimney and bolted to the 1 by square tube.

Post by **Lightning** » Wed. Jan. 28, 2015 12:31 pm

Olllotj wrote:Soon I will be building an attached garage with a partitioned boiler room specifically for a brand new Keystoker KB8 that has been sitting uninstalled in my basement for a few years.

What type of chimney, size and height would be optimal for the keystoker boiler? Flu outlet is 9" and net BTU is 162K, Gross BTU is 192k.

Location is Western NY, and elevation is about 1650ft

Why go thru all that trouble? It will look good sitting in the basement and any residual heat from the unit will help warm the floors in the level above..

Olllotj · Post by **Olllotj** » Wed. Jan. 28, 2015 12:42 pm

The boiler is going in the garage so that I can move the coal in and out of the garage easily with the loader on the tractor.

What's one more basement zone for the kb-8.

Pacowy · Post by **Pacowy** » Wed. Jan. 28, 2015 1:56 pm

Olllotj wrote:The boiler is going in the garage so that I can move the coal in and out of the garage easily with the loader on the tractor.

What's one more basement zone for the kb-8.

I move the coal easily to the coal bin in my basement using a loader (via coal door in a window well). With the boiler in the basement, much of the heat "lost" by the system still warms the house. In the garage, there normally would be a parasitic load associated with protecting the piping, keeping the coal from freezing, etc. In our old house we heated the basement with heat given off by the boiler and piping (no zone required). I would view a boiler in a garage as a last resort, and in most cases a cause of reduced overall efficiency.

Mike

Post by **Lightning** » Wed. Jan. 28, 2015 2:19 pm

Yup.. it means less coal burned in the long run. I dunno if you have room but you could partition off a corner to store coal. Put a small access portal thru the foundation. Design a funnel like structure to dump the coal into that leads to the bin. Maybe you already have a chimney there to connect to. I'd be all over it hahaha..

Olllotj · Post by **Olllotj** » Fri. Mar. 27, 2015 1:26 pm

OK, so I have decided to put the KB-8 Boiler in the basement. I couldn't find any way for the garage install to pass code. Now that that has been decided, (Thank you) Lets talk about building materials for the Chimney. Would you build it out of the 18x18 block? round or square liner? It will be an interior chimney, Here is the footprint. with proposed chimney

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Sat. Mar. 28, 2015 12:30 am

9" Flue should eliminate some of the options.

Dirty Steve · Post by **Dirty Steve** » Mon. Mar. 30, 2015 4:30 pm

Now there is quite an addition! Wish I had a garage. I built a double chimney. One for oil and the other side for an alternative fuel. I chose coal finally and damn glad I did! The masaon built it out of 4 inch x 8 in x 16 in solid core blocks on edge and a pair of square 8 inch liners. Big pad was poured with the house footer. 38 feet up from the wall thimbles. Starts 5 feet below ground. It will hold a draft for coal all summer. I always felt it shoul have had a stonger draft though.

331camaro · Post by **331camaro** » Tue. Mar. 31, 2015 5:46 am

where in wny are you? I put my boiler in my garage and had it inspected, no problems, local inspector just wanted 5/8 drywall behind it lol! but things change town to town.

lzaharis · Post by **lzaharis** » Thu. Apr. 02, 2015 11:14 am

Olllotj wrote:OK, so I have decided to put the KB-8 Boiler in the basement. I couldn't find any way for the garage install to pass code. Now that that has been decided, (Thank you) Lets talk about building materials for the Chimney. Would you build it out of the 18x18 block? round or square liner? It will be an interior chimney, Here is the footprint. with proposed chimney

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As long as your install passes the national plumbing code for the garage install
using fire resistant sheet rock in the ceiling of the garage and cinder block walls
with fireproof door to separate the boiler from the garage I see no reason why
it will not pass

I hate to see you spend all the time and that extra money installing it in
the basement in my opinion when it is not needed.

Are you buying a a KB8 with a dual fuel system????????????????????????
If not why not???

I will be replacing a wood and coal hand fired unit and a Buderus oil fired unit with a
KAA-4 dual fuel unit using my 8 by 12 tile lined chimney or having a slab poured to finally
have the boiler and the coal away from the house.

As your using a forced draft you could use an 8 by 12 tile lined chimney with a chimney extension above the highest roof- forget using stainless steel or a stainless steel liner as the fly ash is corrosive.

I could see it of you were converting to a single pipe steam system which is more efficient
but for hydronic heat I would install it in the garage if you have room as all you need is
fire resistant sheet rock in the ceiling and a cinder block wall to separate it with a fireproof door.

Your plumber can get a KB8 boiler in your garage and get it to pass national plumbing code
with flying colors!!

Waiting for more info...................................................................................

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Post by **Rob R.** » Thu. Apr. 02, 2015 12:56 pm

lzaharis wrote:I hate to see you spend all the time and that extra money installing it in the basement in my opinion when it is not needed.

How would it cost more to install it in the basement? The boiler is already there, and he needs to build a boiler room and chimney in order to install it in the garage. Considering the cost of a chimney, boiler room and piping between the garage, I would expect the basement install to be considerably less expensive...am I missing something?

A K8 is a large boiler, and as a result it will shed a fair amount of heat into the area it is located in. Unless you want to keep the garage warm anyway, a basement install will be more economical to operate.

Olllotj · Post by **Olllotj** » Thu. Apr. 02, 2015 2:22 pm

Thank you for the help and discussion.

From what I understand of the national fire code it states that garage installs are only permitted if the Boiler is partitioned with fire walls, and the only entrance is from the exterior of the garage. Thus defeating the purpose of the ease of a garage install. Also if the boiler was actually partitioned correctly the garage would not get any of the free radiant heat coming off of the boiler.

I completely agree I could most likely get past my local code guy, however there is doing it right, and wrong in play here.

The cost comparison seems like a wash to me. I need to build a chimney for either location. So either I build a fancy partitioned boiler room in the garage, with separate entrance, or I build a taller chimney from the basement.

Unfortunately, I am not going dual fuel because I am not currently setup for OIL. And am not looking to get a 3rd fuel source trucked to my rural home.

Thoughts?

Olllotj · Post by **Olllotj** » Thu. Apr. 02, 2015 2:28 pm

331camaro wrote:where in wny are you? I put my boiler in my garage and had it inspected, no problems, local inspector just wanted 5/8 drywall behind it lol! but things change town to town.

Can you post a picture of your garage install? I'm interested.

lzaharis · Post by **lzaharis** » Thu. Apr. 02, 2015 6:06 pm

OK, so what you seem to be saying is you are using natural gas already?????

What is preventing you from buying a dual fuel unit from Don Somers that
will also burn propane gas as well as coal??????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

They do sell dual fuel units that burn propane I believe.

I think it amounts to a nozzle change from what I have seen as LP requires a larger
diameter burner jet passageway due to the nature of the liquified propane's need
for more oxygen in the fuel stream and the NG passages on burners are drilled out
slightly larger to allow the use of propane as a fuel gas.

Building a Chimney for a Kb8 Boiler

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