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Posted by HeatPro on December 27, 2008 at 18:04:38:
In Reply to: multi fuel steam boiler posted by mike on December 27, 2008 at 17:50:14:
: does anyone know if there is a wood and oil fired steam boiler on the market??
I wood doubt it. Wood boilers before 1950 were about 50% efficient so the fly ash wouldn't clog the passages quickly. Burning oil in them as a conversion was OK when oil was cheap. But who knows - the romance of getting, chopping, burning, ashing brings back the century old days of inconvenience, and dreaming that one can throw away 50% of their fuel.
A steam boiler for residential use using both wood and oil would be a waste. Residential steam systems are among the least efficient, so coupled with wood and oil would be large dollars for little good. Such might work for an apartment building using wood, but who would stoke that? There is also the question whether a town would allow such pollution.
Better to have an oil boiler and a wood boiler next to each other - takes a fairly large building with separate chimneys.
There would be some in large industrial use for bagasse or waste purposes.