Some heating thoughts

I am assuming we have a normal winter load of 300,000btu's per hour and a peak load of 500,000btu's an hour. Obviously these numbers will be checked as far as they can.

It seems to be a common view amongst users that the Garn published numbers are conservative, but I have derated them because of our altitude/fuel supply. We have also the wood stove in the Bar that might add 60,000 btu's to the equation. And a bit of solar and operational gain. We also intend adding solar panels, but they would not add much to the severe weather condition.

Garn 2000
Storage 1,050,000btu
Burn rate 380,000btu per hour

Garn 1500

Storage 800,000btu

Burn rate 300,000btu per hour

The 1500 would have issues keeping up with our need under normal circumstances. If you loaded it last thing it might get through the night especially as we would not need the same heat level in the public areas. It would have no chance in really cold weather.

The 2000 should be able to keep up normally, and with its storage capacity gives us a bit of lee way if it is not kept regulary re filled. In really cold weather it probably would for a day, any longer and we would have to accept a lower temperature in the building. In really cold weather we could well find that this coincides with lower occupancy, reduced need for heating in certain areas. And it is unusual for it stay really cold for long periods. We also have the option of switching in the electrical backup, another 150,000 btu's, but expensive.

2 x 1500's is the obviously solution, Burn rate would allow us to replenish storage even in bad weather, and the storage would comfortably see us through the night. Also during the shoulder season we only would need have one on line.

And if were able to add a lot of Solar panels at some time in the future, the extra storage could make a big difference to our wood demand.

But as always at a cost.