Hearth.com

I bit the Bullet.

2012-02-12T16:45:24-05:00

I will now be on my third boiler. Had an Aqua Therm for 15 years great boiler until it died, thought I’d be smart and get a better boiler so I bought my Adobe (seton type). Not so good an idea, put up with it now for 4 or 5 years. Just bought an Emypre Elite mostly because there is a dealer within 40 miles. I am in the process of making the switch (planning) . I have a 40 plate exchanger to plumb in. I have my old boiler plumbed just like the diagram at the top of the forum.I plan on putting the exchanger right in the system where the old boiler was. I plan on putting in strainers on the return lines coming from the storage and the new boiler. Do I need to have all of this below the water level of the new boiler as it is non pressure? Are strainers good enough or should I put in filter especially on the storage/house side as there is 1000g plus on that side. I plan on batch burning like i have the last couple of years. Is there a way to shut down the pumps and boiler after the burn other than just a timer as I don’t think the water will ever cool down much with that much storage. The forum has been a wealth of information in the past. This will be my last boiler one way or the other, it will either work or my wife will do me in. Thanks for the help.

Tarm

2012-02-10T08:24:11-05:00

Has anyone ever found out where the Tarm boilers are being made now-a-days. I was happy to know mine was made in Denmark. Love that Scandinavian steel.

New Home Construction

2012-02-03T09:30:42-05:00

Hey guys,
Brand new to all of this! Had a friend who recently purchased a home and he inherited a wood gasification boiler and is loving it! My wife and I are currently in plans to build our home. 3500 sq. ft. with 900 ft. attatched garage. We are in the early stages of planning and do have access to natural gas/electric. Electric and pellet is how we currently heat our small 1200 sq ft home. The HVAC people wanted to know how I planned on heating this house. Before I was introduced to this site, it was going to be forced air natural gas. Now I have some decisions to make!

I have been visiting this site for some time and have found several informative information. Even though outside systems are less effecient, I believe that this is the system that I can talk my wife into. Several questions I have about these. I am not sure if we have any local dealers/installers here in small town Wyoming. Looking for some systems to investigate, which is the best way to heat home - in floor heat, forced air heat, under the floor heat?

All suggestions and input is appreciated!

Joe

Cleaning the NewMac HE Wood Burning Furnace

2012-02-12T11:13:47-05:00

We installed a NewMac conbination 0il/wood furnace when we built our house two years ago. We do regular cleaning of the chimney but what about the inside of the wood furnace. How does one get on the inside and could there be a build-up of creasote there. If not able to give answers recommendations of where to get information on and/or instructions would be greatly appreciated. TIA

Garn WHS3200 & Wood Gun E500 – Another Night Out [Part 7]

2012-02-10T06:34:02-05:00

See Part 6 for links to Parts 1-6.

I’m lamenting the lack of any real winter this season, cold that is. With the Deep Portage improvements, including the added 4000 gal of pressurized storage, correction of the problem with the return water protection valve for the Wood Gun, and more accurate gpm flow calculations through use of measuring differential pressure on the circulators, the only other thing that’s needed is a few really cold days and nights to again put these two fine boilers through some high output paces. That cold weather still is not in the forecast, and may not happen this season.

Observational and anecdotal perspectives:

1) The 4000 gal new storage (plus the 3200 gal of the Garn) has enhanced the combined boiler system performance considerably. The ability to have 7200 gal of 160F+ water has really smoothed out supply temperature and simplified operation of the heating system. With nearly 2 million stored btu’s, good for 4 or more hours of heat from storage only, both day but especially night operations have become effortless.

2) It is now all but impossible to overload either boiler to cause the Garn temp to get too high or cause the Wood Gun to idle. Based on general winter cold conditions, the chief operator sets a target temperature for mid-tank of the 4000 gal storage tank, and staff just loads either one, the other, or both boilers to achieve that target during the day and especially for stating the night. Load 100 or so lbs of wood, which is pretty much a full load for either boiler, and walk away.

3) Staff preference and hot water temperature requirements have shifted to more use of the Wood Gun over the Garn, primarily because the Wood Gun puts out 170-185F water consistently when fired without needing to preheat any of the 7200 gal of storage. The 4000 gal storage tank is supplied directly by the Wood Gun and is plumbed as a hydraulic separator, and if storage is down to 130F, for example, firing the Wood Gun delivers that extra hot water to the top of the tank, which flows through to top of tank supply to system, and the heating system has all the hot water it needs. Extra boiler output then can gradually heat the entire tank without shorting or delay in supplying the heating system demand. Also, I don’t think the Wood Gun ever has gone into idle this season, which was an unpleasant occurrence (to be avoided) last year.

4) Garn use has been heaviest in two situations. First, in fall and early winter (and probably also this coming spring) when higher temperature water has not been needed. Second, to quickly boost the temperature of the entire 7200 gal of storage. At temperatures seen so far this season, the Wood Gun output normally is sufficient to meet system demand, but at higher demand periods it cannot also build-up reserve storage temperature very quickly. This is where the extra output offered by the Garn is very helpful, as both boilers together have an output to system in the range of 1 million btuH, or around 500,000 btuH for each.

5) Perhaps best of all from an economic perspective, use of LP for space heating from the now backup LP boiler system is 0, and use of LP for DHW has been greatly reduced. No more big payments to the “oil man.” Plus, use of local wood has supplied jobs for local loggers and firewood cutters, supported local families, and aided the local economy—all through use of a local, sustainable, fuel wood source of energy. This is a win - win operation for jobs and the environment.

Beginning New Install for PB105 —— Some Early Pics

2012-01-10T01:17:50-05:00

Finally got enough help to put the Harman in the cellar. Took some work just to get the old wood, oil, coal hot air combo and ducts all out. Next came the install of the 7/8” radiant PEX that didn’t want to bend into the 16” bays because it’s only about 50 degrees in the cellar. Should have put that radiant up in July when it would have been easier to bend. Just organizing the fittings and such to install. Have to move the old electric tank out of the way to make room for the back up used Liberty. Plan is to connect both boilers separately to the Smart 100 that I want to use for a buffer tank and the DHW. I have pumps for each boiler and a Stainless Grundfos for the Smart to pump to a 50 plate HX for both radiant and higher temp radiators and baseboard. Maybe in a week or two the Harman can be fired up to supply some radiant at least.

Suggestions on a perfect setup

2012-02-11T05:29:34-05:00

Hi Guys

We are renovating our hydronics system, getting rid of the old boiler and getting a Seton

Our house is pretty large with 22 steel panel radiators rated at 50kw total. The house is old and cold, dont have any real figures on heat loss. We are at 900m and in winter it hovers between -2 at nights and 5 deg C in the day.

The goal is to be be able to start the fire morning and night and have storage to be able to cater for when the boiler has completed the burn. Maybe only once a day in the shoulder seasons. This seems to be very common over there in the US but here in Australia people don’t seem to be doing it with local wood boilers. Our current wood boiler is a dog, needs to be fed every few hours or the house goes cold.

Alternatively the boiler will just burn for 8-10 hours while still providing adequate heat…. But I wonder if this is actually possible.

So the plan was to get a seton w180 and 3700 L (1000 gal) of open storage with a copper coil hx.

I got a million questions but I guess most pressing is…
- Will it work Would love to hear some opinions.
- What’s a good plumbing setup for this, something simple with minimal hx in the storage.
- Assuming copper pipe in the storage, what’s a good diameter and how to you determine the length

I am sure there is more but les see how that goes

Thanks!!!!

David

New Effecta Lambda 35kw install with 1000gal storage

2012-02-12T20:53:12-05:00

Starting our second Effecta install, The tank went in today 41” 1000gal propane tank
had to put through a 45” door, everything went as planned, will post more pics as the install
continues. Will be a forced air setup at the moment, with plans for baseboard and in floor
heat at a later date.

Woodgun chugging

2012-02-12T21:37:39-05:00

I am still having trouble with the Woodgun chugging, if I open the door a bit it stops chugging and seems to run great but If I close the door and open the air inlet damper all the way it it chugs like crazy. AHS said to close air inlet and that is what I have been doing but it seems to cause a lot of little charcoal bits to get into the smoke pipe and flue and actually clogs it up. Isn’t this an obvious sign of burning rich and that more air is needed? If opening the door solves the problem is this not another sign that more air is needed, What if I geared up some type of blower to force more air into the air inlet than is currently being sucked in such as a leaf blower? What about a more direct, smoother flowing smoke pipe than the design suggested in the manual, which is approx. 4’ up, 4’ perpendicular and then another 4’ perpendicular again? This even occurs with 4-5 8” rounds , all my wood is extremely dry maple, wood room is 90F all the time.

Oil & Wood Gasser same chimney [New Idea] well to me anyways

2012-02-12T13:45:51-05:00

I have a 8inch. Square brick chimney. now let see that is 64 sq, inch;s.. the 6inch pipe on oil boiler and wood are 28.27 sq. inch each. So why not run a 6 inch stainless pipe up midle for wood boiler and rest for oil ??? They would not touch and each have enough square inch,s for area to flue, am I missing something??
My wood garsser has its own outside air supply and would be very rare if both ran same time anyways.