Seton Boiler Project

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Pete Clark

New Member
Aug 18, 2012
7
S.E. Ohio
First I'd like to thank you all for educating me on wood boilers. While I bought a Seton W-90 three years ago, I'm just now getting to the "fun" part. Learning how to fire this little girl. The folks at Bethel Engineering thought this boiler was too large for my house, but when I suggested a 500 gal. storage tank they consented to taking my money. I thought, "that's a switch". I've built a 12' X 24 ' shed atop a concrete pad. I set the tank and boiler and started the piping. As I threaded the 1" schedule 80 by hand, I told my wife "this is apprentice work, how bout a hand". You can imagine the response. It was just starting to get cold last winter when I finished the boiler. This spring I repiped the propane unit in the house to tie in the Seton. After 4 days of firing, I think I like it. I'll try to post some pictures a little later.
 
Welcome! Pics......pics.......pics, and oh ya pics! There havn't been many on in awhile with Fred's design in boiler, let us know how it works for you.

TS
 
Welcome! Pics......pics.......pics, and oh ya pics! There havn't been many on in awhile with Fred's design in boiler, let us know how it works for you.

TS
I hope these show? I'm heating a 2400 sq. ft. 12 yr. old log home with baseboard fin tube. The boiler house sits 50 feet from the house. With outside temps of 20* warming to mid 40*'s in the afternoon. I've tried to make my burns heat the storage to 180* mid tank, then run the house until I'm down to the 130-140 range. Trying to figure out if I should go lower with these temps. Return temps from the house to storage have consistently stayed in the 120 +/-. Any comments would be appreciated. (click on label and they're right side up??)
 

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I'm running a Seton boiler as well. I love how you mounted your 500 gallon tank to the ceiling must be easier to get the air out that way! Just kidding. Looks good to me. I think with baseboard heat you can go down to around 150° and have it still work. Mid tank is going to be different from top of the tank. Mine is 15 to 20 Degrees from top to middle. How much expansion do you have?
 
I'm running a Seton boiler as well. I love how you mounted your 500 gallon tank to the ceiling must be easier to get the air out that way! Just kidding. Looks good to me. I think with baseboard heat you can go down to around 150° and have it still work. Mid tank is going to be different from top of the tank. Mine is 15 to 20 Degrees from top to middle. How much expansion do you have?
Expansion is the little tank that came with the boiler and a 44 gal/34 acceptance. I raised the storage tank in hopes I could use it as a dump as well. I forgot to take the internal check out of the pump, so I haven't tried it yet. The bottom of the tank is 6" above the boiler supply pipe and the top is about 30" above the boiler outlet. What do you think?
 
The line in the bottom of the boiler is the return. Line out of top of the boiler is the supply. Using the storage tank is a dump zone is a good idea, that's what I do as well. . But you still need a circulator to move the water even if you have a power outage. Thermosiphon isn't enough for that style boiler. I should say it doesn't work for mine anyways. Your set up looks very good though!
 
I have mine plumbed with 1 1/4" blackpipe to and from my 500 gallon storage. I ususally run my tank to about 192-195F. The bottom is usually about 177-182F when I'm done with the burn. I've got baseboard heat also, but I ususally only go to about 145F before the boiler kicks on again. At 120-130F your not getting much heat with baseboard and just running circulators with not much in heat transfer to the house. As long as you have a dump zone there is no harm in running your supply up to at least 190F. I even go as high as 197F when its really cold out and there is a lot of heat demand.
 
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