1000gal or 2000 gal???

[goosegunner]

What the heck am I doing wrong?

I resplit every so often and it's any where from 22-28% mc.

You answered your own question. Below 20% is what most will say. Closer to 15% is even better. Get at least 2 years ahead. And then get enough wood by your boiler so it stays there a week before it goes in the firebox. That will dry the last little bit.

The oak I burn is wicked to handle without gloves on. It is really dry and it gives you really mean slivers.

Oh yeah split it small too.

gg

 

[willyswagon]

How do you do that? For example, you know just how much wood to put in to heat the main floor to 72* and then run out again a few hours later when the house calls for heat again and load a few more in? and so and so on? Or do load enough in to last for 12 hours, which means you have a period of time when the t-stats are all satisfied and the unit will shut off and then relight when the t-stats call for heat again?

I'm home for the most part all winter, so I put in small loads and reload as required.
For example yesterday am I was up at 6am, I knew that there was 4 showers coming, as well as about 3 loads of laundry and a load of dishes in the washer.
That combined with the heat required on a sunny day with no wind takes 6 splits, and will be back down to coals in about 6 hrs (just in time for lunch).

This keeps the boiler cycling quickly and the fire burning hot.

Last night I went out to load about 10 pm knowing that it was going to go mild through the night(rising up to 36* with freezing rain). That makes today an ideal shut down and clean the boiler tube day. That means 5 splits, so there is only a couple of coals and not much heat left. I just went out and checked the fire box. It must have been a little warmer than I thought as the is still about 2" of coals left. I put 1 split on the coals, that will give enough hot water to get the family out of the house and allow the fire box to cool down quickly for a cleaning this am.


Now I agree that if I had 500 gal of open storage I wouldn't have to play the load game, but then things would almost be boring!

 

[infinitymike]

I'm home for the most part all winter, so I put in small loads and reload as required.
For example yesterday am I was up at 6am, I knew that there was 4 showers coming, as well as about 3 loads of laundry and a load of dishes in the washer.
That combined with the heat required on a sunny day with no wind takes 6 splits, and will be back down to coals in about 6 hrs (just in time for lunch).

This keeps the boiler cycling quickly and the fire burning hot.

Last night I went out to load about 10 pm knowing that it was going to go mild through the night(rising up to 36* with freezing rain). That makes today an ideal shut down and clean the boiler tube day. That means 5 splits, so there is only a couple of coals and not much heat left. I just went out and checked the fire box. It must have been a little warmer than I thought as the is still about 2" of coals left. I put 1 split on the coals, that will give enough hot water to get the family out of the house and allow the fire box to cool down quickly for a cleaning this am.


Now I agree that if I had 500 gal of open storage I wouldn't have to play the load game, but then things would almost be boring!

Thats great. Even though my wife is home during the day, I load it up full at 5am and she'll check on it at 2pm maybe add a couple. Then I'll be home soon and take over from there.

We all have our little systems in place. As long as we are getting heat and hot water and we're not wasting to much wood or efficiency it's all good.

 

[infinitymike]

You answered your own question. Below 20% is what most will say. Closer to 15% is even better. Get at least 2 years ahead. And then get enough wood by your boiler so it stays there a week before it goes in the firebox. That will dry the last little bit.

The oak I burn is wicked to handle without gloves on. It is really dry and it gives you really mean slivers.

Oh yeah split it small too.

gg

Wow, 15%?! Small splits?! That seems like it would cause a lot of "puffing"
This is still where I'm slightly confused.
I am splitting some what small. They can range from the size my hand makes when I touch my pointers and thumbs together to the size of an actually 2x4 stud. There are still many splits that will be bigger but that is the average size.

 

[goosegunner]

Wow, 15%?! Small splits?! That seems like it would cause a lot of "puffing"
This is still where I'm slightly confused.
I am splitting some what small. They can range from the size my hand makes when I touch my pointers and thumbs together to the size of an actually 2x4 stud. There are still many splits that will be bigger but that is the average size.

A small portion of my wood is the size of a 2"X4" I would say host of it ranges between the size of those cheap landscape timbers that are 3 x 4 and some that are 4x4 size. I think maybe the difference for me is my boiler never idles when it runs with storage. If I get a good layer of coals established it doesn't seem to matter much what I put in as far as puffing.

You should weigh one of your pieces at 28% and then just keep it near the boiler for a few weeks to get it down to 15-18% and weigh it again. See how much water weight it loses. Multiply that by the typical number you load and I bet you would be shocked how much water your are streaming through the nozzle. Hard to have good gasification with excessive moisture mixed in with the fuel.

gg

 

[infinitymike]

You should weigh one of your pieces at 28% and then just keep it near the boiler for a few weeks to get it down to 15-18% and weigh it again. See how much water weight it loses. Multiply that by the typical number you load and I bet you would be shocked how much water your are streaming through the nozzle. Hard to have good gasification with excessive moisture mixed in with the fuel.

gg

I'll try it.

 

[willyswagon]

one rule of thumb is about 400 gallons of storage per 100k of btus ... or 4/1000 x btus you have .... just what I have seen for some manufactures...best way is to calculate it all out for how long you want to go between firings and how long you want to stay home the day you recharge your tanks...lol...

Is that based on peak BTUs or the heat output for a 8 hr burn?

 

[old wethead]

i believe heat output of wood boiler per hr at max firing output .... this is only a rough guide... the best way is like people have said...figure out how much heat you need to store and how long you can be around on "recharge day" to heat it back up... and also how long you want to go between firings