Thermostatically controlled blowers

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The Frozen Chosen

New Member
Dec 22, 2011
11
Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Hello all ! Very first post so here goes.


Let me start by saying how much I love this site!! I never realised how ignorant I was about burning wood until I got on here. How hard can it be right? After a small chimney fire last November I found you guys and began educating myself......man what a difference, but that is a story for later.

I have an Englander 13 that runs like a champ heating the upstairs of our 2K sq. ft. home (about 1200 w/ an open loft) The problem is, I seem to be switching the blower on and off more often than I want. The stove loves to cruise at about 500 deg. stovetop and about 350 deg. on single wall stovepipe (about 18" up). That is with the noisy but tolerable blower running at low speed. If I shut it off the stove top will climb to 650 or 700. People on here say that they can cruise at that temp all day long and I believe them, however I will be building an alcove around this stove come spring and want to dissipate the excess heat, plus it is sooo much more efficent if I can move that real hot air until the temp is back down around 450 or 500 (stovetop). I would like to control that blower motor with maybe a thermocouple magnetically attached to the stovetop and run to a thermostat that the blower will plug into, then plug the thermostat into the wall. Just cant find anything that will do the trick. I would obviously need to control both set points. Any ideas?

Also, we will both sleep better at night with this set up once we start doing overnight burns again.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
lucky for me, my fan came with a thermostat control cause i wouldn't have a clue on how to make or rig one like you are talking about. good luck. there are some pretty savy guys on this forum, i'm sure someone will jump in....it just might take a little while.

cass
 
The two products Be Green suggested would probably work OK and be a simple to set up,
but if you want something a bit more sophisticated you could do what I did.

I have a digital temperature controller with a magnetic mount thermocouple(what you said you were looking for in your post) that will turn on the blower at a specific stove top temp. It will also sound an alarm if the stove gets too hot. Also, it is more accurate than the stove top thermometers.

There is not really anything off the shelf that is plug and play that I know of. You have to buy the components and assemble it yourself. If you look on Ebay for temperature controllers you should be able to find an decent one for around $30 $40.
 

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Thanks alot Wes.

That is exactly what I'm looking to do. I see that you have 2 controllers and it looks as though one is monitoring your internal pipe temp on your double wall, is this right? Also, does it also control your blower? Seems this would be ideal and I like the idea. Also like the idea of an alarm. I dont want to violate any posting rules (so early in my posting career) but what brand of controllers are they? I would feel better ordering direct from the mfgr. , returning items from Alaska is a real drag and kinda' pricey.

Thanks also to Be Green, those would work in a pinch but it would take a month of Sundays to get the placement right (for on/off control).
 
...see, told you someone would know....these guys are great! :)

cass
 
Yeah, no kidding......I love this place!

I will probably have to PM Wes for an answer. I'm still learning to navigate this site a bit now that I'm posting.

I can't believe I miss-typed my title in my very first post though. Off to a great start eh? I really can speeell. Fat finger syndrome I guess.
 
The Frozen Chosen said:
...I can't believe I miss-typed my title in my very first post though. Off to a great start eh? I really can speeell. Fat finger syndrome I guess.

No worries...fixed. Welcome to the forums! Rick
 
I see that you have 2 controllers and it looks as though one is monitoring your internal pipe temp on your double wall, is this right? Also, does it also control your blower? Seems this would be ideal and I like the idea. Also like the idea of an alarm.

The controller on the left is connected to the magnet mount thermocouple on the stove top, the controller also will turn on the blower when the stove top reaches the set temp.

The controller on the right is connected to the thermocouple probe inside the DW pipe, this controller will also automatically close the air control when the flue temp(inside) reaches 875 °F . It is connected to a modified Honeywell HVAC damper actuator and solenoid, the solenoid locks the cable and the actuator rotates and pulls the air control closed ( about 1/3 per cycle). It is a bit Rube Goldberg but it works well and parts were cheap. It does need a little more fine tuning to get it just right.

The left controller is from http://www.coleparmer.com/Product/T...ype_K_and_J_110V_deg_F/EW-93520-01#vircatalog
It has some nice features like a built in alarm,but the price is a bit high$80.

The one on the left is from here: http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=14

It is cheaper ($35) but if you want an alarm you need an external one. http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=215
 

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I have seen that, looks interesting, I have been meaning to sign up on the forum to see how it works.
Not much info on the website.
I guess mine is the poor mans version :)
 
Just thought I'd let Wes and everyone else (who cares ) know I took the info he gave and ordered everything I needed to control my blower. I will soon be able to automatically turn it on/off at any temperature I choose up to 1800 degrees, with a temperature differential of as little as 1 degree, from wherever I choose to monitor the temperature . ie. stove-top,internal or external pipe temp, heat shield etc. Also with an exact digital temperature display and a light /buzzer alarm with its own set point in case anything overheats. All this for under $90.00 including shipping to Alaska. A small price to pay for precise control, greater efficiency and huge piece of mind for safety........Sweet.
 
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