Switched from Bigleaf Maple to Douglas Fir

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huffdawg

Minister of Fire
Oct 3, 2009
1,457
British Columbia Canada
Started burning douglas fir a couple days ago and I am getting a lot longer burntimes compared to the the maple . I think the maple was way too dry and thats what was causing erosion on the lower door and the refractory around the jet.. I was also doing some research on the btu values of wood and you have to wonder about some of the claims ,not very many sites claim the same numbers.
I was also trying to find the btu value of yellow cedar and can't seem to find it .

Huff
 
Started burning douglas fir a couple days ago and I am getting a lot longer burntimes compared to the the maple . I think the maple was way too dry and thats what was causing erosion on the lower door and the refractory around the jet.. I was also doing some research on the btu values of wood and you have to wonder about some of the claims ,not very many sites claim the same numbers.
I was also trying to find the btu value of yellow cedar and can't seem to find it .

Huff
It's my belief that nearly all wood, both soft and hard, have about 7950 btu/lb. Note that's for weight of bone dry or oven dry wood, not volume such as is the cord. Far as I know, we don't have any yellow cedar here in the northeast, only red and white. In addition, some softwoods, conifers, will produce more but/lb than the 7950 because of the presence of resins, which are flammable and raise the overall heating value of those softwoods. So my answer to the yellow cedar would be 7950+ btu/lb. One thing we could look at is the MC. Whichever wood will air-dry to the lowest internal MC will produce the most heat output/lb.
 
Started burning douglas fir a couple days ago and I am getting a lot longer burntimes compared to the the maple . I think the maple was way too dry and thats what was causing erosion on the lower door and the refractory around the jet.. I was also doing some research on the btu values of wood and you have to wonder about some of the claims ,not very many sites claim the same numbers.
I was also trying to find the btu value of yellow cedar and can't seem to find it .

Huff
I live in Northeast Washington and burn Douglass Fir and Tamarack. In the early fall I burn Cedar. My EKO 40 has been in use for 4 heating seasons and I have no erosion on the lower door and the Jet shows some erosion. I have replaced the old refractory brick with the new style. The moisture content of my wood runs from 10 to 20 percent. I only have 80 gallons of storage and my Eko cycles on and off and I do not have burns lasting more than 10 minutes. Maybe the long burn time with your storage is causing the erosion. I always keep my boiler set for 190 degrees. Boiler tunes on at 186 and shuts off at 190 and then usually rises to 192 or 194 after shutdown..
 
I live in Northeast Washington and burn Douglass Fir and Tamarack. In the early fall I burn Cedar. My EKO 40 has been in use for 4 heating seasons and I have no erosion on the lower door and the Jet shows some erosion. I have replaced the old refractory brick with the new style. The moisture content of my wood runs from 10 to 20 percent. I only have 80 gallons of storage and my Eko cycles on and off and I do not have burns lasting more than 10 minutes. Maybe the long burn time with your storage is causing the erosion. I always keep my boiler set for 190 degrees. Boiler tunes on at 186 and shuts off at 190 and then usually rises to 192 or 194 after shutdown..

What are your settings at BDA. Right now I have my fan set at 100 till I get a good fire going then I turn it down to 60. my secondaries are at 3 turns and primaries at 13 mm. what sort of cedar do you burn . I'm guessing it will burn up pretty fast.

Huff
 
What is BDA. My fan shutter is always 1/2 open. I do open to 100 if I get a Fuel message to get the fire going again. My secondaries and primaries are set like yours. I think it is called Pencil Cedar. I burn it in the fall when I have a low BTU need. I still only load the boiler twice a day. Only if it is in the teens do I need to fill the boiler more than twice a day. Right now with the temperature around 45 F during the day and around 32 F at night I fill the boiler every 16 to 18 hours.
 
What is BDA. My fan shutter is always 1/2 open. I do open to 100 if I get a Fuel message to get the fire going again. My secondaries and primaries are set like yours. I think it is called Pencil Cedar. I burn it in the fall when I have a low BTU need. I still only load the boiler twice a day. Only if it is in the teens do I need to fill the boiler more than twice a day. Right now with the temperature around 45 F during the day and around 32 F at night I fill the boiler every 16 to 18 hours.

BDA was just a lazy way of typing BulldogAcres. I have had my fan shutter @ wideopen maybe i'll try it at half. our temps are simillar to yours right now.
How many square feet are you heating.
I'm heating approx 4500 sqare feet ( 2 buildings) I burn about a load and a half right now.
 
Huff,
I am heating about 2000 square feet. I have five zones in my one story log home. My incoming water is at 115 F. I have already closed off two zones to keep the house temperature around 69F to 70F. I regulate the incoming water temperature between 110F and 130F depending on the outside temperature. My system is all manual with no automated valves or sensors. I do have thermostats for the five zones, but only turn them on when the outside temperature is in the low teens. All the other time the hot water pump is all I need to keep the hot water flowing through the system. I use a flat plate heat exchanger that separates the boiler water from the heating and domestic hot water. My domestic hot water taps off the heating hot water. It is all circulated in one loop that runs from the boiler 100 feet away from the house in its own building. The domestic hot water loops back to the return heating hot water. I always have instant hot water at all my hot water taps. I have 2 buffer tanks one 40 and 30 gallon. I keep them at 180F. The buffer tanks get all the hot water from the flat plate heat exchanger.The retuning hot water from the house goes through a mixing valve and uses the 180F water to bring the outgoing hot water up to temperature. The buffer tanks are propane water heater, that I can turn on in case I case the boiler can not keep up with the heat load. I have never had to turn them on. I will use them to supply hot domestic water to the house when the boiler is shut down for the summer.
 
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