I decided to Sacrifice efficency during cold snap by idling.

flyingcow said:

I had one night where I pushed my tank up to 185(top) 180(mid) and high 170's(btm). Never done that before. Usually might push top to 180. But thats not very often. My stack temp is still just 500. So I should be all set for these next few days. I never had to burn around the clock, but instead of two loads of wood which is anywhere from 7 to 8 hours, I probably burned 11 to 12?

I would see where the variable speed fan would be a nice thing. Maybe if I could get Chris Hoskin's to sell me a Froling' at cost, i might have it.

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How much cycling/idling (what ever you call it) did it take to get the tank up that high?

I'm happy if I hit 170-175, and unless it's really cold outside my boiler will cycle a few times to get to that point. I've been wondering if I can install a bigger pump in my LK 810. It's suppose to handle up to 65kW (my Innova is only a 30kW model) but I thinking that the head of the exchanger is slowing thing down a bit. I'm getting good transfer, the water coming out of the exchanger is always with in a dregree or two of the tank temp, I don't think I'm moving the water quick enough though.

K

My boiler can't idle, and I have no problem getting storage up to 190/180 with an LK810 on low speed.

EDIT: Noticed after posting I think we're talking non-pressurized vs. pressurized storage, so that post might not be helpful.

huffdawg said:

My wife is chief boilerman when I'm gone to work for 2 weeks . the funny thing is , on average she burns about 25% less wood then I do.. She never seems to push storage much over 175 . I always like trying to get the highest temps I can.. I don't let her know that though,it might go to her head! lol.

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kopeck said:

How much cycling/idling (what ever you call it) did it take to get the tank up that high?

I'm happy if I hit 170-175, and unless it's really cold outside my boiler will cycle a few times to get to that point. I've been wondering if I can install a bigger pump in my LK 810. It's suppose to handle up to 65kW (my Innova is only a 30kW model) but I thinking that the head of the exchanger is slowing thing down a bit. I'm getting good transfer, the water coming out of the exchanger is always with in a dregree or two of the tank temp, I don't think I'm moving the water quick enough though.

K

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Not sure how much idiling. My boiler is next door and once i fill it I don't go back. But i suspect it's a bit. Normally I do the same as you. Shoot for about 170 on top and call it good. Performs well that way. The HX's that came with the tank seems to dump a lot of heat into tank pretty quickly I thought. I think the Grundofoss is turned up on high.

maple1 said:

My boiler can't idle, and I have no problem getting storage up to 190/180 with an LK810 on low speed.

EDIT: Noticed after posting I think we're talking non-pressurized vs. pressurized storage, so that post might not be helpful.

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Yeah I think it would be a good trick if I hit 190.

flyingcow said:

Not sure how much idiling. My boiler is next door and once i fill it I don't go back. But i suspect it's a bit. Normally I do the same as you. Shoot for about 170 on top and call it good. Performs well that way. The HX's that came with the tank seems to dump a lot of heat into tank pretty quickly I thought. I think the Grundofoss is turned up on high.

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It dumps heat pretty well, it just idles a few times, for a short time, from say 158/160 on it way up to 170/175.

Mine is in the basement so I can hear it kick on/off. I think I'm worrying about it to much, I don't get creosote in the fire tubes so it's burning clean, it just need a minute every now an then to clear it's self of hot water.

The LK810 is suppose to work on boilers up to 200kW. The pump isn't anything to write home about though, 12GPM with a max head of 10 feet. Do you have the loading valve or a pump & tempering valve?

K

flyingcow said:

Yeah I think it would be a good trick if I hit 190.

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That would be a pretty good trick. I like my setup, it allows me some flexibility that pressurized storage would not. That being said I there are advantages to the other side and high temps is one of them!

K

Kopeck- I have the loading valve.

Also, this is not my first time overloading my boiler to gain comfort. My house(because of me) wasn't built above the avg R-values of 20 yrs ago. I've never seen creosote in the tubes. Once in blue moon, maybe a drip or two down the single wall pipe between the boiler and chimney. If i was to this over again, I would have had an Innova-50 with 1000 gals of storage. Or a sweet Frloing'..............

kopeck said:

That would be a pretty good trick. I like my setup, it allows me some flexibility that pressurized storage would not. That being said I there are advantages to the other side and high temps is one of them!

K

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What are the flexibility advantages you're seeing with unpressurized?

Unpressurized does everything for me that needs to happen to make my life easier but the only advantage I see over pressurized is the ability to easily run a domestic water coil through the tank.

I turned my EKO 25 into maybe an EKO 12 by wedging a partial firebrick over half of the nozzle ,this allows the boiler to work at its full potential with out idling (kinda of like giving your car car just enough gas to drive 30mph instead of 60) . Fan speed 50%

Current conditions:
-18*f outside
Tanks have been hoovering around the 180* range.
House at 72* from one end to the other
Water supplied to rads 130*

Another strategy I use to control heat output from the boiler is the size of the wood.

If my tanks are on the low side I will burn small splits or branches for increased wood gas available.

If the tanks are on the high side I will burn much large splits which will limit the amount of wood gas available.

I'm fortunate that the wood I am burning is 4 - 5 year old seasoned Ash of various sizes.

Yet another strategy is that there is usually someone in my family home to tend the fire during the day so we can burn partial loads (again limiting wood gas available) then pack the firebox full at night.

My tanks will usually range from 160-180*,low enough so the boiler has something to push against without idling.(Buffer tanks are wonderful)

I started using these strategies last year so I could get away from building so many fires from scratch,I don't believe I use any more wood then previous years.

maple1 said:

What are the flexibility advantages you're seeing with unpressurized?

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I easily added a heat pump to my storage for summer DHW, I could also easily add solar as well. My setup uses a copper exchanger in the storage so it's the best of both worlds in some respects. My system is under pressure but my storage is not. The by products of that is I only need a tiny expansion tank. My tank was also super easy to bring in and install.

This has been debated to death, I don't want to derail the thread, just wanted to explain what I meant.

K

Jeff S said:

I turned my EKO 25 into maybe an EKO 12 by wedging a partial firebrick over half of the nozzle ,this allows the boiler to work at its full potential with out idling (kinda of like giving your car car just enough gas to drive 30mph instead of 60) . Fan speed 50%

Current conditions:
-18*f outside
Tanks have been hoovering around the 180* range.
House at 72* from one end to the other
Water supplied to rads 130*

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This is an interesting idea... any issues with the wood burning completely through?

kopeck said:

I easily added a heat pump to my storage for summer DHW, I could also easily add solar as well. My setup uses a copper exchanger in the storage so it's the best of both worlds in some respects. My system is under pressure but my storage is not. The by products of that is I only need a tiny expansion tank. My tank was also super easy to bring in and install.

This has been debated to death, I don't want to derail the thread, just wanted to explain what I meant.

K

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how big is your heat exchanger submerged in a tank

apologies for the off topic

http://www.americansolartechnics.com/spaceheatexchanger.html

I have the 100k unit. As far as length I'm not really sure. It's 4 3/8" (I think) coils in one unit. Tom in Maine (a member here) makes them, he could tell you more.

K

Goose, I did the same thing. My wife said how come we dont run it like that all the time.....lol

I too work 24hr shifts and packed it full and put the fan speed at 50% and let er go.