Direct connect combustion air - Wood Gun E100

For the moment, I am still hanging tough. So Mike, now that you have huffing under control, have you considered removing the EPA plug just to see if you can run the WG without it (and without huffing).
The thing I don't like about the solutions being offered by AHS is that they are selling you a highly efficient boiler, but it won't run properly so they give you solutions that bring it down to the same efficiency as ordinary wood burners.
Burning wet wood (higher moisture content - whatever you want to call it) and plugging tubes has to be lowering your efficiency, causing you to burn more wood. It has to take longer to heat the refractory if the super heated gases are only travelling down one side - no?
I am all about burning efficiently - from what I have seen - many of you guys have some pretty good equipment for mass producing/handling your wood - I do not, so the less wood I am handling - the better. That was the idea behind getting a highly efficient wood boiler. Also - up to and at the time I bought my WG - natural gas prices were going up rapidly - now they are starting to go down because both Canada and the U.S. are developing vast reserves of the stuff - who knew - not me.
As we determined much earlier it this thread, I don't have a cycle timer - my explosions are partly the result of an improperly installed (possibly malfunctioning) operating limit (OL). My OL it set for 30* differential but I actually get about 14* (but its hard to tell because the tridicator supplied does not read correctly). I went to order a new OL, the guy at the supply place told me to first check the electric grease in the well to see if the probe is making proper contact - there is no grease - it is dry. I took it apart, added some I had (not exactly the right stuff) now I am getting closer to 25* differential - I should not have to be doing this. I figure the shorter cycle time fromthe 14* actual differential was not allowing the gases in the chamber to stabilize before the next cycle - so random BOOMS.
The plan was to be heating my garage (a separate building) which would add to the heat load - but I have spent so much time dicking with this thing, I have not got the garage all plumbed yet.
Keep in mind (AC) - my cold starting fluid temp is about 130-140F - so not really "COLD", but definately out of fuel.
The refractory is still well over 200F so relighting takes very little time.
Look at the pics I posted of my gaskets AC - how do you explain that - that was from less than 7 days burning.
What could I be doing to cause that? I am not having any condensation or creosote issues at all.

Whatever was going on with the stinky bubbles, stopped a few days after I siliconed the oil burner port seal, have not had that since.

First - I will agree with you Green Mt Heat - some smart folks here & I have benefitted greatly from being part of this forum & hope I can give back something that will help others from my experiences.

I have been checking my newly replaced rope gaskets (lower doors) weekly to see how they are performing - there is no wear - still have silicone on the loading door - adjusted numerous times - thinking I finally have a good seal. Green MT Heat - I am baffled how you can be still running silicone - mine were noticeably scorched after the first fire (which was a smaller, short fire).
I have not contacted AHS about gaskets, temp gauge, op-limit becuase of the reason you stated - it was just over 5 years from delivery to first burn - I wouldn't expect anyone to replace things after that time elapsed, my fault for taking so long.

Does anyone know if their op-limit probe has electric contact grease inside the immersion well ???
Apparently when you buy the op-limit from Honeywell it comes with a squeeze pak of this grease. It is to prevent corrosion and promote good contact between the well and the probe. I am fiddling with my op-limit hoping I can get closer to 30* differential without having to buy another as they cost $125

AC - in this case(epa plug), when I am refering to efficiency, I am suggesting that because one tube is plugged, the WG has less surface area to absorb heat, less heat transfer to your fluid - more heat going up the chimney. Of course, I have not tested this - if I was running the plug I would test to see if the exhaust tube (to the cyclone) was hotter than without the plug, and try to average mentally (over a number of burns) from cool 140F to 190F the time and fuel it takes. I know this is not going to be exact given wood & outside temps but if there is enough of a difference I think you would notice.

I still maintain that burning higher moisture content (translation - wet ) wood is a bad solution which I would expect to cause creosote beyond the burn chamber, and noticeably greater fuel consumption.

So I am throwing the question out there - anyone who is burning 20% +++ moisture wood - Are you getting creosote in your smoke pipe or chimney?

From what I am reading here, the taller your vertical off the cyclone - the better. Mine is only 3 feet, then T's to horizontal. I am getting small coals (like MuncyBob) in my horizontal smoke pipe (which runs 10 feet) and in my chimney cleanout. Not really worried about this as I only have super fine ash beyond the WG - do not see any creosote whatsoever - so nothing to catch fire. Pretty much constantly hear a couple small coals bouncing around in (what sounds like) the cyclone and vertical pipe - I assume everyone is getting that. I get minimal ash in the horizontal, but a small accumulation falls to the chimney cleanout.

Hood - I have turned my fan exhaust port to face back (over the boiler) so I am not hitting my head on it - simply remove 4 bolts, turn fan, rebolt. I posted a pic (only one I have). In the top right corner you can see the grey collar from the fan exhaust, then elbows up. When I bought the hood from AHS the fan is mounted to the hood with the exhaust port pointing directly at your face so the first elbow would also be in your face.

So I have my first energy billings since starting to use my WG - and this is what is making the pains I have been having more bearable. For 3 weeks of the 4 week billing period electric bill was down by $60, natural gas was down by $149 .......... so $206 for 3 weeks. I would expect next month to be more as it was warmer in December than it has been in Jan - Feb.

I have been testing with heat recovery from the cyclone - so far I am only getting about a 3 degree gain on incoming - outgoing fluid. (see pics) I am circulating the fluid dead slow. There is no gain without the insulating blanket.
The cyclone temps are always over 300F - cannot understand why I am not getting a better gain.
Ideas anyone????

I have been testing different loading methods. Note: my fluid temp never drops below 125 -130F.

I have found that if the WG has been off for 8 hours - fluid 130F - house temp 70, outside temp 0 F - if I fire up with a "make-up" load of 3 pieces (like the pics I posted above - "6pm load") the WG gets the house up to temp (78 F) and starts cycling off after about 2 1/2 hours.
This week most nights have been well below 0 F and maybe 17F daytime. I have been firing (from dead out, but refractory hot) with say 7pcs fine split 2x4 by 20inch kindling, then 2 pcs of 1 1/2 inch round placed on either side of the center bricks -get that roaring (vibrating) first - then I place one large split (half circle 10" wide 5 inch tall) right in the middle on top of the rounds. That one split will slowly bring the house up to temp over basically the same amount of time (maybe an extra half hour) and will last just as long as the "6 pm load". I add 2 more tiny rounds and
another large split at 11pm ( self ignites from coals & refractory) and that lasts until 6am when fluid will be 150F,
still on "run" but out of wood. Throw in some kindling, tiny rounds, 1 large split away we go again.
MY conclusions - putting in more wood will bring temps up a bit faster, but the burn cycle will only be marginally longer. The WG will burn up that wood in the same amount of time. There will be much more coals at re-load time with more wood, but I am having no problem re-lighting at reload. The WG fan is running longer, but I am sure that proper gasification is happening as there is no change in the ash in the tubes, no creosote and when it cycles back on it fires right up - roaring sound.
So..... it is a tiny bit more effort but for the entire last week, 0F to -12F nights I have used exactly 3 large splits and
6pcs 1 1/2 inch rounds and 4 fine split, 20 inch, 2x4's each day - that's it - period. I will say I have to "settle" the large split about every 2 hours because as it burns there ends up being high spots so it doesn't make good contact with the
refractory - that would be a pain for some.
So - AC - this would be some justification for my "insane" choice - I have realized a $206 savings in utilities over 3 weeks and I am burning amazingly little wood.
In my gas bill Enbridge just notified us gas charge increases have been approved - there is a big surprise- not.

If I can figure out how to make the heat recovery (pic) have even a 20F gain the $300 in materials and 3 days of labor I have put into it so far would all be worthwhile.
Green MT Heat - I know you are impressed with the efficiency, but I believe the WG can do much better. To me 400F going up the chimney is $$$$ and wood - which tranlates to more wood cutting /handling and more ash removal.

Sooooooo.... if anyone has any thoughts on making this work, hammer that keyboard. I am going to take a run at it again this weekend to see if I can improve it.

I have a filter zone which is a small pump taking fluid from the main boiler loop, filtering it (you can see the filter-in the yellow pail- in the pic - tried circulating with no filter, for volume) and returning it to the main loop. I have extended that so now fluid comes off the main loop to the pump, thru the filter, then thru the copper tubes and back to the main loop. The purpose was to capture wasted heat from the cyclone, return it to the loop to be used where needed. I do have an aquastat on that zone so it only runs when the cyclone is above 250F - the bulb can be seen in the pic - laying on top of the cyclone. Temps in/out vary with the 25* differential of the operating limit but generally between 150F and 180F. The "out" is consistently 2* more than the "in" - need to do better somehow - I would like to see the "out" being 20* more than the "in" - but how???.

The temp of the cyclone is double the temp of the fluid - done right I am thinking I should be able to get a decent gain, not to heat the dhw, just to help support the main loop, reduce run time (wood usage) minimizing waste.

I am very successfully chilling 78F air with 55F water using my boiler fan coil and piping and my homemade chiller unit (see page 1 of this thread for pic) - yes chilling is a little different - but that also was a matter of getting enough surface area and the correct volumes. I overkilled that one and it worked well right off the start with a few minor tweaks. There is a will, so there is a way, I think.

Muncybob - while the Wg is powered it is the only source of heat. I have a 100,000 btu NG forced air furnace but it is powered off.

Mike - the splits you are describing are much smaller than what I am using, so you cannot compare that.
I documented my Friday night - Saturday heating.
Note for pics - my WG temp gauge reads 10* low (so 115F is actually 125F).


6 pm - WG has been powered down for 8 hours - outside temp 14F- house temp 71F.
WG is at 125F -pic - with the remains of a large split - cold out.
Pics tell the rest for the 6 pm load.

So WG is fired, DHW load powered off, running forced air heating coil zone at 460 rpm (dead slow) and 2 boaseboard zones (46 feet in total) running super slow.

Forgot to mention on my Friday post that I use the occasional "cheater" - see pics if I check the WG and need to get some better flame going, I will tilt the large split and slide a cheater under one side close to the the nozzles.
From 6 pm to 10pm Friday I did add a cheater. I use about 10 cheaters a week - which is one and a half large splits - split finely (so full disclosure here).

10 pmoutside temp still 14F, house temp 77, WG 169F. WG blower has been running non-stop since 6pm.
Large split mostly burnt, Wg mostly up to temp, house heat demands mostly met - time to re-load for the night.
Within 45 min of re-load house zones are shutting down, dhw powered and met, WG cycles down. see pics.