Post 2 - Rules for Wood Boiler Newbies

Now after 2 months of operations there are several clear lessons that I have learned.

1) Every Gasser boiler newbie should start up with a chord of seasoned wood, even if it means buying it. Had I started with a chord of seasoned oak which in the total scheme of this project would have been cheap and saved a bunch of time.
2) There should be a System Baseline Database. This would be a piece of cake for you EKO users. If you start the first week of operations with seasoned oak, and 5-6 baselined parameters for an EKO 60, EKO 40, Econoburn ???, etc. this will get you into the 60-70 percent efficiency range which could be called a baseline. Changes made from the baseline can be evaluated THEN you can gage improvement or deterioration of performance. Two months in and I'm not close to that baseline (mainly my bad because I busted rule 1 above).
3) The first 2-3 weeks or operation are critical for one of the most important variables which I'll call the "Momma Satisfaction Parameter". I rate myself more tenacious than most because I've been down the making stuff work road a bunch of times. But the dreaded question none of us want to hear is "You said it would do....". Seeing the system do what you expected in the first several weeks is important to momma and the newbie.

Thanks Stee, I spent New Years Day morning reading that great post. Unfortunately the BioMass is quite different from the EKO. I learned alot to the point that I've experimented with the % fan setting in the controller, but have no idea where to start with the primary and secondary flaps behind the door. Now that I'm fighting to keep the house warm its seems a bad time for experimenting. Unlike the EKO the BioMass group here is much smaller and let's just say setting data is scarce for my unit. Here's the data I do have, my 105Kbtu propane furnace can keep up at a low thermostat setting but my 210Kbtu isn't. I'm confident it will, but can't tell if it all wood related or settings or both. I think I'm going to buy some seasoned wood to eliminate some of my unknowns. I'm already getting suggestions about a flue temp sensor. Thanks. stay tuned.

Yes, I pretty much accept this is my "Debugging" year. It's clear I need more sensors. I'll repeat here that at the moment my most used sensors are the boiler water temp and the glass window in the lower chamber. I'm gonna get a flue gas sensor tho.

Singed where did you get your flue gas monitor.

In the future I will use the WAF acronym. No need for another. Today my WAF is running about .5, need it up in the .85-.95 range asap.