Who has improvments planed for there system over the summer and what.

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woodsmaster

woodsmaster

Minister of Fire
Jan 25, 2010
2,885
N.W. Ohio
Well the board is getting slow with summer on the way so who has improvement or redoes planed for thier systm the summer. I for one will redo my shop heat plumbing to put the mixing valve before the pump, and hook a sidearm up to the house water heater.
 
Soon I will start working on connecting a heat exchanger for the swimming pool.
With the warmer temperatures lately, it's been nice to only fire the boiler once a day.
 
I'm also hoping to build a lean to on the boiler shed for wood storage but have a lot other stuff that needs done before that including cutting the wood that goes under it. I've only been firing
once every 2 or 3 days and it is a nice break.
 
Well I am for one, completely starting from scratch, minus the wood supply. I am leaving my natural gas forced air furnace as back up, and installing a wood gaser, with storage, radiant on the first floor and 2nd floor main bath., and 3 bedrooms of flat panel radiators. My DHW is nat gas running into an old coal flue, so I have to convert it indirect with electric back up. I cant start working on it until September because I am deployed so its going to be a race to the heating season.
 
Have a new, bigger stainless steel prototype boiler to install in the next couple weeks. Hope to burn some wood in it before the season ends.
More important than that, is a new wood shed that will be glazed and vented to solar dry the firewood.
I made the mistake of getting "dry" wood from a friend that has just torqued me off all winter as I burned it and check the moisture content and
just get PO'ed all over again.

My wife and kids tell me not to buy wood from him this year.

If I do, it will go in my "solar cooker". Dammit.
 
afblue said:
Well I am for one, completely starting from scratch, minus the wood supply. I am leaving my natural gas forced air furnace as back up, and installing a wood gaser, with storage, radiant on the first floor and 2nd floor main bath., and 3 bedrooms of flat panel radiators. My DHW is nat gas running into an old coal flue, so I have to convert it indirect with electric back up. I cant start working on it until September because I am deployed so its going to be a race to the heating season.
Click to expand...

Yes it will be a race to get it done. I hate to say it already but winter will be here before you know it.
 
Tom in Maine said:
Have a new, bigger stainless steel prototype boiler to install in the next couple weeks. Hope to burn some wood in it before the season ends.
More important than that, is a new wood shed that will be glazed and vented to solar dry the firewood.
I made the mistake of getting "dry" wood from a friend that has just torqued me off all winter as I burned it and check the moisture content and
just get PO'ed all over again.

My wife and kids tell me not to buy wood from him this year.

If I do, it will go in my "solar cooker". Dammit.
Click to expand...


Hopefully we can see some pictures of the boiler and the solar cooker !
 
I want at least a small storage in the basement. I also want pex under the living room floor for next winter.
 
I have to get the addition radiant and garage/shop all connected to the system. I have to switch over to my buried microflex instead of the 1" pex with "foam" insulation wrapped around each line...sitting in 4" conduit...and perhaps filled with water?? I estimate I'm losing about 25% of each Garn 1500 load into the ground!

Also have to build a couple of little "boxes" around where the microflex comes in/out of the ground by the house and by my outside oil boiler building....and insulate! Right now I have about 8' of 1.25" copper wrapped with a little foam wrap (meant for 1" line...so not all the way around) and this is exposed out to the air...covered physically by tar paper at the moment....

So yes! I'm hoping to see some real heat loss improvements.

Oh yeah, and finish insulating the Garn itself...the front is still exposed...and my Garn box around the garn has 2x6 studs awaiting another layer of R19 and a 2x6 top awaiting another layer of R-19....then sheetrock...

Does it ever end? Also have to insulate and sheet rock the addition and shop/garage!
 
Have a new, bigger stainless steel prototype boiler
Click to expand...

Care to elaborate Tom ?

Will
 
Willman said:
Have a new, bigger stainless steel prototype boiler
Click to expand...

Care to elaborate Tom ?

Will
Click to expand...

It's something we have been testing for a couple years. Time to put one in the house.
I guess I would call it a newer version of the original Dick Hill boilers.
 
Keep us posted with pics.

Will
 
bpiger, I bet your wood consumption will go do a lot when you get all that done.
 
I plan on switching from my New Yorker WC-130 to either the Effecta or Froling. I will also be adding storage. I got started last week by cutting a 5.5' wide doorway from my basement to my cistern. It is a poured concrete wall that is 1' thick with double rebar. I have to finish jackhammering the slab and the remove it. The cistern is 14'x16'. I plan on putting my tanks out there and then using the rest to store wood. I think that I should be able to fit a yrs supply in there. No more carrying thru the house all winter.
 
I have a couple things I'd love to get done by next Winter. I'm keeping an oil boiler w/dhw coil hot right now with the Garn via an 80 plate hx.
#1- I want to add an electric water heater and another flatplate, then I can preheat dhw with wood.
#2- By doing the above I can let the oil boiler go cold and add a pump to carry return water directly to the hx and back to radiation.

That should allow me to use cooler water to heat with and have hotter water to shower with. Plus use less wood.
 
Hopefully I’ll get my 6 solar panels hooked up for DHW so I won't have to burn at all this summer.
After that there’s the wood shed and filling it with wood.
Also I have 3 extra solar panels that I'd like to hook up to the pool.
A smoke exhaust system to get the smoke out of the basement when I reload.
Redo the cover on the unpressurized storage tank. The EPDM has come unglued from the foam cover (it doesn’t like 180 temps)
Install a cap on the chimney.
 
I also want to hook up an exhaust fan in the boiler shed. Even with the induced draft I still get smoke unless I wait till It's down to just coals to reload.
 
The EPDM has come unglued from the foam cover (it doesn’t like 180 temps)
Click to expand...

Was it the glue that failed ? If so what kinda glue did you use that you wouldn't use again ? Hows the foam look ?

Will
 
No question for me.... get enough wood stacked for 2011/2012 AND 2012/2013. I think two years ahead will be ideal. This season showed me the difference drier wood makes.
 
I have a major rewiring of controls for my wood boiler on the list. Currently all the wires from all the various temperature switches and controls are pulled into one box and terminated on screw type terminal strips. I am going to switch over to Din Rail connectors and relays, plus add in a few more controls including an Automag on the dump zone (the original controls use a NC powered zone valve for overheat protection.)
 
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