5 % Moisture is it to low.

[henfruit]

I have a wood shed with about 3 cords of 20 inch wood i had cut for wood stove 5 years ago. Well the new vigas will take 20 inch wood so why not give a shot. The fire comming out of the nozel is bright orange and i can only crack the door a little or the flame will roll right out. Got a four hour burn that just ended at 6 so i figured let see what was left. Juat a few coals no bridging at all. Put in a couple of small splits and a few larger 5 minutes later and full gassification.just need to get my tanks spryfoamed. I got a quote to put 2 inches plus batts of insulation in the spots that they can not spray foam, but willspray foam the fiber glass to the tanks and then to the walls that insulation board on them. they quoted me 625.00 for 2 tanks. should be done in a few days.For now i have a hot garage.

 

[ihookem]

I don't see how you got wood down to 5% mc. My kiln dried floor is 5-7% mc. 5% might be a little too dry. 10 % is ok though. When I put in some old flooring it burns very good and hot.

 

[henfruit]

The wood has been in a wood shed for 5 years. I checked it withe a moisture meter.

 

[Piker]

5% wood in boilers with static primary and secondary air settins can sometimes release more woodgas than the unit can burn. The issue isn't that the wood is "to dry" just that it might be to dry for a particular unit... and they are all a little different. With fuel that is that dry, I tell customers to not fill the boiler over half full if they experience some huffing and/or puffing. Wood that is this dry will also wear out the refractory a little quicker simply because the secondary burn it creates is so incredibly intense.

The boilers with the lambda controls should be able to handle this very low moisture content very well. During a burn on strictly biobricks, I have seen the Froling turn the primary air all the way down to 20% with the secondary air at 100% to maintain the 8% residual O2 content in the stack. Cool.

cheers

 

[benjamin]

The wood has been in a wood shed for 5 years. I checked it withe a moisture meter.

http://www.woodfloorsonline.com/techtalk/US_moisture_map.html

according to this the equilibrium moisture content of wood in Boston barely gets below 12%. El Paso and Salt Lake City get to 7% for one month. We trust generalities more than your moisture meter.

It doesn't sound like you're having a problem with the wood. If it's not split too small, or not split at all, then there's less surface area so it burns slower.

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

Like Piker says, thats the beauty of the Lambda boilers. I know the Kunzel is rated for burning kiln dried funiture making scrap etc. If I put that in my Atmos it would be almost uncontrollable, Randy

 

[henfruit]

Well i could mix a little with a higher moisture content to even things out.

 

[Shrike]

You gotta split it before you test with moisture meter

 

[EffectaBoilerUser (USA)]

Burning different species/moisture contents of wood is where the lambda technology really soars "heads above the rest".

I have been burning 1.5 yr. old hard maple with a 20% MC in my effecta 35 and have the CO2 set at 11.0%. At this setting my boiler water temp. runs at 77-79C and my flue gas (smoke) temp. is running at 150-160C (300-320F). By the end of a good burn my primary is open 10-20% and my secondary is open 80-90% which results in a nice blue flame in the secondary and minimal wood consumption. However, at the beginning of the burn my primary starts off at 70% open and my secondary at 30% open to get the fire going (WITH MINIMAL HASSLE FACTOR) and create a good bed of coals. This scenario is not possible in a gasifier with fixed primary and secondary draft controls.

I will be inserting a high temp. thermocouple into my secondary chamber by the weekend and will let everyone know how hot I'm getting in the secondary chamber. I'm getting a lot of ash fushion (ashes are welding themselves together to create "hamburger patty" pieces in the stainless steel "half pipe flame deflector") and thus I know I'm over 2,000 F.

NWM

 

[henfruit]

How much are the boilers costing?

 

[dvand]

If your talking the lambda there's pricing here: http://www.upnorthenergy.com/lambda.html

 

[jebatty]

It would take a very high quality moisture meter, IMO, to provide an accurate reading below 10% MC, and then keep in mind that the reading needs to be adjusted for the species. The meter is not smart enough to distinguish one species from another. In fact, I would regard all moisture meter readings from inexpensive meters as suspect, unless they are tested against a reliable meter. This doesn't mean than an expensive meter necessarily is highly accurate either. Moisture meter readings should be regarded as approximate, at best.

 

[sdrobertson]

I'm getting a lot of ash fushion (ashes are welding themselves together to create "hamburger patty" pieces in the stainless steel "half pipe flame deflector") and thus I know I'm over 2,000 F.

NWM

I haven't seen the photos of the bottom chamber. You state stainless steel deflector. This is interesting as I didn't think steel would hold up in these temps. If possible could you add a photo of this in the pic post you did for this boiler. The more I see this boiler, the more interesting it becomes.

 

[henfruit]

When my ashes used to cake up like that i thought it was the type of wood i was burning? and it was burning good to produce nice fine ash.

 

[pybyr]

It would take a very high quality moisture meter, IMO, to provide an accurate reading below 10% MC, and then keep in mind that the reading needs to be adjusted for the species. The meter is not smart enough to distinguish one species from another. In fact, I would regard all moisture meter readings from inexpensive meters as suspect, unless they are tested against a reliable meter. This doesn't mean than an expensive meter necessarily is highly accurate either. Moisture meter readings should be regarded as approximate, at best.

Totally agreed-- when you look at the USFS resistance charts and how much the moisture/ resistance figures vary by species, there is no way that a cheap meter can consistently and precisely read all different species.

 

[EffectaBoilerUser (USA)]

Yes, the flame deflector in the effecta 35's secondary chamber is stainless steel and is very easy to remove. In addition, the burner tube in which the oxygen for the secondary combustion is supplied is also stainless steel and contains 70 holes in it. Unlike many other gasifiers which have 4-6 holes in which to mix the oxygen with the gas (smoke) from the primary chamber, the effecta design consists of the stainless burner tube encapsulated in a 4 piece ceramic. Because of the long, stainless burner which has 70 holes in it, the mixing of the gas with the oxygen is very thorough and efficient and results in very high secondary temperatures.

Another unique feature of the effecta is that the entire secondary chamber is water jacketed boiler steel (except for the door which has a very thick heat resistant material. Thus, the extreme heat generated is able to be transferred to the water very efficiently and results in normal chimney smoke temperatures of 150-170C (I have yet to see it get over 180C at any time). Because there is a sensor to measure the chimney smoke temperatures it is easy to tell when the heat exchanger tubes need to be cleaned.

I know there will be some that will question the use of stainless steel in these areas in addition to the fully water jacketed secondary chamber, but I have researched these areas of concern very thoroughly before partnering with effecta. I spent several days with effecta in Kungsbacka Sweden last summer and was very impressed with the entire effecta staff and manufacturing operations. In addition, effecta has been manufacturing these boilers since the early 80's and has been using the Lambda sensor and stepper motor system since 2000. Thus, they have substantial experience with gasification boilers and being located in Sweden (one of the most stringent European Countries) they have been forced to come up with unique engineered solutions to make their products very efficient and long lasting.

Having operated my effecta 35 for over one month now I am extremely pleased with its performance and ease of use. Although it is rated slightly less than the EKO 40 I have used for the last 2 years (and recently sold), it puts out more BTU's (I can tell this because it charges my 1,000 gallons of storage faster) than the EKO40 because of the unique engineered features mentioned above.

NMW

 

[jebatty]

This is not intended as a criticism of all of us, including me, who report based on experience, perception, or how we feel or believe our boilers or other equipment are performing. As I have turned into the road of data collection, graphing, sensors, measurements, etc., I now also know as fact the answers to some things which before I believed, and these two have not always been the same. I also know that after several years of experience, many things I originally thought I knew, when put to the test of measurement, are not always what I thought.

It seems to that dealers, agents, distributors, and manufacturers of products ought to be subject to a very hard and high standard of fact on all statements they make regarding performance of their boilers, and then also be required to provide the underlying data and methodology to allow others to independently test the performance data. I think we've all bought products which have been represented as the "best," or "better than X," or "faster than Y," or "more than," or other superlatives, only to find these statements to be no more than hype, irrelevant, or worse.

A dealer responding to a specific question of operation or use or problem experienced by someone who has the boiler is one thing; but the quality of this forum will not be maintained if dealers are allowed to hype their products.

 

[EffectaBoilerUser (USA)]

I totally agree with your comments.

Being a degreeed Mechanical Engineer I was taught that you need to base your actions and comments on factual data.

For this reason, this weekend I am going to put a thermocouple in the secondary chamber of my effecta 35 and measure the temperature of the combustion occurring there.

Then, I will be able to compare this to the leaving smoke temperature of the boiler (which is being mesured and displayed by the boiler control panel) and make judgements based on these readings.

I will continue to perform testing on my effecta boiler and report on the resutls/findings so that everyone can make their judgements based on these "facts".

Happy Burning to all.

NWM