Some background - I purchased a house in August 2010 with a Greenwood 100 boiler in an outside shed. Due to inexperience (on my part), I had some problems with overheating my first few months, but then I got the hang of it and it had been burning well ever since.
In October 2011, I did a thorough cleaning (I also did one a few months after moving in). I also installed a piece of sheet metal over my back panel as there were some rust spots in the skin that were pretty much all the way through (not sure what the last guy did that caused this). I also placed foil tape along all of the seams of the panels (once you remove a side panel, they aren't exact as flat as smooth as they started out to be!)
A few weeks ago, I started to notice that my furnace wasn't burning properly. Instead of flames, the wood smoldered a lot (except for the wood near the air intake pipes in the back). Lots of smoke out the chimney. Lots of smoke when I opened the door to the fire box. If the fire box door was left open for a minute, the wood would flame up like normal. It definitely seemed like the firebox wasn't getting a proper draft. The temperature had a hard time staying at 155 (so my oil furnace was consistently kicking on!)
So, a week ago I shut the furnace down and found that there was a decent amount of ash in the chimney pipe (around the elbow near the back of the furnace). That seemed pretty quick to have happened, but we've had a mild winter thus far and my wood is a little on the green side.
For the first few days after firing it back up, things seemed to be going well (burning hot, burning well). Now, the same issues have returned - fire not burning well, temperature only around 155, wood only flaming near the air inlets, lots of smoke. I'm at a loss and can't figure out what's going on. The only thing I know to do is to take the side panel off and see if there are any obstructions, but it's only been a few months since I did this.
My damper is working fine (it's actually not closing because the temp isn't getting up). My wood isn't any greener than it was last year at this time. The only thing that has changed is the addition of the back panel (which I installed right over the old skin).
Any wisdom out there for me? Am I on the right track to take the panel off again, just to be sure? Should I consider a draft inducer on the chimney pipe? I'm not the most handy guy, so if something major needs to be done, I'll gladly call someone.
Thanks in advance.
In October 2011, I did a thorough cleaning (I also did one a few months after moving in). I also installed a piece of sheet metal over my back panel as there were some rust spots in the skin that were pretty much all the way through (not sure what the last guy did that caused this). I also placed foil tape along all of the seams of the panels (once you remove a side panel, they aren't exact as flat as smooth as they started out to be!)
A few weeks ago, I started to notice that my furnace wasn't burning properly. Instead of flames, the wood smoldered a lot (except for the wood near the air intake pipes in the back). Lots of smoke out the chimney. Lots of smoke when I opened the door to the fire box. If the fire box door was left open for a minute, the wood would flame up like normal. It definitely seemed like the firebox wasn't getting a proper draft. The temperature had a hard time staying at 155 (so my oil furnace was consistently kicking on!)
So, a week ago I shut the furnace down and found that there was a decent amount of ash in the chimney pipe (around the elbow near the back of the furnace). That seemed pretty quick to have happened, but we've had a mild winter thus far and my wood is a little on the green side.
For the first few days after firing it back up, things seemed to be going well (burning hot, burning well). Now, the same issues have returned - fire not burning well, temperature only around 155, wood only flaming near the air inlets, lots of smoke. I'm at a loss and can't figure out what's going on. The only thing I know to do is to take the side panel off and see if there are any obstructions, but it's only been a few months since I did this.
My damper is working fine (it's actually not closing because the temp isn't getting up). My wood isn't any greener than it was last year at this time. The only thing that has changed is the addition of the back panel (which I installed right over the old skin).
Any wisdom out there for me? Am I on the right track to take the panel off again, just to be sure? Should I consider a draft inducer on the chimney pipe? I'm not the most handy guy, so if something major needs to be done, I'll gladly call someone.
Thanks in advance.