First off I'm no longer planning to sell or get a different boiler. I picked up this C-150 last fall for a pretty good price and it wasn't used much. The guy was getting divorced and having a fire sale. While I love the heat output I just was not getting anything longer than a 12-hour burn time at 40 degrees and when it was below zero, i was lucky to get 8 hours. I knew a ton of heat was going up the chimney and contemplated putting a damper in but I knew that probably wouldn't work as well as it does on a wood stove because I wouldn't be out there to control it like i could with a wood stove. I even had my air turned down to 25% but then when it got warm out the damned fire would go out. This was burning 1 to 3-year seasoned oak. This winter has been a mild winter here in northern Wisconsin and I still burned almost eight full cords of firewood.
Fast forward to two weeks ago, and Joe Borgerding reached out to me with a possible solution. He asked me if I would test a draft fan modulating control that he had put together called a Boiler Commander. I know there are a few naysayers but my experience the last 4 days proves the viability of this control. Basically, it senses the temperature in the stack via a thermo-couple and continuously adjusts the draft fan speed keeping the flue at a set point. Mine is set at 500 degrees and I've heard the fan almost shut off as the stack temperature rises. No more sending excess heat up the chimney!
When Installed the unit Saturday morning I left the draft door at 25% and ran the control on bypass just to see what my stack temperature was without the controller. Just about the end of a heating cycle I was bouncing between 850° and 875°. (I've been told on some Facebook groups that there's no way a conventional boiler runs flue temps that hot LOL) After this cycle I opened the draft door to 100% and switched the control on. The next heat cycle the control started modulating the draft fan as the stack temperature rose and kept it around 500 degrees. I watched it for the rest of the afternoon and was comfortable to load it up and go to bed around 9:00 pm. Temperatures have been hanging in the low teens at night and low 20s in the daytime. At these temps I typically get 10-12 hour burn times with a full firebox I do have issues with the fire going out sometimes though.
When I went out Sunday morning I was blown away as there was at least a third of the wood left that I had put in at 9:00 pm the previous night. I didn't put any in and left it run till 1 in the afternoon when I had to leave, that's 16 hours and there was still a nice coal bed! I was absolutely Blown Away! Like I said above I've never gotten more than a 12-hour burn time and that was with temperatures in the 40's! The next three nights I had similar results with plenty of wood left over in the morning and 16-plus hours of burn time. I loaded the stove every night between 9:00 and 9:30 and in the daytime, I threw two or three splits in around 1:00. All the wood I've done the testing with the last 4 days was run through a processor 3 years ago for my indoor sealed fireplace and stored in a covered wood shed so it's all 16 inches and that makes my results more impressive as I'm not burning 20-24" splits and rounds like I have been all winter.
I have put text on all the following photos of the date and time that I took the photos so you can see my results. I'm also seeing a more steady graph on the temperatures than I used to. I would have the boiler overshoot 5° to 10° before and now It's lucky to overshoot 2°. Basically, this makes my boiler a hybrid between a gasser and a multi-pass Without the gasser problems or expense of buying a gasser. The flu has been running clean at 500° degrees as seen from the photo of the multi-pass chamber as well. I'm just happy to see a third less wood being thrown into boiler and I don't have to worry about hauling butt home to refill the thing so it doesn't go out now! I also don't have to worry about my low temperature alarm going off on my monitoring system on my phone when I'm out of town and having to call the wife at 5:00 a.m. to load the boiler because it's out of wood.
Fast forward to two weeks ago, and Joe Borgerding reached out to me with a possible solution. He asked me if I would test a draft fan modulating control that he had put together called a Boiler Commander. I know there are a few naysayers but my experience the last 4 days proves the viability of this control. Basically, it senses the temperature in the stack via a thermo-couple and continuously adjusts the draft fan speed keeping the flue at a set point. Mine is set at 500 degrees and I've heard the fan almost shut off as the stack temperature rises. No more sending excess heat up the chimney!
When Installed the unit Saturday morning I left the draft door at 25% and ran the control on bypass just to see what my stack temperature was without the controller. Just about the end of a heating cycle I was bouncing between 850° and 875°. (I've been told on some Facebook groups that there's no way a conventional boiler runs flue temps that hot LOL) After this cycle I opened the draft door to 100% and switched the control on. The next heat cycle the control started modulating the draft fan as the stack temperature rose and kept it around 500 degrees. I watched it for the rest of the afternoon and was comfortable to load it up and go to bed around 9:00 pm. Temperatures have been hanging in the low teens at night and low 20s in the daytime. At these temps I typically get 10-12 hour burn times with a full firebox I do have issues with the fire going out sometimes though.
When I went out Sunday morning I was blown away as there was at least a third of the wood left that I had put in at 9:00 pm the previous night. I didn't put any in and left it run till 1 in the afternoon when I had to leave, that's 16 hours and there was still a nice coal bed! I was absolutely Blown Away! Like I said above I've never gotten more than a 12-hour burn time and that was with temperatures in the 40's! The next three nights I had similar results with plenty of wood left over in the morning and 16-plus hours of burn time. I loaded the stove every night between 9:00 and 9:30 and in the daytime, I threw two or three splits in around 1:00. All the wood I've done the testing with the last 4 days was run through a processor 3 years ago for my indoor sealed fireplace and stored in a covered wood shed so it's all 16 inches and that makes my results more impressive as I'm not burning 20-24" splits and rounds like I have been all winter.
I have put text on all the following photos of the date and time that I took the photos so you can see my results. I'm also seeing a more steady graph on the temperatures than I used to. I would have the boiler overshoot 5° to 10° before and now It's lucky to overshoot 2°. Basically, this makes my boiler a hybrid between a gasser and a multi-pass Without the gasser problems or expense of buying a gasser. The flu has been running clean at 500° degrees as seen from the photo of the multi-pass chamber as well. I'm just happy to see a third less wood being thrown into boiler and I don't have to worry about hauling butt home to refill the thing so it doesn't go out now! I also don't have to worry about my low temperature alarm going off on my monitoring system on my phone when I'm out of town and having to call the wife at 5:00 a.m. to load the boiler because it's out of wood.
