My wife an i purchesed our first home and ended up taking on the challenge of using this new type of heating. The previous owner wasnt too clear on how to use this system properly. Its an "HS TARM SOLO SERIES 2000" from what the label says. Ive gotten everything to work so far, the fire is roaring and then i saw that the PSI isnt moving at all. The temp is only up to 100 or so but in ignorant to why the PSI wouldnt be moving if the fire is going and the valves are all open (according to a paper he left behind, one he gave his wife to use when he was away). Im just concerned that maybe i did something wrong here. The chimney is hot as heck so the heat is traveling through but that PSI guage has me worried. I really would appreciate any help here folks. Last thing i want to do is burn down my first house.
HELP-1st time TARM user
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Mine runs about 12PSI cold and has been in low 20's at the hottest. Your relief valve should blow at 30. What is yours?
I believe the Tarm is similar to mine, a downdraft gassifier. Are you closing the bypass to force the burning down thru the nozzle below? The hot gasses pass thru the nozzle and back up the back of your boiler thru a set of tubes where the heat gets transfered to the boiler water. I only your chimney gets hot and water stays at 100, it sounds like bypass is open.
A very important question is do you have a large water storage tank tied into the Tarm? . If you don't you may have figured out one of the reasons why the owner sold the house. A gasification boiler really is not set up to run without storage unless you can match the output to the heating load (which pretty much restricts you to operation in the middle of the winter. Tarm will not guarantee their equipment unless installed with storage but individuals can still buy them and install them. If someone tries to run the boiler in the shoulder seasons without storage, its a recipe for creosote and frustration. The other issue if you are new to burning is how dry is your wood? A gassifier needs dry wood. In PA odds are you have oak and that needs to be dried for two years. If its not dry enough you will have a tough time engaging the secondaries.
If you contact Tarm they will supply you an owners manual. I would be concerned that if the system is new to you that some valves may be closed that should be open and that the boiler may need cleaning .
Its a real nice piece of equipment if fed dry wood and operating correctly with storage so it worth spending the time to figure out how to run it right.
If you contact Tarm they will supply you an owners manual. I would be concerned that if the system is new to you that some valves may be closed that should be open and that the boiler may need cleaning .
Its a real nice piece of equipment if fed dry wood and operating correctly with storage so it worth spending the time to figure out how to run it right.
Alright so after posting that instayed up for almost 2 hours reading over the manual i found. The issie is he has the heating done through liquid propane/this TARM. The psi issue i ran into eas because in his own typed explanation he never mentioned opening a valve that feeds water into the boiler. After i guessed that i needed to open that it began to build the PSI and at its peak it hit 15. It kept burning till it hit (cant remember exact temp) around 180 i want to say, and the blower wont turn on. From what i read it says itll do that till the temp drops and then kick back on. After all that was done, (i had drained all hot water from the house before hand) i checked the water and it was running hot. I felt the pipes and its working correctly. The only thing im fighting with now is figuring out why no heat is going past the "zone valves" to heat the baseboards in the house itself. Also we do burn oak here and its been sitting in the basement with a dehumidifier for a year and was under a tarp outside for another year prior to that. I apologize for being all over the place, i just wanted to answer everyone at one. The lines feeding up into the house are warm but they get gradually colder as they travel away frm the boiler. (I apologize too for not remembering what this thing is called, my family calls it a furnace, boiler, wood burner, and something else. But it isna TARM so i believe its a boiler.)
I think it would be best if you had someone check everything over before you try running it further. Make sure wood boiler, storage, etc. are terms not foreign to them. Most HVAC techs where I live are completely clueless on these types of systems. Even the supply house guys kept insisting I needed only a small expansion tank when I tried to get a larger one for added storage. The Tarm Solos do require storage I believe as cplParker stated in above post. We are talking a 300-1000 tank of water that the boiler heats directly running wide open. The house is then heated off this insulated tank long after fire has burned out.
maple1
Minister of Fire
The heat won't go past the zone valves unless the house is calling for heat. So is there a thermostat in the living space that is turned up to call for heat?
If so, and there is still no heat going to the house, you could have an airlock in the zones that is preventing flow. What do you mean by draining all hot water from the house? That sounds like something that shouldn't have been done, and could be the reason you had no pressure and it also could have introduced an airlock into the system. Once you have pressure established, I would turn that water feed back off & keep an eye on your pressures to make sure you don't have any leaks.
Or there could be another valve somewhere in the system that you are supposed to manually open when heating with wood - some systems with more than one boiler were set up like that.
The boiler is only a tiny part of the whole system, and we know nothing about the rest of your system - so it will be hard to answer many of your questions with what we know.
If so, and there is still no heat going to the house, you could have an airlock in the zones that is preventing flow. What do you mean by draining all hot water from the house? That sounds like something that shouldn't have been done, and could be the reason you had no pressure and it also could have introduced an airlock into the system. Once you have pressure established, I would turn that water feed back off & keep an eye on your pressures to make sure you don't have any leaks.
Or there could be another valve somewhere in the system that you are supposed to manually open when heating with wood - some systems with more than one boiler were set up like that.
The boiler is only a tiny part of the whole system, and we know nothing about the rest of your system - so it will be hard to answer many of your questions with what we know.
Most gassifiers (Except the Tarm Solo and Frohlings)can control their burn rate and even idle when demand is met but it is not efficient and not the best for the boiler. Without storage and with temps above 30 I usually just let my heat pump do the job. If colder it won't idle as much but I'm heating a good size home and a pole barn.
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As maple says if you drained water, the system needs all the air bled, which can be very difficult. I really think you should have someone check the whole setup, especially given your concern about the previous owners knowledge.
Drained meaning ran the hot water till it was all cold. It was a suggestion from a neighbor who uses something like my setup but hes not familiar with it. I appreciate everyones replies. Im going to attempt to get ahold of the previous owner again to help me further. I've been looking for people to contact bit can't find any TARM numbers and I'm lost as far as who else i could contact to help.
maple1
Minister of Fire
But what hot water?
Heating system hot water, or domestic hot water?
Where did you drain it from, exactly?
Draining domestic hot water won't do anything for your heating system that I can understand, and I don't think draining the heating system water could possibly help anything either and might even cause serious damage or worse if you then fire the boiler up. A half filled boiler with a fire inside isn't a good thing.
Anybody else you call for help will be almost as lost as you are without all info about your entire heating system - would be much better to get someone there in person who knows this stuff. I'm not sure a call to Tarm would help - this sounds like a system issue and not a boiler issue. And likely a simple one to fix, I suspect - likely bleeding the air back out of it. If you can get a local heating guy to come in & get the system up & working running on propane, most of your problems should be fixed.
But you might get more help here by posting pictures of your entire system.
Heating system hot water, or domestic hot water?
Where did you drain it from, exactly?
Draining domestic hot water won't do anything for your heating system that I can understand, and I don't think draining the heating system water could possibly help anything either and might even cause serious damage or worse if you then fire the boiler up. A half filled boiler with a fire inside isn't a good thing.
Anybody else you call for help will be almost as lost as you are without all info about your entire heating system - would be much better to get someone there in person who knows this stuff. I'm not sure a call to Tarm would help - this sounds like a system issue and not a boiler issue. And likely a simple one to fix, I suspect - likely bleeding the air back out of it. If you can get a local heating guy to come in & get the system up & working running on propane, most of your problems should be fixed.
But you might get more help here by posting pictures of your entire system.
Clarkbug
Minister of Fire
Just to answer some easy questions of yours...
Your Tarm Solo is a boiler. It should have a fan that operates when the water is cold. When it gets hot, the fan shuts off.
Maple has you very well covered. You need someone to look at your setup. I suggest getting the propane part working and moving heat to your house. Then you can work on the wood burning part. The propane system will be less "scary" to most boiler guys.
Where are you located? A hearth member might be close by...
But I would avoid using anything until you are comfortable with how it should operate. If you fired your boiler without water and then dumped a cold fill into it, that could be a bad thing.
Your Tarm Solo is a boiler. It should have a fan that operates when the water is cold. When it gets hot, the fan shuts off.
Maple has you very well covered. You need someone to look at your setup. I suggest getting the propane part working and moving heat to your house. Then you can work on the wood burning part. The propane system will be less "scary" to most boiler guys.
Where are you located? A hearth member might be close by...
But I would avoid using anything until you are comfortable with how it should operate. If you fired your boiler without water and then dumped a cold fill into it, that could be a bad thing.
You guys are great. I spoke to a guy at TARM today after spending an hour looking for a working phone number for them. He asked for pictures of the whole setup and said he would be in touch monday, i just switched everything back in 100% step by step to run propane and every thing is working fine like this. Im keeping the boiler off until i know for sure i can operate it safely and get further guidance from TARM or the guy who used to install these out here back in 1998 calls back haha. Its going to be interesting.
Wisneaky
Minister of Fire
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