New Vigas 2nd fire!

I've been working on this project for over a year and finialy got to the point that I could light a fire! So far I am pretty impressed this is my second fire and i went from a boiler that was 60f to gasification on both nozzles in under 3 min!
Boiler is a Vigas 80 lc from AHONA. Hooked up to 2000 gal of storage and will be supplying 2 houses and 2 garages.
See the video!

That's awesome. I have a 60 sitting in my shop hooked to nothing. Hopefully get it fired by next fall.

CjDave, You will love the Vigas80. I heat the shop 24x 42 to 50degrees, a 4 unit apt building to 72d and my house 70d and garage 55d with my Vigas 80, plus the boiler room runs at 100 to 110 degrees so i can dry the wood. 14 x24. I have 2000 gallons of storage. Had the water in tanks at 179 last night at 10pm. Load it with wood and went to bed. Packed it full of wood at 6am this morning as water was 160. It was - 10 this morning. Wish i would have stacked the tanks when i built the system so i can get more wood in boiler room to dry. Boiler room is spray foamed as are tanks Enjoy. Foamit UP

good to hear. I have a lot of work left to get this system finished, but It really feels good to actually be able to light a fire and make some hot water! Still have to do a lot of insulating. and plumbing on the house ends.

Very nice cjdave. What species of wood will you generally be heating with? Do you c/s/s your own wood or buy or both? Happy burning.

I have a stockpile of hardwood (mostly oak) and probably 1/2 as much again of pine. all split probably total of 15+ cord and I am already on the hunt for more logs.

If you don't mind me asking what do you have your end temperature set at?

Love mine..

Currently working thru a few "surprises" in my pallets. I brought in one that was standing dead oak. All kinds of punky on the outside.. so I mixed it in with this year's wood. BIG mistake. It's still near 30% Not worth culling it out. I'll burn thru it using hemlock with it. I'm down to 5 more pallets of junk till I get to my ash stash. Can't wait. The wood i'm burning now was among the first I started to gather. I'm much more discerning now.

JP

I have some oak like that. It dries fine in my shed but it definitely lacks the btus for the space it takes up. I set it aside now for the fire pit or pool heating when I need to feed the boiler on a regular basis to keep up with the pool.

gg

Dad and I worked through a bunch of dead oaks that fell in a wind storm, most were hung up in trees. Some had started to go soft on the outside, all of it's been hung up for a few year.

Split it last year and used it this year....it all sizzled when I put it on the fire. Dang stuff takes forever to dry.

K

I was thinking of stacking in my separate red oak for next year's rotation. It will be 2 years old by then. NOT gonna do it. I'll wait another year. I really need to start painting a year to burn on the end of the pallet. I'm gonna start getting confused on vintage.

JP

I hate punky wood. To me it seems to act as a dessicant and draws moisture from the air. When I had my own woodlot I would leave it in the woods and "feel good" about returning biomass to the earth as well as giving the critters a place to live.

Cjdave, The end temp i use is 175 F degrees. I don't have my conversion chart with me so you will have to convert to C. I like this temp as it leaves enough coals in chamber so that I can rake them over nozzles and add a few small scraps of dry wood over each nozzle and flames start going. Then i load up chamber with splits, check that exhaust is over 150 degrees at this time, then hit go and she is running and gasifing. Foamit up

I think my end temp is 200F

not a whole lot of wood left.. but maybe that's because I'm raking the pieces around towards the end... Maybe if I left it alone there would be pieces away from the nozzle that would be char for the next start of burn.

JP

Thanks.
I am still playing with some settings, no need to convert to c as my control is in F. factory setting was like 130 and I keep moving it up to get a good shutdown temp.

I load in AM around 5 and never touch it untill i get home at about 4 to 5pm. Then add a little pallet wood till 10pm when i load it for the night with good dry splits. My wood was cut late this summer and air dried, then i put it in boiler room for a week or two till it dries to less than 20%. i like 17 to 15% best. My boiler room runs between 90 and 110 degrees so it dries very nice in there. Foamit UP