Superior Biomass Furnace Questions

[MIguy]

Hello, I am new to this form of heat, and don't know much about it frankly.

My home has a 100k BTU Superior Biomass Furnace. I cannot get any heat out of the plenum, and registers. The temp of air in the plenum is only about 90* and cools before it reaches the rest of the house. The blower that pushes air to the pot is working fine, the augers seem to be working fine, and the main furnace blower is also on.

Basically it runs and runs and never warms the house, I have been told the heat is probably all going out the chimney.

I have never used this thing, and would like to get off propane. I have wood pellets in it currently as that is what was available to try to get it running.

Thank you for any help you may be...

Some pictures.

EDIT: It seems like it burns the pellets faster than they are being supplied to the pot. I can fill the pot and start the furnace and I get the heat I would expect everywhere. Once the pot burns for an hour or two it has burned right down again, and the plenum and duct temps drop and I get nothing again.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Is there a temp setting somewhere that tells the auger how much to feed? Are there backdraft dampers in the ductwork?

 

[heaterman]

I don't know a thing about that particular unit but I would guess there has to be some kind of feed rate adjustment on it. Check the manual. If you don't have one, get one online if you can. Most units of that type with manual combustion control require a lot of tinkering to get right.
If you can find an HVAC tech with a combustion analyzer who is willing to get involved, a flue gas measurement would tell you a lot.
PS: get the open hole in the chimney plugged up with something. That can really mess with the draft your pellet burner is seeing.

 

[MIguy]

FWIW I figured this out. It also runs much better on corn which I now run. I have been enjoying a nice consistent heat throughout my house this winter. The time of year that I was trying to run it did not help in the beginning.

With pellets the air needs to be cut back a little. I am still trying to dial it in for the most part, as the blower runs more than I would expect to cool the heat exchanger back down.