What my thermal storage did today...

[stee6043]

Storage is a pretty consistent topic here, which I like. Well today was one of the days I absolutely got my monies worth out of thermal storage. My tanks were 176 top to bottom this morning (after mixing all night due to me not having a differential controller yet). Today we had a high of 38, sunshine all day, no wind.

I got home from work (11 hours after my morning readings) and I have 173, 170, 170, 143 top to bottom. You know what this means? No fire for me today. I'll drink an extra beer and enjoy this fire skip-day thanks to 1,000 gallons of hot water in my basement...

 

[Nofossil]

I too will drink to that. I had a skip day last week. If I had 1000 gallons of pressurized storage, I'd be skipping days all the time. FOr now, I'll just enjoy the fact that the house is nice and comfy despite the fire having gone out by around 1:00 this morning.

 

[taxidermist]

Have to love it man!! I have been working with twofer to get my diif. control set up along with multiple temp sensors to read my temps on my tanks top to bottom. I cant wait!!


Rob

 

[ihookem]

I don't have storage but will be down to two loads a day if it gets much warmer. If I get the house to 72 tonight and don't load it tonight it will be 65 by morning. Last night I burned a load and the house went from 70 @ 9 pm to 65 @ 5 am. The furnace never went on. So the wood I burned last night was kind of a waste. I'm going to two loads a day soon and so far burned about 2 2/3 cords of wood and a lot was poplar and boxelder. If I get out the oak It will be 2 loads but the boxelder is working just fine when it gets up to 30 degrees.

 

[Birdman]

NO storage for me....yet. I am down to filling the Tarm twice and only filling it halfway. Temps are about 30-38 during day. Still... I can't wait for storage. I love the idea of no idling.

 

[sgschwend]

When I bed my boiler I look at my tank data and then load the amount of wood just to finish raising the storage. I like hitting it within 5 degrees. My control keeps the circulator running after the fire out and pulls any of the residual heat out too. I running something like 2 cubic feet of wood and a 5 hour burn and I am done.

 

[jebatty]

Big dividends finally come in. I now am burning only every other day; 2-3 loads of pine on the burn days, which is about 6-7 hours burn time. Temps low of 0-10F and highs now reaching into the mid 30's.

As Steve said, with temp measurement at several levels in the tank it gets quite easy to gauge how much wood for the last load to top off the tank within a few degrees as the fire burns out. Also makes it easy to see when it is time to burn again.

 

[Nofossil]

I've showed off this before, but it's very appropriate to this discussion. Based on the three sensors in my tank, I calculate available BTUs and display it on my control panel. In this case I have 163,000 BTU available. That's enough to last until tomorrow at 5:00 based on this tool. If I don't care about being a bit cool tomorrow morning, I can skip. Otherwise, I should build a fire sometime this evening.

 

[Fred61]

I've showed off this before, but it's very appropriate to this discussion. Based on the three sensors in my tank, I calculate available BTUs and display it on my control panel. In this case I have 163,000 BTU available. That's enough to last until tomorrow at 5:00 based on this tool. If I don't care about being a bit cool tomorrow morning, I can skip. Otherwise, I should build a fire sometime this evening.

It would be nice to have such a tool but I don't have the mental ability to implement something so high tech. That said, I have been doing pretty well with temp sensors in the top and center of my tank then going by the seat of my pants. I have been in the same heating situation several times in the last couple weeks, where I could have gone without building a fire and still be comfortable in the morning. With my radiant floor, I can work with some pretty low temperatures, but I would not have sufficient temperatures in the tank to supply the needed DHW for the morning showers, etc. I have, therefore, needed to light a fire every afternoon. Larger storage capacity would help.

 

[Rory]

I'm sitting here with the toekick going in the kitchen, and I stoked the Tarm at 7:30 this morning, it surely was out by noon. That's what storage is doing for me. Sooner or later I'll go down and build a fire to heat through the night, but I could probably come close without it, especially if I didn't mind the oil furnace kicking in just a wee bit.

 

[jimde]

Stee, how many square feet are you heating? Are you super insulated?

 

[Piker]

Skipping a day as we speak. Tanks were still over 145 when we got home this evening, which will easily carry us overnight. You can look forward to alot more skip days as spring is just around the corner!! Now that I'll raise a glass to!!

cheers

 

[sgschwend]

Jim, I assume you mean me.

I am in a SIP home, that was a fun project to build (so I would say yes to super insulated, mainly no air pockets so very little vapor loss).

The house is 1700 sqft.

Warm climate, practically always in the shoulder season.

 

[stee6043]

Stee, how many square feet are you heating? Are you super insulated?

I'm heating 3200 square feet of 2003 built home. I wouldn't call it anything other than ordinary in terms of insulation. It is 2x6 construction, which perhaps helps a bit. But I also have loads of windows...

 

[stee6043]

I've showed off this before, but it's very appropriate to this discussion. Based on the three sensors in my tank, I calculate available BTUs and display it on my control panel. In this case I have 163,000 BTU available. That's enough to last until tomorrow at 5:00 based on this tool. If I don't care about being a bit cool tomorrow morning, I can skip. Otherwise, I should build a fire sometime this evening.

This is cool tool for sure. Although, I kind of chuckled, I'm not sure how I would respond to having my computer tell ME when to start a fire. I'll decide on my own! ha. Very nice for sure. Someday....when the money tree is back in bloom...I still hope to get a little more controls-heavy on my system.

 

[webie]

Its just a wee bit different when you are running 1200 unpressurized storage like I am . My morning temps were at top 151 and bottom 139 . I find it more benefitial and easy to build a half load fire every day and get the top back to full temp and what ever I get on the bottom I get rather than skip a day . I am getting close here to skipping a day but would need a night of in mid 20"s , sun out next day and need to pack the tank top to bottom .
That requires to much thinking yet .

 

[101x81]

i am not sure,
i went to the garage, no storage there!!
i went to the basement, no storage there!!
i think, i dont have any!
but i fill the boiler only once a day, nice

 

[huffdawg]

I've showed off this before, but it's very appropriate to this discussion. Based on the three sensors in my tank, I calculate available BTUs and display it on my control panel. In this case I have 163,000 BTU available. That's enough to last until tomorrow at 5:00 based on this tool. If I don't care about being a bit cool tomorrow morning, I can skip. Otherwise, I should build a fire sometime this evening.

Hi Nofo did you build this software yourself or is it a purchased program . I really like how your able to monitor everything form a comp. in the house I assume.

Cheers Huff

 

[Nofossil]

Hi Nofo did you build this software yourself or is it a purchased program . I really like how your able to monitor everything form a comp. in the house I assume.
Cheers Huff

I built this myself over time. I've made most all of it available on my site, and I finally caved in and started selling control systems as well. The pretty panel with the gauges is pretty much unique to my environment, but the code for that is available as well if you're interested - just let me know. It's done in PHP, with a companion piece of code in C on the controller itself.

 

[Hansson]

-25 outside here. I only do one fire/day now.
530gallon storage
http://andreas.ullvi.se/

 

[webie]

ok we are now on a every other day burn as long as this weather holds. I was at half loads every day now I skipped a day and am going for the hundred yard dash with a full burn . Looking good so far top of the tank is nearing 170 , bottom is at 150 and I have about 6 inches of red hot coals in the solo I think it will be an exact amount or at least close enough . temps for the next few days are near 50 for highs and low 30's at night so should be another 2 day event .

 

[sdrobertson]

Storage was almost empty on Saturday so I fired the boiler and ran two full loads through it. Top 1/3 is still at 185 so I'll probably fire the boiler again tomorrow (Tuesday) for a load and a half. If I didn't have the storage I'd be trying to burn tiny loads and having to fill the boiler several times each day. With the temps near 50 and in the twenty's at night I could easily go 4 days.

 

[Rory]

I guess my house is just a hog. We've got weather like sdrobertson's, and I'm thankful that I'm back to one fire a day (from 2 during the heart of winter).