A new member here is seeking information. The following is her post in another thread.
"Hi Foamit Up! and any other WOODPECKER Boiler owners, past or present.....
This post caught my eye....You had to haul your Woodpecker to the scrap yard????? YIKES! GULP. I just installed a 'gently-used' one this past fall and I am having a LOT of trouble with it.
Here is the scenario:
My 25kW Woodpecker is in my shop (about 100 feet from the house).600 gallon water storage tank in the shop beside the boiler.
Insulated pex tubing buried 5' down. Heat exchanger in the house. Right now, it is only used for heating the house, (not domestic hot water or the shop). The house is about 2500 sq ft. It is two 1857 log cabins together, and there is 6" of new spray foam insulation in most of the roof. It does need new windows.
There is infloor heating in the kitchen, so I set that temperature around 68 degrees, close the upstairs loft (600 sq ft), and kept the house at about 64 degrees most of the time (which was actually quite comfortable), but would sometimes put it up to 66 or 67 on the REALLY cold (-30 to -40 CELCIUS!) days and nights that we had (which were WAY too many for my liking!)
The boiler was set to a max temperature of 180, but the temperature in the water storage tank never went above 160. The temperature of the water going to the house and returning FROM the house was always a standard 160. It would drop for a few minutes while the heat exchanger kicked on, but it came right back up. I figured this was pretty good, because it meant that there was plenty of heat available, and I wasn't pulling much heat off if the temperature of the water was coming back to the shop at 160.
Problem was....I was burning through pellets like CRAZY. Some days, I would be putting in EIGHT, yes eight, bags of pellets (at that point I didn't have my big pellet storage tank set up, so I was bagging it) and one month, it cost me $1500 CAN for pellets and that was with discounted pricing! I tried hardwood, softwood, mixed- nothing made a difference.
So....we switched some plumbing around and instead of the heated water going directly into the storage tank, and then to the house, we now have it going directly to the house and the return water goes into the tank. So far, it hasn't made a difference, but apparently, we need a 'special part' as the thermocoupler we installed in the water storage tank won't communicate with the boiler ( or something like that!) I am looking for information about this part....
As a previous owner, I would really appreciate hearing about your experience with it.
It doesn't sound like you were very pleased.
How long did you have it for? What were some of the problems you encountered? Who did your combustion checks and calibrated it for your pellets? ANY tips, help, hints about do's and don'ts??
In the manual, it says that the moisture content of pellets must be below 10%, so I am wondering if it is possible to burn corn in it as well? What is your opinion? If I can find low moisture corn,(as close to pellets as I can get- maybe 4%) do you think it would work? I have a 4 ton hopper installed now (and I think I will double it this summer). I think corn is going for about $120 a ton right now, as opposed to the best price I can get on bulk pellets- which is $275 a ton, plus $150.00 delivery charge. I'm not too worried about the fines, because the load of hardwood pellets that I had delivered were brought by a feed truck (one of the few guys I could find in all of Ontario who would pick up bulk pellets for me- can you believe it- the manufacturers up here don't even deliver or have trucks to blow them in??!?!) His feed truck chewed up the pellets somewhat, so I had a LOT of dust (even though there was an exhaust pipe) and there was a LOT of fines. I just finished burning the last of the load, and the boiler went out a couple of times, which I think was a result of the high amount of fines, but overall, the boiler handled the fines without much problem. I actually think I would have a lot fewer fines with well cleaned corn than I did with having the pellets blown in with this feed truck! I believe that corn burns hotter, but I'm not sure why that would cause any problems with the boiler. It has a brand new stainless steel burn tube in it (the old cast one had melted....). Do you (or anyone else out there!) know any reasons why I shouldn't try the corn?
I have had some ignitor issues, and error code 12 'extinguished due to low flame', although the draft etc. is good, but it seems that we have resolved that problem.
I am definitely NOT thrilled with the amount of cleaning I have to do....I take the whole thing apart once a month- minimum- because my stack temperature gets up to about 380degrees within a 3 week period and there is all kinds of soot/ash on the tubes.
One of the main problems I am having is that I live in Ontario, Canada and there is only one tech guy who works on these as more of a hobby, as he has a full time job.
He is often out of the country, so it's been hard to get assistance from.
I would also appreciate the names of any people you know who service Woodpeckers or at the very least, sell parts, because as far as I can determine, the original company was sold, and I think it has now gone under (great......groannnn).
I have spoken with George Robbins at WeBiomass in the States, but if you know of anyone else, I would appreciate ANY contact information you have.
Finally, I would love to hear about the Windhagar Biowin260 boiler you installed.
What size is it? Cost? How many sq ft. does it heat? Approximately how many pellets did you burn this winter? (do you have cold winters where you live?)
Thanks for your help Foamit Up!
ANY and ALL help, suggestions, information etc. GREATLY APPRECIATED!!
Patti"
"Hi Foamit Up! and any other WOODPECKER Boiler owners, past or present.....
This post caught my eye....You had to haul your Woodpecker to the scrap yard????? YIKES! GULP. I just installed a 'gently-used' one this past fall and I am having a LOT of trouble with it.
Here is the scenario:
My 25kW Woodpecker is in my shop (about 100 feet from the house).600 gallon water storage tank in the shop beside the boiler.
Insulated pex tubing buried 5' down. Heat exchanger in the house. Right now, it is only used for heating the house, (not domestic hot water or the shop). The house is about 2500 sq ft. It is two 1857 log cabins together, and there is 6" of new spray foam insulation in most of the roof. It does need new windows.
There is infloor heating in the kitchen, so I set that temperature around 68 degrees, close the upstairs loft (600 sq ft), and kept the house at about 64 degrees most of the time (which was actually quite comfortable), but would sometimes put it up to 66 or 67 on the REALLY cold (-30 to -40 CELCIUS!) days and nights that we had (which were WAY too many for my liking!)
The boiler was set to a max temperature of 180, but the temperature in the water storage tank never went above 160. The temperature of the water going to the house and returning FROM the house was always a standard 160. It would drop for a few minutes while the heat exchanger kicked on, but it came right back up. I figured this was pretty good, because it meant that there was plenty of heat available, and I wasn't pulling much heat off if the temperature of the water was coming back to the shop at 160.
Problem was....I was burning through pellets like CRAZY. Some days, I would be putting in EIGHT, yes eight, bags of pellets (at that point I didn't have my big pellet storage tank set up, so I was bagging it) and one month, it cost me $1500 CAN for pellets and that was with discounted pricing! I tried hardwood, softwood, mixed- nothing made a difference.
So....we switched some plumbing around and instead of the heated water going directly into the storage tank, and then to the house, we now have it going directly to the house and the return water goes into the tank. So far, it hasn't made a difference, but apparently, we need a 'special part' as the thermocoupler we installed in the water storage tank won't communicate with the boiler ( or something like that!) I am looking for information about this part....
As a previous owner, I would really appreciate hearing about your experience with it.
It doesn't sound like you were very pleased.
How long did you have it for? What were some of the problems you encountered? Who did your combustion checks and calibrated it for your pellets? ANY tips, help, hints about do's and don'ts??
In the manual, it says that the moisture content of pellets must be below 10%, so I am wondering if it is possible to burn corn in it as well? What is your opinion? If I can find low moisture corn,(as close to pellets as I can get- maybe 4%) do you think it would work? I have a 4 ton hopper installed now (and I think I will double it this summer). I think corn is going for about $120 a ton right now, as opposed to the best price I can get on bulk pellets- which is $275 a ton, plus $150.00 delivery charge. I'm not too worried about the fines, because the load of hardwood pellets that I had delivered were brought by a feed truck (one of the few guys I could find in all of Ontario who would pick up bulk pellets for me- can you believe it- the manufacturers up here don't even deliver or have trucks to blow them in??!?!) His feed truck chewed up the pellets somewhat, so I had a LOT of dust (even though there was an exhaust pipe) and there was a LOT of fines. I just finished burning the last of the load, and the boiler went out a couple of times, which I think was a result of the high amount of fines, but overall, the boiler handled the fines without much problem. I actually think I would have a lot fewer fines with well cleaned corn than I did with having the pellets blown in with this feed truck! I believe that corn burns hotter, but I'm not sure why that would cause any problems with the boiler. It has a brand new stainless steel burn tube in it (the old cast one had melted....). Do you (or anyone else out there!) know any reasons why I shouldn't try the corn?
I have had some ignitor issues, and error code 12 'extinguished due to low flame', although the draft etc. is good, but it seems that we have resolved that problem.
I am definitely NOT thrilled with the amount of cleaning I have to do....I take the whole thing apart once a month- minimum- because my stack temperature gets up to about 380degrees within a 3 week period and there is all kinds of soot/ash on the tubes.
One of the main problems I am having is that I live in Ontario, Canada and there is only one tech guy who works on these as more of a hobby, as he has a full time job.
He is often out of the country, so it's been hard to get assistance from.
I would also appreciate the names of any people you know who service Woodpeckers or at the very least, sell parts, because as far as I can determine, the original company was sold, and I think it has now gone under (great......groannnn).
I have spoken with George Robbins at WeBiomass in the States, but if you know of anyone else, I would appreciate ANY contact information you have.
Finally, I would love to hear about the Windhagar Biowin260 boiler you installed.
What size is it? Cost? How many sq ft. does it heat? Approximately how many pellets did you burn this winter? (do you have cold winters where you live?)
Thanks for your help Foamit Up!
ANY and ALL help, suggestions, information etc. GREATLY APPRECIATED!!
Patti"
