I’ve had a catalytic King 40 since whenever they came out. Put a King into house (ripped out fireplace) when we moved in in 88 and vaguely remember replacing it whenever catalytic came out in early 90s. Upper 2 floors are 2300 sq ft in Lindal cedar house in Anchorage.
Since quitting office work 2019 have arrangement with tree service, they drip off 3 cord trailer loads of logs for $40/cord, I use battery Stihl 220C because I’m old, have hydraulic Boss 22 ton that runs off either my Unimog camper or 220v hydraulic powerpack. Currently 37 cords in front yard.
Anyway, a few years ago I got sick and tired of hearing the BK fan running continuously especially in am, and tired of bending over to manipulate the switch.
So I got an Inkbird thermostatically controlled 110v switch through Amazon. I used that silver metal tape we all use for emergency single wall pipe taping and repairs. I taped it to the top of the air plenum coming up from one of the fans before it blows over the steel convection deck.
You have to play with the control settings till dialed in.
For me a 3F gap and on at 126F works well.
When “normal” (air control ~2 area and a decent amount of fuel) it cycles on and off. When at ~2.5 or 3 and really cranking heat out, the temperature reading can exceed 130F and it’ll run continuously.
The really nice thing is that when there’s not enough heat to make a difference, the fans are OFF
Second picture is best I could get of thermocouple taped to air plenum.
Since quitting office work 2019 have arrangement with tree service, they drip off 3 cord trailer loads of logs for $40/cord, I use battery Stihl 220C because I’m old, have hydraulic Boss 22 ton that runs off either my Unimog camper or 220v hydraulic powerpack. Currently 37 cords in front yard.
Anyway, a few years ago I got sick and tired of hearing the BK fan running continuously especially in am, and tired of bending over to manipulate the switch.
So I got an Inkbird thermostatically controlled 110v switch through Amazon. I used that silver metal tape we all use for emergency single wall pipe taping and repairs. I taped it to the top of the air plenum coming up from one of the fans before it blows over the steel convection deck.
You have to play with the control settings till dialed in.
For me a 3F gap and on at 126F works well.
When “normal” (air control ~2 area and a decent amount of fuel) it cycles on and off. When at ~2.5 or 3 and really cranking heat out, the temperature reading can exceed 130F and it’ll run continuously.
The really nice thing is that when there’s not enough heat to make a difference, the fans are OFF
Second picture is best I could get of thermocouple taped to air plenum.
Attachments
![[Hearth.com] Automatic thermostatic control BK fan](/talk/data/attachments/341/341085-2123a793f84b09126b518b8de17ce537.jpg?hash=2iz6A2YonW)
![[Hearth.com] Automatic thermostatic control BK fan](/talk/data/attachments/341/341086-f590e134996fd019b9dfc4fc56494c68.jpg?hash=AcL-dJBmEv)
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