First real test

[vtwoodheater]

Ran a brush through the chimney today after 2 months of burning. Pretty much a waste of time, but peace of mind is priceless. I did clean the unit once, including the tubes, two weeks ago.
-15 right now. 2,900 sf house sitting at 72 degrees. 1400 sf garage at 56 degrees. I have reloaded 3 times today, but I just went out and turned the grundfos 15-58 up to speed 3, (however many gpm's that is), boiler was just about ready to idle down at 194.

 

[dogwood]

What kind of boiler do you have vtwoodheater? How cold does it have to get for you to have to do three burns rather than two? It's 7 degrees tonight, which is ungodly cold for Western Virginia, so I just threw a few extra splits in the boiler before hitting the hay just in case. Our homes are about the same size, though our garage is unheated. Don't think I've ever done a third burn before.

Mike

 

[vtwoodheater]

Biomass 40. I probably should say I didn't burn 3 full loads, rather I put 3 left arm fulls in about 4 hours apart. I just kept it going all day.
When the temps were 30's down to teens, I was burning once a day, running off storage overnight. This cold snap just came all at once, -11 right now. Don't really have anything to gauge firewood loads by yet.
This is the first year for me with gasification. I'm still learning for sure. Still messing around with air settings every now and then. I knew going in to this my wood I had prepared was only CSS for a year. Some of it is marginal. Next year my wood will be 2 years CSS, should be good to go. I might burn 3 cord total this year. If I figure 4-5 cord for any other normal winter, I will be 3 years ahead this summer. For the past 12 years I was processing anywhere form 12-15 cord for my OWB.

 

[dogwood]

This is my first year burning too. You must be happy to not have to cut and split so much wood anymore. Have you tried weighing your loads yet. That's a great way to gauge your loads. It takes all the guesswork out of how much wood to put in the boiler to get your 1000 gallons of storage back up to temp. I recently bought three cheapo bathroom scales at WalMart, $7.00 apiece to do this. I place them under a wheelbarrow load of wood, add up the three weights, then subtract out the weight of the wheelbarrow.

When my 1000 gallon storage's four temperature gauges average out to 140 degrees, I need to burn 69 lbs of wood to raise my tank temperature back up to 180 degrees. Should work the same for you. Doesn't matter what kind of wood as long as its dry. I also throw in a few extra splits to make up for what heat the house is using up while the burn is going on. Next year I'll try to figure out more exactly how much extra to throw in depending on how cold it is outside. Every degree your storage tank is under or over 140 degrees, add or subtract roughly 1.75 lbs of wood to or from the 69 lb. load. I worked out a cheat sheet so I wouldn't have to figure out much to add or remove from the wheelbarrow each time I put a new load in the boiier Got the weighing idea from Jebatty. Works like a charm.

Mike