GARN installation update - we are burning!

[Jim K in PA]

The latest pages with pics start at http://www.pennbrookfarm.com/GARN/GARN7.html

The last page has videos of the startup and first burn: http://www.pennbrookfarm.com/GARN/GARN8.html

We have been heating the house with the GARN since Friday 5 December at around 6PM. It really is a great unit, and very easy to operate and manage. I am still learning, but each day is easier to judge how much to burn and for how long.

Thanks to everyone here in the boiler room for their assistance. Back in May I joined with the intent to install a Mahoning smoke dragon. This group enlightened me to the world of complete combustion, and ultimately the GARN. It has been a long, strange trip, but a great experience too.

I hope my pictures and videos help others that may be considering a GARN or are planning/in the middle of their install. There is much to learn, but it is all worth it.

 

[heaterman]

Jim, in the video that titled first burn where you show the exhaust smoke, what was the water temp at the time you shot that pic?
It looks like you started it cold. Did you notice a lot of condensation running from the exhaust?

 

[allan]

Thanks Jim for all your pictures. I'm in the middle of working on my system. I'm building my boiler house right now and I hope to have some use out of it this season. We shall see how the boiler build goes. I'm having parts burned out and pipe here hopefully just before Christmas. I bought a 3000 gal tank that I want to convert into a garn like boiler. I'm convinced that Garn make a great product. I tried your video links but could not play them. I will try again to see if I can figure out what program plays them.

Thanks
Allan in EUP

 

[Jim K in PA]

Jim, in the video that titled first burn where you show the exhaust smoke, what was the water temp at the time you shot that pic?
It looks like you started it cold. Did you notice a lot of condensation running from the exhaust?

The water was at about 65 degrees F at that point, about 3 minutes into the burn.

It is not readily visible, but in the sideways video of the steam, there is water streaming out of the flue into the burn barrel. It stopped after about 15 minutes.

 

[Jim K in PA]

Thanks Jim for all your pictures. I'm in the middle of working on my system. I'm building my boiler house right now and I hope to have some use out of it this season. We shall see how the boiler build goes. I'm having parts burned out and pipe here hopefully just before Christmas. I bought a 3000 gal tank that I want to convert into a garn like boiler. I'm convinced that Garn make a great product. I tried your video links but could not play them. I will try again to see if I can figure out what program plays them.

Thanks
Allan in EUP

Allan - I am happy to share and help. The vids are mpeg4 format. I dont have any real video editing software, so could not reduce their size at all except for the compression.

Best of luck with your build. If you can get yours to work like a GARN you will be very happy.

 

[heaterman]

Jim, in the video that titled first burn where you show the exhaust smoke, what was the water temp at the time you shot that pic?
It looks like you started it cold. Did you notice a lot of condensation running from the exhaust?

The water was at about 65 degrees F at that point, about 3 minutes into the burn.

It is not readily visible, but in the sideways video of the steam, there is water streaming out of the flue into the burn barrel. It stopped after about 15 minutes.

If you started at 65* and it quit condensing after only 15 minutes.....you my friend, have some very properly seasoned wood.

You'll find as you get used to the Garn and learn how to adjust load size and water temp for weather conditions that there is nothing easier to run. Neither is there anything in the same league efficiency wise. I have a customer with a 5,600 sq ft house, 5 kids + the accompanying laundry, showers and baths along with a 32x64 pole barn who has used only 3 cord since fire up this fall. This particular guy fires it once a day, sometimes a big load, sometimes a smaller load, sometimes (like tonight, headed for 0*) he'll fill it, let it burn a couple hours and then add a little more. Phenomenal in comparison to some others who are heating far less and using way more wood. Another customer just down the road from him has a HeatSource 1 OWB heating about 1,900 sq ft and has already gone through about 5 cord. He typically uses around 20 / winter. If I'm going to burn wood I prefer not to be married to the cussed boiler.

 

[foxt]

Great news, congratulations! Nice videos. I hope to be only about two weeks behind you with my first burn.

Noticed something I can't identify in one of your newer pix - what's the fitting that almost looks like some kind of relief valve that is hanging off the rightside tee next to the water temp gauge on the front of the GARN?

 

[Jim K in PA]

If you started at 65* and it quit condensing after only 15 minutes.....you my friend, have some very properly seasoned wood.

You bet! I am using mostly Red Oak at the moment, from a stash that was cut, split and stacked in a pole barn at least 10 years ago. It is almost too dry. I am mixing in a bunch of construction lumber cutoffs and some punkier pieces of tops to balance things out now. The 15 minutes of condensing is a pretty accurate estimate, as I was watching things like a hawk for the first 3+ hours.

You'll find as you get used to the Garn and learn how to adjust load size and water temp for weather conditions that there is nothing easier to run. Neither is there anything in the same league efficiency wise.

Amen to that as well. I have a bunch of neighbor farmers all very curious about my setup. They are almost all running Mahoning 500s and 750s. Man, do they eat wood . . .

I am heating my 2700 sq ft house, and at the moment just the lower level of my 24x36 garage. I just need to address/revise the DHW configuration. The oil burner has to supplement if there is not enough flow through the water jacket (I have a DHW coil in the oil furnace).

BTW - I am also using a FP HX that is only 20 plates. I think it is a wee bit on the small side, but it is keeping up.

 

[Jim K in PA]

Great news, congratulations! Nice videos. I hope to be only about two weeks behind you with my first burn.

Noticed something I can't identify in one of your newer pix - what's the fitting that almost looks like some kind of relief valve that is hanging off the rightside tee next to the water temp gauge on the front of the GARN?

Fox - that is the bottom valve for a water level sight glass that I have not installed yet. I will put the rest of it in after the front wall of the GARN is rocked. You don't really need one, but I like to know what the water level is long before the light comes on.

 

[foxt]

That's a nice idea. Can you give me a link for such a thing (I googled it, there are lots of varieties)? Might be a dumb question, but if this were in an unheated building, would you need to worry about the water in the glass freezing? Not much mass to the water in the glass, and it's outside the insulation envelope, hanging off of several inches of nipples/etc. I'd guess there'd be conduction in the iron piping, but without knowing what the gauge looks like, I was wondering about this?

 

[Jim K in PA]

That's a nice idea. Can you give me a link for such a thing (I googled it, there are lots of varieties)? Might be a dumb question, but if this were in an unheated building, would you need to worry about the water in the glass freezing? Not much mass to the water in the glass, and it's outside the insulation envelope, hanging off of several inches of nipples/etc. I'd guess there'd be conduction in the iron piping, but without knowing what the gauge looks like, I was wondering about this?

I'll post a link when I am back at my office computer - can't find it right now.

Believe me, there is more than enough heat conducted through the piping and radiating from the air collar and fan housing to keep a sight glass from freezing. My GARN shed is only 6'x12', so it is heated, by the GARN itself.

 

[dolmen]

Great videos ... I'm sold ... I want one, I want one ;-) Now to find our wee place in the USA ... I know it will be heated with a 'Garn'

I'm really pleased at the exhaust video, thats the way I thought most of the OWB should be burning too, nice and clean.

Cheers

;-)

 

[Jim K in PA]

That's a nice idea. Can you give me a link for such a thing (I googled it, there are lots of varieties)? Might be a dumb question, but if this were in an unheated building, would you need to worry about the water in the glass freezing? Not much mass to the water in the glass, and it's outside the insulation envelope, hanging off of several inches of nipples/etc. I'd guess there'd be conduction in the iron piping, but without knowing what the gauge looks like, I was wondering about this?

foxt - sorry for the delayed response. I am going to change mine to one of these: http://www.johnernst.com/liquid_level_gauges_p32.html

I had the base for a standard non-vented (Steam type) sight glass, but since the GARN is not pressurized, I can go with the vented top style. You can buy direct from John Ernst Co.