I'm done.

[BoilerMan]

It's been the most beautiful weekend we've had in a long (2012) time! I've been in yard cleanup mode and gave the chimney it's anual cleaning. This marks the end of my burning season, back on oil for the summer's DHW supply. The tank is half full and was last filled Aug 2010, $2.60/gal We'll see if it comes back there again for the next 5 year fill. I need to summerize the boiler but it's soooo nice out I'm gonna wait for a rainy day for that.

TS

 

[TCaldwell]

im not ready to give up yet, heat zones still calling at night, when it comes down to domestic hw only, I will exercise the ob.

 

[maple1]

I think I'm burning for DHW only now. There's been frost the past couple of mornings but it's warmed up pretty quick. So now that winter's over, I'm ironically back to working at the boiler project - time to finish up the insulating & clean up my DHW controls.

If I get tired of burning every couple or whatever days, I'll just turn the electric water heater back on. I am SO glad to be off oil, especially with summer coming. Hearing that oil burner cut in on hot summer days when no heat or hot water was being used drove me nuts.

BTW, insulating pipe is a huge drag when the piping is mostly fittings - this could take a while....

 

[BoilerMan]

I think I'm burning for DHW only now. There's been frost the past couple of mornings but it's warmed up pretty quick. So now that winter's over, I'm ironically back to working at the boiler project - time to finish up the insulating & clean up my DHW controls.

If I get tired of burning every couple or whatever days, I'll just turn the electric water heater back on. I am SO glad to be off oil, especially with summer coming. Hearing that oil burner cut in on hot summer days when no heat or hot water was being used drove me nuts.

BTW, insulating pipe is a huge drag when the piping is mostly fittings - this could take a while....

Haha, same here Maple. I've been hauling and processing wood for the 2014-2015 winter. I also just repiped my Toyotomi to use the top coil in the indirect instead of heating the DHW directly. It's now it's own little closed system with a small expansion tank. I've thought of piping it into the heating loop...........but nah, I don't even want the temptation of being lazy and not having to build a fire to heat the house. Seperate oil system, someday I think instead of solar panels with the indirect, I'm gonna get a Gyser heat pump water heater and duct it to cool our master bedroom or pull air from the boiler room with a damper, the dehumidification would dry wood if it could dry wood........... But alas, I spent too much money on the Toyotomi and just piped it all up to the indirect with nice straight 1" copper.

As far as pipe insulation goes have you looked into Techlite melimene foam? I'm trying to get my hands on some, looks much better than fiberglass or the cheapo black foam from HD.

TS

 

[goosegunner]

I am on hold, couple more weeks and I will be burning again to bring the pool up to temp.

gg

 

[Nofossil]

May have had last fire in Sunday. Put water in the solar panels yesterday, but may do one more fire to get storage 'full' since solar panels are way better at maintaining storage temp than raising storage temp.

 

[kopeck]

I'm pretty sure I'm done too. I do have one more load to burn, figured I would wait for a cool/rainy day.

K

 

[muncybob]

Still heating dhw with wood but not for much longer if these temps stay(and I do hope they will!!). Boiler runs for about 30 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening. Kinda hate to switch over to electric water heater since bill will go up at least $20/mo. and we still have plenty of this year's wood left in the shed.

 

[maple1]

Every second day here still. That is pretty well now 100% for DHW. Aside from heat losses that is - I really need to get the rest of my tank & pipe insulating done. Picking away at it in the evenings. Not sure how much DHW burning I'll do all summer - there will be a point where I'll say the heck with it & just turn on the electric tank. Plus I'm seriously considering somebody's Geyser.

It's been a couple of days - I think I'll go light a fire right now....

 

[BoilerMan]

I'm pretty sure I'm done too. I do have one more load to burn, figured I would wait for a cool/rainy day.

K

I should mention I have a Quadrafire Millenium wood stove in the LR so that's my rainy day/cardboard burn for some quick heat machine. It's still hard to hear the oil burner running even if it's only for a few minutes in the morning (I put it on a timer) you get 40 or so gallons of 120 degree water at 5:30am and that's it. Now I remember why my wife calls me the energy Nazi.................. Not sure if that's a good thing or not.

TS

 

[Gasifier]

Two quick fires a day here now. One at 6am and one at 8 or 9pm. If I do like I did last year, I will keep heating DHW with wood all summer, except for days when it is just too hot. Will be down to one fire a day soon, I think.

 

[jebatty]

May 1 was last burn for the Tarm, but wood stove for the house will still see some burns to warm up cool mornings. Now stacking about a cord I cut/split late last fall, and ready to get to cutting for the winter of 2014-15. Already have 2013-14 in the wood sheds. Life is good.

 

[hiker88]

I'm burning about 80 pounds of wood once every 5 days. I'll do that until next heating season.

 

[jebatty]

Like the burn by weight, about 500,000 btu's, or about 100,000 btu/day. Or about 0.7 gal heating oil, or 1 gal of LP.

 

[BoilerMan]

Figured I'd post a couple of pics, I just finished cleaning that boiler all out and inloading 1-1/2 cans of WD40 on every fireside surface. Removed refractory and cleaned and sprayed under it also. Man.....that stuff is heavy and hard to get out! The pics look like there is shiney creosote, but it is just the WD40's reaction to the camera flash.

 

[jebatty]

After scraping off excess creosote buildup and general cleaning, a "cool" way to protect the boiler also includes sealing all air inlets and outlets, leave one small vent area open and burning a 100W light bulb in the gasification lower area for a couple of days to warm the boiler and evaporate all internal moisture, and then fully sealing the boiler from outside air.

 

[Coal Reaper]

i think i remember reading something warning about using WD40 for extended rust protection. i think it was stated the stuff evaporates? vegetable or canola oil was recommended i believe. idk if it makes much of a difference over the course of only one off-season.

 

[BoilerMan]

That was in a thread I commented on, I've havd no corrosion issues with WD40 and evaporation. I may s pray some more in mid summer, but may not. I did this with my old setup for years and when I sold it, the guy asked how many fires I'd had in it. I told him it heated my house exclusivly. The 100 watt buld has been my suggestion for those who have damp basements and we even went into the cost to run 100 watts of resistive heat 24/7 at around $10 a month. I'm on a dry slab, but do seal everything up with masking tape. It's still hard to hear the oil running in the morning. I track oil useage quite accuratly with this little code violation....don't tell..... it is valved off and after the firomatic valve............



TS

 

[hiker88]

Like the burn by weight, about 500,000 btu's, or about 100,000 btu/day. Or about 0.7 gal heating oil, or 1 gal of LP.

Hey,

Thanks for figuring that out for me. What's really interesting is that I calculated I was burning about 1/2 gallon of #2/day for dhw over the last couple summers.

My pipes between the boiler and storage aren't insulated yet, so I might be able to improve some.

 

[hiker88]

After scraping off excess creosote buildup and general cleaning, a "cool" way to protect the boiler also includes sealing all air inlets and outlets, leave one small vent area open and burning a 100W light bulb in the gasification lower area for a couple of days to warm the boiler and evaporate all internal moisture, and then fully sealing the boiler from outside air.

Is any of this required if you burn for dhw at least once a week?

Thanks!

 

[BoilerMan]

Is any of this required if you burn for dhw at least once a week?

Thanks!

No, just regular cleaning on a longer time scale as wood consumption is much less. Keep and eye on any moisture formation in the "cold boiler" time, this is dependeent on relitive humidity and the boiler's temp compaired to the surrounding air.

TS

 

[maple1]

So much for burning just for DHW. Brrr.

Didn't help someone left the kitchen window open overnight either.

Nice & cozy now though...

 

[Rory]

The chimney cleaning bit threw me a little. I've done 4 years with the Tarm, nearly all my heat and hot water year 'round and no sign of chimney buildup yet - are you running the woodstove on the same flue?

 

[BoilerMan]

I just brush it to get the fly ash out for the summer, I vacuumed out about a quart of whitish grey ash for a 18' 6" calss A.

TS

 

[kopeck]

So much for burning just for DHW. Brrr.

Didn't help someone left the kitchen window open overnight either.

Nice & cozy now though...

My wife has been leaving the front door (it has a screened door) open during the day. On those cooler days I can hear the boiler kick on...frustrating to say the least.

I like the fresh air as much as anyone but if it's 65 out, grrrrrr.

K