Made a change in my boiler room

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
  • Hope everyone has a wonderful and warm Thanksgiving!
  • Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here

goosegunner

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Oct 15, 2009
1,469
WI
I made a change in my boiler room. Had the first fire today. So far I will say I am IMPRESSED!

[Hearth.com] Made a change in my boiler room
 
Merry Christmas!



Well thank you!

It does seem a little that way with that bright red door!

It was very nice to see the simplicity and cleanliness of lighting. But very impressive to see in the collar flue temps of just under 300 degrees the whole burn.

The S3 has some very nice features. Along with variable speed fan with adjustments on the primary and secondary air throughout.

It will also adjust the speed of the pump to keep output steady. My settings for the pump are minimum 64% and Maximum 85%.

It also has 4 tank sensors. You set it up with volume in liters of your tank. It calculates how many kilograms of wood it will take to satisfy storage to set point.

Just beginning to play now, will report more as I get more burns.

I have record of weighed wood burns for the last 5 years. It will be interesting to see what kind of difference the extra control will make on consumption.

gg
 
Very splendid, goose. Looks like you did a great job installing this beauty. I will be interested in seeing the results as compared to your weighed wood burns, and what your other experience is as well.

My Tarm Solo Plus 40 is just entering its 11th heating season, and the first year on its new nozzle and tunnel refractory, which has been the only replacement part on the Tarm. I still do the equivalent of weighed wood burns based on the sensor reading in the middle of the 1000 gal storage tank. By equivalent I mean estimating the weight. And if I want to push the tank to 190-194F top to bottom, I do weigh the wood.

Age, stupidity, or carelessness, probably all three, still show their faces to me -- experience and habit remain ruled by these three. In the burn two days ago the boiler just would not come up to temp. Although I know well my maxim that if there is a problem, it's most likely the simplest cause, I turned to the Termovar as the likely culprit. Thinking I would have to order a new one, I gave one more check to all the likely culprits, and then noticed that my manual Termovar tank bypass valve was open, which I closed, and then operation quickly went back to normal. I installed this valve to preheat the colder boiler water from the hotter storage tank water: open the valve and turn on the boiler circulator; when the boiler water temp is up to storage water temp, shutt off the circulator and close the valve. I had shut off the circulator but failed to close the valve.

Makes me think again I should automate this process, which could be simple: an automatic 5-10 minute process at the start of each burn; or more complex, base the process on the difference in temperature. I think I'll do nothing and just wait until the old Tarm moves into retirement and then look at the Froling as the replacement.

Goose, nice to hear from you.
 
The trend chart freak in me has heard, and possibly wrong but I have to ask if there is a com port that you can access and monitor through your laptop?
Weighed wood burn comparisons will be interesting.
 
Speaking of tank bypass, I put in an electrically operated modulating valve in a bypass around my (small) tank . This is in addition to the original boiler protection valve for when there is still cold water in the zones. My idea was to only heat the tank with excess heat. I can see it being of more use with a big tank that gets down to a low temperature: who needs all that cold water from the bottom of the tank going back to the boiler and the boiler doing a lot of recircing? Send it to the zones if they're calling!

Maybe you guys have other less complicated ways of not sending super cold tank water back to the boiler.

PS: Very nice boiler!
 
The trend chart freak in me has heard, and possibly wrong but I have to ask if there is a com port that you can access and monitor through your laptop?
Weighed wood burn comparisons will be interesting.

I believe there is a ethernet port on the board. There is also some type of com port on the back of the main board that is just under the rear top cover.
 
Speaking of tank bypass, I put in an electrically operated modulating valve in a bypass around my (small) tank . This is in addition to the original boiler protection valve for when there is still cold water in the zones. My idea was to only heat the tank with excess heat. I can see it being of more use with a big tank that gets down to a low temperature: who needs all that cold water from the bottom of the tank going back to the boiler and the boiler doing a lot of recircing? Send it to the zones if they're calling!

Maybe you guys have other less complicated ways of not sending super cold tank water back to the boiler.

PS: Very nice boiler!

I bought the new Thermovar 823. It does not need the valve to choke down the bypass leg like my old Danfoss. I reduced some piping noise that I had. I think that the Danfoss was causing some cavitation when the bypass was choked down and the return from tank wasn't open.
 
Lets see how long you can keep it that clean :) Nice installation.


Thanks!


I am guessing it will stay much cleaner with the induced draft and lighting door. The lighting door was amazing even on the first start with no residual charcoal in the bottom of the boiler.