New Biomass is finally here and something to smile about.

[dswitham]

Thanks for the help earlier with a plumbing schematic. I just thought I would post and give all of you on here something to smile about. We were anxiously awaiting the delivery of our new boiler to my husband's work place because we didn't know exactly what day it would arrive, just that it would be soon. So he goes into work one evening and two guys from the shipping dept. tell him that the boiler is here. Off he goes to check it out. Well as it was all boxed up he didn't want to unwrap it until he got it home, so he just moved it out of the way. After he came back from helping one of his guys with a problem he finds another guy starting to unpack it. Since the guy had all ready half undone it he thought well they might as well finish the job. So they undo the rest of the packing and low and behold it wasn't the boiler after all. It actually was a high pressure coolant tank for a new machine (I think that is what it is called) that the shop had just gotten in. We were thankful that the guy had gotten curious and started unpacking it before he brought it home. I could just picture our faces if he had brought it home on the trailer and we were all set to unpack it and lower it into the basement. What a surprise that would have been.
And just an update, the boiler is finally here, a little messed up on the outside but that was the fault of the shipping company. :long: We have it lowered into the basement and almost all hooked up. Hopefully tomorrow we will get it finished. :cheese: It will be nice to have the extra heat back that our radiant floor provides. We have been missing it during this cold weather. I have decided that winter is not the best time to replace a boiler but you have to do what you have to. We were just going to hook it up to the existing heating system but realized that would not work as it was missing several very important features, such as a boiler overheat loop and a way to protect the boiler from thermal shock among other things. Oh well, there goes our budget out the window but at least when it is done we will be warmer again. After we finish getting it online then comes storage.
Thanks for the help.
Shelly

 

[Gooserider]

Glad to hear you got the unit OK, and hope the shipping company will make things right for you... Keep us posted on how the install goes, and don't hesitate to ask any questions you might run into.

Gooserider

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

Thanks for the help earlier with a plumbing schematic. I just thought I would post and give all of you on here something to smile about. We were anxiously awaiting the delivery of our new boiler to my husband's work place because we didn't know exactly what day it would arrive, just that it would be soon. So he goes into work one evening and two guys from the shipping dept. tell him that the boiler is here. Off he goes to check it out. Well as it was all boxed up he didn't want to unwrap it until he got it home, so he just moved it out of the way. After he came back from helping one of his guys with a problem he finds another guy starting to unpack it. Since the guy had all ready half undone it he thought well they might as well finish the job. So they undo the rest of the packing and low and behold it wasn't the boiler after all. It actually was a high pressure coolant tank for a new machine (I think that is what it is called) that the shop had just gotten in. We were thankful that the guy had gotten curious and started unpacking it before he brought it home. I could just picture our faces if he had brought it home on the trailer and we were all set to unpack it and lower it into the basement. What a surprise that would have been.
And just an update, the boiler is finally here, a little messed up on the outside but that was the fault of the shipping company. :long: We have it lowered into the basement and almost all hooked up. Hopefully tomorrow we will get it finished. :cheese: It will be nice to have the extra heat back that our radiant floor provides. We have been missing it during this cold weather. I have decided that winter is not the best time to replace a boiler but you have to do what you have to. We were just going to hook it up to the existing heating system but realized that would not work as it was missing several very important features, such as a boiler overheat loop and a way to protect the boiler from thermal shock among other things. Oh well, there goes our budget out the window but at least when it is done we will be warmer again. After we finish getting it online then comes storage.
Thanks for the help.
Shelly

Being a Biomass it probably came from Zenon. He is great to deal with & helps with my Atmos questions even though he didn't sell me a boiler. This is similar to my Atmos although it is much improved with firetube & controls. This should be a real nice boiler for you as is my Atmos. If this is a larger Biomass use the ESBE as I'm sure Zenon will recommend. The Lado is perfect for my 109,000 btu boiler, after that though the pump is going to fall short. Good luck, Randy

 

[dswitham]

Well the boiler is in and installed. It has been working great. When we had some cold weather it kept everything warm. Actually it has worked better than we thought it would. We have been able to heat the house, the greenhouse and work on heating the pool in the greenhouse as well. The pool heat exchanger isn't as big as it should be for the size pool but it still works, just slowly. Since it was free I won't complain. It is a lot better than stoking the old tarm, wood stove in the house and a wood stove in the greenhouse every three hours. Since my husband works nights, I was the one left to do the night time stokings. >:-( We don't have the storage tank up and running yet. Now I am just trying to tweak the settings so that I can get a longer burn. Considering how much we are trying to heat I don't know if that is possible. I do have a question though. Is there some type of thermometer that can be attached to the supply pipe or boiler that could be read upstairs and set off an alarm when the temp gets down to a certain point? This would save a lot of trips down to the basement to see when I need to stoke the boiler. I know that will change with storage as well as how we control the system, but I figure one step at a time.

 

[Gooserider]

Well the boiler is in and installed. It has been working great. When we had some cold weather it kept everything warm. Actually it has worked better than we thought it would. We have been able to heat the house, the greenhouse and work on heating the pool in the greenhouse as well. The pool heat exchanger isn't as big as it should be for the size pool but it still works, just slowly. Since it was free I won't complain. It is a lot better than stoking the old tarm, wood stove in the house and a wood stove in the greenhouse every three hours. Since my husband works nights, I was the one left to do the night time stokings. >:-( We don't have the storage tank up and running yet. Now I am just trying to tweak the settings so that I can get a longer burn. Considering how much we are trying to heat I don't know if that is possible. I do have a question though. Is there some type of thermometer that can be attached to the supply pipe or boiler that could be read upstairs and set off an alarm when the temp gets down to a certain point? This would save a lot of trips down to the basement to see when I need to stoke the boiler. I know that will change with storage as well as how we control the system, but I figure one step at a time.

Yes there are all sorts of options ranging from the lo-tech approach of a radio broadcast "cooking thermometer" to a nearly endless set of choices for digital computer monitoring setups.... I'd suggest doing a search for "Monitoring and control" which should get you a lot of threads where folks are discussing the different options...

Gooserider

 

[sbleiweiss]

Something like this would give you an alarm:
(broken link removed) Base-_-Test Instruments-_-Temperature and Humidity Measuring-_-2DBE2

I use an Azel DS-60P thermometer mounted in my kitchen to allow me to monitor the system. It does not have an alarm, but I think that would get old in a hurry.

Any thermometer that uses thermistors can be easily extended to almost any distance that you need. If you chose a thermocouple thermometer, that is more difficult.
I am sure you will quickly settle into a feeding schedule and not need an alarm.

 

[dswitham]

I am sure you will quickly settle into a feeding schedule and not need an alarm.

The only problem with not having an alarm is that I get busy and forget to stoke the boiler. Also depending on the heat load at the time, the burn time is anywhere from 3-5 hours. So I want one that will wake me up at night to go stoke the boiler or alert me during the day that the boiler needs wood. As I am the main person who tends the boiler I need a little help remembering when I stoked it last. We are really heating more than the boiler is designed for, but it is working great, just needs tending a lot. I can't wait until we get the storage done though, as that will hopefully give me a longer time between tending the fire. That is the next project on the list as soon as my husband's work slows down enough that he has time to think.

tbsdolmar sent me in the direction of the dwyerTSS2-2100 and I think that is what we are going to get as it has some other functions that will come in handy for the system.

 

[Gooserider]

One thing that might be worth considering, is whether there would be a benefit in going with something that might be a bit more complex to set up initially, but give you more expandability later... As you add storage, you will probably want to monitor that in addition, as storage temps are more important in determining when you need to refire than the boiler state.

Another aspect that may or may not be of interest to you, is that the more thorough the monitoring setup, the more it becomes possible to fine tune the system performance in order to squeeze every last BTU out of your wood that you can... This does get to a point of diminishing returns where you will do a lot more work to get the last few BTU's than you did the first few, but it's the same sort of deal that makes some folks go into performance car building and the like...

A simple setup might do for now, but you may want to expand on it later, and a limited setup might be a problem for that, and need replacing, where as getting something fancier than you need for the moment but with more expansion potential might have benefits in the long run... Not telling you what to do, but just something to think about...

Gooserider

 

[dswitham]

Yeah, I can see the need for better monitoring and would love to get a control system like NoFossil's but it is way out of my price range right now. I looked at the option for using an adurino board like some have used. But right now I don't have the time to figure out how to put it together. I'm hoping this will just fill the gap until I figure out the rest. Not the perfect solution but one that will work for now. I can always reuse it for other purposes in the greenhouse. I think my brain is overloaded with all the plumbing that needed to be done and the math associated with it. I need a break before I tackle finding someone who knows how to code one of these boards and put it together or else learn how myself.

On another note for those who enjoy a good laugh. (Note this story is about my mother who has no knowledge of plumbing other than she has a well and it provides water.) When we were finishing up the plumbing we realized that we were missing a particular valve that we wanted. So I wrote down exactly what we needed and she agreed to pick it up for us as she had to go to the hardware store anyway. It would save us a half hour trip so hoped that she could get the right one. I told her to just show someone the paper and they could get the right one for her. So she picked it up and when she went to give us the valve, looked at it and cried, "Where did the ball go?" She started frantically looking through the bag for the ball that used to be in the valve. She said, "When the guy showed me the valve it had one but now I can't find it." My husband was trying to keep a straight face, he was doing better than me all I could do was laugh. My poor mother thought she had lost the ball out of a ball valve. When we finally stopped laughing long enough to assure her that it was okay, my husband showed her where the ball went to. I think she laughed as hard as we did when she realized what really happened.

 

[sbleiweiss]

Sounds like Mom is a good sport...
The Dwyer you mentioned above is a nice unit. I just want to make sure that you realize this is meant to mount into a control panel of some sort, it is not a stand alone product. I have a similar model and ended up buying a nema enclosure to mount it into. It also requires 110V power vs something else that is battery powered. The Dwyer is also a switch, so it can turn things on and off directly which the simple temperature alarms cannot do. Heck, you could hook it up to an auto-dialer and have it call your cell phone whenever the boiler is getting low on wood...

 

[tbsdolmar]

My control is 24 volt. It has built in alarms to set for high or low temp or you can turn them off. It also has the spdt switches to operate anything else. I have it mounted on a blank cover and it fits in a 2x4 box in the wall.