seton owner with tarm, eko & woodgun question

[2.beans]

a friend of mine just finished a tarm/stss storage setup in his home with all the bells and whistles. i went over for the first fire and i am very impressed with how the system operates. my question is why tarm wants you to let the fire go out and restart. also do the eko and woodgun suggest the same?

 

[flyingcow]

I have enough storage to go 24hrs, the Innova is not made to idle for long periods of time. Started about 330pm and will reload soon, fire be out by midnight, or earlier. No advantage to keep it full and idling. Wouldn't have storage, and keep the boiler full. It'll burn hot and clean, less tube cleaning, etc. Just seems to make sense, i guess. Not much help, but thats what i do best. on an average night in winter, it's nice to start a fire and not have to worry about it until the next day. Convience of it is nice.

 

[2.beans]

i guess im wondering can you damage that style boiler with prolonged idle times? is it cleaning issues or just a waste of wood? thanks.

 

[flyingcow]

My innova is specified to be hooked up to storage. The others I don't think it matters, might have to clean tubes, scrape of the crud on upper chamber, etc. But i'm still a newbie to this boiler stuff. haven't done it a full year yet. Jan 17th.
As to starting a fire every day, it's not a big deal. I can split kindlin', start, load box, leave in under 10minutes if in a hurry. On really cold nights may have to refill, sometimes only half, sometimes full again. The storage for me works well. In the summer I'm able to go on 1 fire every 5 days. Wife, 3 kids in teens, etc.

 

[sdrobertson]

i guess im wondering can you damage that style boiler with prolonged idle times? is it cleaning issues or just a waste of wood? thanks.

Its not really a damage issue...it would be a cleaning and waste issue. Once you get the hang of starting fires, its a pretty easy thing to do. I'll go two or more days without having to tend the boiler so in my case its worth not idling and instead storing btus for later use. I don't think that there is real world numbers on idling and how much this wastes, but it is some. Mostly with storage its about convience.

 

[muncybob]

If/when I have storage I would build a fire and allow it to charge storage and then go out. For now, I don't have storage and the Wood Gun will basically eliminate draft to the fire once the water is up to temp...so, the idling is very minimal and this works fine as long as the unit starts up(either manually, by aquastat or the cycle timer) again while there are hot coals. This is a bit of a PITA during the shoulder season due to low demand and coals don't last as long and this is why I think I will eventually have storage.

I think I've read more than once that prolonged idling will decrease the life of a boiler so storage is convenience and possibly extended life of the boiler.

 

[Reggie Dunlap]

With storage there's just no need to keep it running. That's the beauty of storage, it's like a battery that you charge up.

It was 8 below this morning and my boiler probably went out about midnight. At 6 this morning the tank temp was 145, still plenty warm for radiant heat. Marginal for baseboard heat, but I don't need much baseboard heat during the day. It's still below 0 and I just got the fire going.

 

[2.beans]

i let mine go out all the time and starting a fire is real easy, i have a 1000 gallons storage also, so i guess its just the waste issue and cleaning that is why they recommend starting new fires, and thats why i run mine like that. just didnt know if the idle times could be bad for those style boilers. thanks

 

[ChiefChicken]

This time of the year and through the Winter I run two fires per day, one in the morning and one at night. When it is time to add wood, there are usually a few active coals hiding under some ash. I'll throw a few small splits in, rake the coals over, and add enough wood to fill the firebox half full. Close the door, reset the fan and it's burning strong in a few minutes. As the weather gets colder, I'll adjust the size of the wood load so that each time I reload there are only a few coals remaining. I find the storage still quite useful in the winter because it provides a nice buffer if I get home late (or sleep late on occasion). As others have mentioned, in the Summer I can go 7-10 days between fires. Just me and the wife.