So... this is my first year with the Tarm Solo. It was great. It is May... and the nights have been cool to cold.. so i have had it running at night and for those 5 showers in the am. I fill it at 8 pm and it idles quite a bit at night.. but does give the house that quick burst of heat when it calls for it around midnight. I am burning dry pine.. had a lot of it as i had to chop up the logs i was going to use for my garage( then didn;t have time to build and the worms got to them). Anyways.... my question. I was going to clean it all out and shut it down for the season... then i thought.. would it be ok to not shut it down.?.. and instead even during the hot days and nights of the summer... just fire it up once a week? maybe a night firing once a week ? A half firebox full? oh ya.. i have no storage...
Shut down Tarm... Or Not?
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For me the shutdown process gave me a chance to really deep clean my EKO. I think it's important to get after all the nooks and cranies in your boiler from time to time. And as far as burning once a week I'm not sure this is enough to prevent moisture from collecting and potentially doing some damage between burns? I'm sure others will chime in....
Birdman said:
With storage you burn once a week, and put all the heat in the tank, which you run off of. W/o storage, you will spend most all your time and fuel idling, which is not very efficient and will tend to carbon everything up. Most likely you will need to burn far more often than once a week as well in order to keep your hot water working...
Gooserider
i realize that. my question is...... can i not shut down my boiler for the summer( ie... scrape it down.. light bulb... take flue pipe off... etc) and instead fire it once a week ? will this be ok? and will it keep teh conddensation from forming? I can't see how it would be any different than someone firing with storage through out the summer.... Are there any studies or data on how idling effects the boiler? Llike in my case... if i start it once a week during the summer.. and it idles most of the time... ( i would do small load so as to counter act this). My main goal of this is NOT to heat my hot water.. but instead to do it so i don't have to do the shutdown.
Even with storage you should clean it out at the end of the season the same way. Yes you can keep the stove pipe on etc, but if you are not trying for dhw it would be better to remove it to keep humidity and draft out of the boiler. I am not sure burning once a week makes sense, but technically you could... i guess. If I were you, I would shut it down properly and not burn in the summer until you figure storage out.
Birdman,
With storage water cycling through the boiler to prevent cooling the boiler temp never drops below the ambient temperature and never gets water condensation as long as the chimney doesn't allow water in via rain. Also remember in the right conditions a cool chimney is nothing less than a water condenser/collector (dew) and the temperature drop in all that chimney funnels cool air into the boiler. Without storage there is not likely to be enough heat stored in the boiler to be able to sustain long periods (days) without a fire to prevent condensation. I don't have storage yet and my EKO40 gets fired daily to supply dhw but 24 hours without a fire and the temp drops to what it can before the atmosphere begins to warm it up. That warm air is where "stored boiler" condensation comes from because the boiler can drop below the ambient temp and draw moisture out of the air. As a matter of fact those that have storage but have the plumbing circuitry set up to isolate the boiler when the temp drops below a certain point run the risk of condensation while they wait for the next firing period.
A partial load of heavy dry hardwoods will keep a fire in my boiler all night and my boiler seldom gets below 130*F before the next fire gets started. With an air HX in my furnace plenum and sidearm dhw HX my boiler experiences little load and idles soon after the coal bed gets established and idle temp heats my dhw. It's not what is called efficient but it is much less expensive than LPG which is my dhw back-up.
With storage water cycling through the boiler to prevent cooling the boiler temp never drops below the ambient temperature and never gets water condensation as long as the chimney doesn't allow water in via rain. Also remember in the right conditions a cool chimney is nothing less than a water condenser/collector (dew) and the temperature drop in all that chimney funnels cool air into the boiler. Without storage there is not likely to be enough heat stored in the boiler to be able to sustain long periods (days) without a fire to prevent condensation. I don't have storage yet and my EKO40 gets fired daily to supply dhw but 24 hours without a fire and the temp drops to what it can before the atmosphere begins to warm it up. That warm air is where "stored boiler" condensation comes from because the boiler can drop below the ambient temp and draw moisture out of the air. As a matter of fact those that have storage but have the plumbing circuitry set up to isolate the boiler when the temp drops below a certain point run the risk of condensation while they wait for the next firing period.
A partial load of heavy dry hardwoods will keep a fire in my boiler all night and my boiler seldom gets below 130*F before the next fire gets started. With an air HX in my furnace plenum and sidearm dhw HX my boiler experiences little load and idles soon after the coal bed gets established and idle temp heats my dhw. It's not what is called efficient but it is much less expensive than LPG which is my dhw back-up.
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