I run a GreenWood, which is one of many brands of Naturally aspirated refractory mass wood hydronic units. Since it has yet to get below 26 overnight, and generally gets back to 50 during the day, my heat demand has yet to really kick in. Though the manual forbids it, I have been burning Hemlock slab wood. I use the thickest pieces I can, I criscross the direction every layer, and I try to not over load.
Anyway . . . the other night as I got ready to load for the overnight . . . there was a bed of hemlock coals, burned down so they were below the air inlet holes at the back of the combustion chamber. I had turned the aquastat up to 190+ so the damper would stay o[en during loading. The water was ~190 . . . I have a magnetice pipe thermometer on the the first pipe after th elbow coming of the GW, and it was up around 350 (usually runs much lower) Anyhow, I looked into the box, and back where the water tubes make a 90 and go down the back of the GW, there was this . . .fire-ball (?) that was burning blue flame with little specks of yellow. This fireball was not connected to any flame coming off the solid fuel in the combustion chamber. I would take this to have been some textbook gasification going on. I actually left the door open and watched if for a minute before I finally put a new load of fuel in and went to bed.
I'm sure the GW has been doing this often, but I have never actually seen this before. I really was pretty cool. Not as cool as October snow - can it be long before the slopes are open? %-P - but cool none the less :cheese:
Anyway . . . the other night as I got ready to load for the overnight . . . there was a bed of hemlock coals, burned down so they were below the air inlet holes at the back of the combustion chamber. I had turned the aquastat up to 190+ so the damper would stay o[en during loading. The water was ~190 . . . I have a magnetice pipe thermometer on the the first pipe after th elbow coming of the GW, and it was up around 350 (usually runs much lower) Anyhow, I looked into the box, and back where the water tubes make a 90 and go down the back of the GW, there was this . . .fire-ball (?) that was burning blue flame with little specks of yellow. This fireball was not connected to any flame coming off the solid fuel in the combustion chamber. I would take this to have been some textbook gasification going on. I actually left the door open and watched if for a minute before I finally put a new load of fuel in and went to bed.
I'm sure the GW has been doing this often, but I have never actually seen this before. I really was pretty cool. Not as cool as October snow - can it be long before the slopes are open? %-P - but cool none the less :cheese:
