Twigs for DHW

[__dan]

Twigs for DHW, yup. Have the slabs off and am trying just burning enough to make the 40 gallon indirect a few times, charge, draw, recharge, burnout. Two days, three tanks on one barrel. Time for a bath.

 

[infinitymike]

Excellent! Why waste any of the good cord wood.
I'm using all of the scrap that happens from splitting. Its all nice dry oak. I've got a nice size pile from the 18 cord I split.
45 min burn brings the WG up to 200*.
Once in the morning and once in the evening.
Enough to keep the DHW indirect charged all day.

 

[__dan]

Yup, exactly.. With the slabs off, it's just the Froling, the header, and the 40 gallon indirect. So I'm doing what I'm not supposed to be doing. I thought I would have to weigh the fuel load, but so far, my eye and lifting the barrel has been working. So, I'm timing the fire, from a cold start load 20-30 ? lbs of twigs (level with the bottom of the loading door), wait for the hot water availability, and take a bath. Have the DHW aquastat turned up a lot and am tempering hot water at the faucet. Burn time is a little over one hour to coals and ash, but I've only been trying this for a week so far.

I can say that those twigs would not move if they were not going into the Froling, so my yard will be getting cleaner, and I'm thrilled to make hot water and keep the oilman away. I was afraid of not getting my daily fire making fix.

Ride through on the slabs in mild weather has been great, one day of heat/week. No slumbering of the boiler. Trying to load, fire, and draw DHW just as the twigs have burned down to nothing. No miss so far and just have to watch the clock to get a better handle on when to take a bath. Controls run in auto and scavenge heat from the Froling to the indirect tank at fuel load burnout.

 

[__dan]

Got another picture. I'm getting the routine of what to do without weighing the wood. The galvanized 2 gallon pail filled with 1"-2" twigs is the perfect fuel load for what I'm currently doing. Brings the 1280 lb Froling up from 23 C and makes two hot tanks of the 40 gallon Gold plus indirect DHW. Learning the system, tight pile of larger to smaller right over the nozzle, tight as possible, and two shovels full of bark and splitter debris on top. Yup. That's with the slabs off and no slumbering. Just have to draw the first tank when it's ready, ~ 45 - 50 minutes. Tank aquastat is set up in the scalding range and the second recharge tank is good next day.

It's a little fussy at startup. Have to leave the lighting door open until the flue gas reads 125 C or so. If not, it snuffs the flame and gasification and smokes. Burns sweet and clean otherwise. Reminds me what an awesome campfire in a can this thing is. That's what the picture is for. I'm sure there readers who want to call BS and say you cannot bring up a cold 1280 lb Froling and make 80 gallons of DHW with 2 gallons of twigs, but it works for me. Exactly what I wanted, heat and DHW, without having to worry about feeding a large quantity of fuel.

Don't need the heat in the house but it's cold overnight and I wanted to burn something. So I put the slab load back on and am burning one 2 gallon pail twigs and a full load of nasty bark on top. Yup, pushing it, but it's burning great and charging the basement slab at 135 F.

I know the same work with the 3 section WM Gold oil burner would be sucking down the oil right now.