# Jumping into the wood and coal boiler world with both feet



## Woodsrover (Oct 15, 2012)

Hey all. Sorry for what will probably end up being a long post. New boiler owner here but I’ve been watching and reading this board for a while and thought I’d join in. I’ve gotten a lot of good information from here in the past and hope to add a bit when I can. Thanks for the help you all have given me without even knowing it!

I’ve been burning wood to heat my house for six or seven years now in an old Vermont Castings Vigilant stove. We average about 6-cord a year cut on our own land. It’s been great and has heated the house perfectly well even on the coldest nights and I’m almost sorry to pull it out of service. We have HWBB heat as well as an indirect-fired water store fired by a propane Weil-Mclain boiler so I’ve been wanting a wood boiler for a while now. I’d cringe every time the hot water was running and having more even and controllable heat would be a bonus.

I started doing some research, talked to owners of different brands and models and even went to visit the Tarm distributor in New Hampshire before settling on an AHS Woodgun E100ss. A good friend of mine is a plumber and was looking into them too so we struck a deal with AHS and headed down to Chambersburg. Last week we brought home my E100ss and he bought an E180. Mine was a simple installation and was done in a couple nights after work. It’s been up and running since Thursday. Though not demanding a lot of heat yet it’s a nice feeling heating the DHW with it and with the cycle timer it takes care of itself. I have a feeling I’m going to like this boiler.

My buddy’s is being installed in a barn about 100-feet from the house and is a little more difficult. We spent Saturday jack-hammering part of the old floor out for a pad and digging a 3’-deep, 100’-long trench for the insulated pex. (It’s his backhoe so you know who was in the ditch with a shovel!) With any luck he’ll be up and running this weekend.

And on a related note, between ordering and picking up this Woodgun, another friend of mine bought an old Austin Healy GT3000 MKII from a very nice older guy in town and he asked me to help him move it after work one night (I have a roll-back truck). This Austin was in the back of an old barn and I got to poking around (like I do) when I noticed a couple pallets of bagged coal in the corner. “What’s that coal for” I asked the owner of the barn. “Eh, it’s for a coal furnace I bought a while back.….Why?” he asked. “Well, I’m kinda into alternative heat and am installing a wood furnace in my house”. “Come here” he said and led me to his basement. Inside he showed me a brand new S130 Coalgun still sitting on the pallet and six more tons of coal. “Wow, that’s nice.” “Yup….you want it?” “Um, ah, what do you mean?” “I bought it five years ago and I never got around to installing it. I’m spending winters in Florida now and I’d rather see someone use it than see it sit here. If you want it, it’s yours.” “Well, I could heat my barn with it?” “Great, take it. And take this 8-tons of coal too. And this stainless storage tank.” So I’m going back this Saturday with a couple trucks and a tractor with a forklift to bring home my new Coalgun. Sometimes I think I’m the luckiest guy in the world!

Anyway, that’s my story of diving into the deep-end of the wood and coal boiler world. I’ll take some pictures of my installation of the Woodgun and when I’m picking up the Coalgun…Seems you guys like pictures!


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## avc8130 (Oct 15, 2012)

I'm pretty sure you ARE the luckiest guy around.  To give back to the community you better start by posting pictures, and LOTS of them.

ac


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## BoilerMan (Oct 15, 2012)

Thats right, pics or it never happened

Welcome to Hearth, looks/sounds like you'll fit right in.  LOL

TS


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## Woodsrover (Oct 15, 2012)

Alright, pictures as promised.

The Woodgun running happy and warm. My plumber busted my stones for putting it at an angle to the wall but I wanted to get to the cyclone and ashpan and having square to the wall was a little tight. Having it square would have made it clumsy coming in the door too. By the way, those little shoes aren't mine. You'll see we wired the smoke hood into the control box and installed a switch for it. Just nicer and cleaner than the box and cord WG gives you. We also installed a switch to run the circulator independent of the boiler.












Heres the rest of the mess in the basement. WM propane boiler, WM 40-gallon boiler mate, water softener, ancient Winpower 12k generator parked in front of a doggie-door that I run the PTO shaft through. (Try to keep 150 gallons of diesel on hand for the power outages.)






Here's the barn that I'm going to heat with the Coalgun. I put it up years ago but just sided three sides of it last year. This year I built and ubber-strong wooden floor out of wood cut and milled on our property. The front siding is also from white pine I cut, milled and planed right here. The doors will come in the next couple of weeks. In the next year it will get insulation, a ceiling and interior walls, again all cut and milled right here. You can see my little Norwood mill there to the right. Inside the barn is a cool old Parks planer from the 50's. They don't make them like they used to. Sorry about the crappy picture here...It's from the front porch and it was raining out.


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## 711mhw (Oct 15, 2012)

How can a guy piss me off sooo baad after only 3 posts?
I guess with 2 "Guns" you're the new sherrif in town.  Congrats on your new find and nice looking set up!
I'd love to hear about your coalgun after it's up and you can compare it to your woodgun. I'm thinking that might be the direction I'll be heading after my wood cutting days are over. Hopefully that will coincide with my woodgun getting old.


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## Gasifier (Oct 15, 2012)

Man. What the _ _ _ _?. I don't believe it. Given a brand new boiler! That is unbelievable. Great for you Woodsrover!
And HEY!  Nice dam boiler you got there! Welcome aboard. So your friend is helping you move all that coal right? I mean with you being in the ditch with the shovel and all. Thanks for the pics. And congrats on the new install and future install.

Oh. I tell everyone this. Not just wood burners. Smoke detectors. Make sure you got em and they are working.


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## Woodsrover (Oct 15, 2012)

711mhw said:


> How can a guy piss me off sooo baad after only 3 posts?


 
Where in Maine are you 711?  I get up to the North Maine Woods at least once a year if not two or three times.  It's my favorite place in the world.  We usually camp at Cliff Lake or Spider Lake.  Made it up there only once this past year but counting the days until next.


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## avc8130 (Oct 15, 2012)

Let's talk more about that Wood Gun for now.

Can you post more details of the install?  

How did you bring power in?  What controls your circulator pump?  What's up with that stove pipe?  How'd you wire in the hood (love it)?  Is that a cycle timer on the side?  

Welcome to the forum.  Now spill the beans!  LOL

ac


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## Woodsrover (Oct 15, 2012)

Gasifier said:


> ...Smoke detectors. Make sure you got em and they are working.


 
Smoke and CO2 detectors...Check.  Thanks.


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## Woodsrover (Oct 15, 2012)

avc8130 said:


> Let's talk more about that Wood Gun for now.
> 
> Can you post more details of the install?
> 
> ...


 
Ran BX cable from the box feeding the propane boiler so they're on the same 15-amp circuit.

The circulator pumps water over to the propane boiler and keeps that warm as well.  It's on it's own independent switch in the control box.

The stove pipe is plain-old galvanized 26-guage whatever pipe you can find at any hardware place.  It runs into a DuraVent thimble and up a DuraVent SS 6" chimney that used to come from the Vermont Castings woodstove.  Not sure why everyone talks about stainless right off the boiler...I can't see where corrosion would be a problem here.  Guess we'll see.

Yup, that's a cycle timer you see.  Talked to a few WG owners and they thought the timer was a good option to get.  What I didn't get was the low-temp shut-off aquastat but in these shoulder times I think it's needed.  Came home today to a boiler running cold.  The cycle timer didn't catch it in time.  The propane boiler is still "on" but turned down to 140-degrees so it didn't fire, but it was close.  I'm going to figure and run the low-temp shut off with a manual override so the furnace will run but the circulator won't until the temperature comes up.  I'll let you know how I do that in a week or two when I actually figure it out myself.


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## avc8130 (Oct 15, 2012)

Woodsrover said:


> Ran BX cable from the box feeding the propane boiler so they're on the same 15-amp circuit.
> 
> The circulator pumps water over to the propane boiler and keeps that warm as well. It's on it's own independent switch in the control box.
> 
> ...


 
My Wood Gun has the low temp cutoff, but no cycle timer...yet.  

The wiring diagram for the low-temp is in the back of the manual.  If you need help, I can go over the wires in mine to help.

I was surprised there is no knock-out in the control panel to bring power in.  That is the right place to bring line, correct?

Do you have a circulator pump that is always running to keep your primary loop warm between the WG and the propane?

Right now the chimney connector is my biggest hang up.  I just can't figure out the best route.

ac


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## Woodsrover (Oct 16, 2012)

avc8130 said:


> I was surprised there is no knock-out in the control panel to bring power in. That is the right place to bring line, correct?
> 
> Do you have a circulator pump that is always running to keep your primary loop warm between the WG and the propane?
> 
> ac


 
My box had a hole in the top for power in already. Wonder why yours doesn't?

Yes, the circulator runs all the time keeping the propane boiler warm too. That boiler is still switched on but set to 140 degrees so it'll only fire if I run out of wood or the fire goes out between cycles.


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## infinitymike (Oct 16, 2012)

Hey Congratulations brother.

That is way to sweet, getting a free coal burner. And so is the barn you built out of your own milled wood. Way to cool.

Nice to see more Wood Gun owners here.


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## stee6043 (Oct 17, 2012)

My OCD would make it impossible for me to sleep having my boiler at an odd angle like that.  Otherwise, nice looking install!


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## Woodsrover (Oct 17, 2012)

stee6043 said:


> My OCD would make it impossible for me to sleep having my boiler at an odd angle like that. Otherwise, nice looking install!


 
Ha!  My plumber buddy is the same way.  He argued with me for 20 minutes to turn it square to the wall before giving up.  He's OCD, I'm stubborn.  I know it looks funny in the picture but it works well like that.


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## Gasifier (Oct 17, 2012)

Woodsrover said:


> My box had a hole in the top for power in already. Wonder why yours doesn't?
> 
> Yes, the circulator runs all the time keeping the propane boiler warm too. That boiler is still switched on but set to 140 degrees so it'll only fire if I run out of wood or the fire goes out between cycles.


 
Woodsrover. You say "keeping the propane boiler warm too". Is the Wood Gun plumbed in series with the propane boiler? Or in parrallel allowing the hot water to go to zones if they are calling. I guess I am wondering if you Wood Gun will shut down each time it has itself and the propane boiler up to temp. ? Cool set up, and man are you one lucky son of a bee....


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## Woodsrover (Oct 17, 2012)

The hot water "out" from the Woodgun is plumbed to the return line on the propane boiler with a circulator that runs all the time. The propane boiler is set to fire at 140 degrees, the Woodgun at 150 degrees and shut down at 170 degrees. The propane boiler is getting fed with hot water constantly, even when none of the zones are calling for heat. As long as the Woodgun is above 140 degrees the propane boiler won't fire but the zones will operate as normal. The return water to the Woodgun comes straight from the hot water "out" from the propane boiler. So yes, the Woodgun satisfies both itself and the propane boiler and then will shut down. My plumber has installed a few of these and maintains a bunch of others and tells me this is the best way to plumb them up. I'm taking his word for it but so far is seems to work well.

If anyone wants to see close ups of how everything is run I'd be happy to post them for you.


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## Woodsrover (Oct 17, 2012)

avc8130 said:


> My Wood Gun has the low temp cutoff, but no cycle timer...yet.
> 
> ac


 
Hey AC, any chance you can get the Honeywell part number off your dual aquastat? After running this thing for a week I really think I'd like to hook the low cutoff circuit into the system.


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## avc8130 (Oct 17, 2012)

Woodsrover said:


> Hey AC, any chance you can get the Honeywell part number off your dual aquastat? After running this thing for a week I really think I'd like to hook the low cutoff circuit into the system.


 
L4081B 1096

Is the diagram in the back of your manual?

ac


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## infinitymike (Oct 17, 2012)

Woodsrover said:


> The hot water "out" from the Woodgun is plumbed to the return line on the propane boiler with a circulator that runs all the time. The propane boiler is set to fire at 140 degrees, the Woodgun at 150 degrees and shut down at 170 degrees. The propane boiler is getting fed with hot water constantly, even when none of the zones are calling for heat. As long as the Woodgun is above 140 degrees the propane boiler won't fire but the zones will operate as normal. The return water to the Woodgun comes straight from the hot water "out" from the propane boiler. So yes, the Woodgun satisfies both itself and the propane boiler and then will shut down. My plumber has installed a few of these and maintains a bunch of others and tells me this is the best way to plumb them up. I'm taking his word for it but so far is seems to work well.
> 
> If anyone wants to see close ups of how everything is run I'd be happy to post them for you.


 
Thats interesting. I'm not a plumber or engineer so take what I say with a grain of salt. I feel that by having the hot water circulate 24/7 round and round from boiler to boiler you are using an awful lot of electric and there is an awful lot of heat loss as the water is flowing round and round. Also your 170* shut off sounds a little low. I have mine set for 190* and will swing up to about 205* after shut down.
I have baseboard heat emitters which really need about 180* water to work properly
What type of heat emitters do you have? Baseboard,radiant, cast iron radiators?

I would love to see some more close up pics.


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## Woodsrover (Oct 18, 2012)

avc8130 said:


> L4081B 1096
> 
> Is the diagram in the back of your manual?
> 
> ac


 
Thanks for looking at the number for me.

Yup, it is, but what I see is that WG doesn't offer a low-temp shut-off when a cycle timer is installed....which kinda makes sense. I'm still tuning this cycle timer in and have set it up to fire for 12 minutes every 2 hours. If I'm not a dummy and charge it with enough wood and get the cycle timer tuned in right, the boiler should be fine for at least 12 hours (especially this time of year) and won't every run cold. It hasn't really gotten cold here yet so the test of wood load will come later, but I think I might be alright without the low-temp shut-off. Everyone says it's a learning curve with these boilers. I'm getting to see what they're talking about. We're only at 7 days online....All things considered it's doing pretty well so far.


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## Woodsrover (Oct 18, 2012)

infinitymike said:


> Thats interesting. I'm not a plumber or engineer so take what I say with a grain of salt. I feel that by having the hot water circulate 24/7 round and round from boiler to boiler you are using an awful lot of electric and there is an awful lot of heat loss as the water is flowing round and round. Also your 170* shut off sounds a little low. I have mine set for 190* and will swing up to about 205* after shut down.
> I have baseboard heat emitters which really need about 180* water to work properly
> What type of heat emitters do you have? Baseboard,radiant, cast iron radiators?
> 
> I would love to see some more close up pics.


 
These little Taco pumps only draw about .5 amps and have a 100% duty cycle so I'm not too worried about it, but these are the exact questions I was asking my plumber too.  I'll insulate the pipes running between the two boilers but the WG bleeds off so much heat from the front and rear of itself its probably insignificant what comes off the pipes.  I actually cracked a window in the basement because it's so warm down there.

I had my limit set at 180 but as I'm still messing around with the cycle timer I wanted to give myself a little room.  I had visions of the boiler kicking off after a heating cycle at 180, coasting up to 190 and then the cycle timer coming around right afterwards and switching the boiler back on for 12 minutes and pushing it to 210.  As I'm away from home for 12-hours a day with a new boiler I like to play it safe.

I have baseboard radiators.  The problem with this little house and figuring this boiler out is its so well insulated I haven't really used the heat yet.  The boiler has only been heating hot water so far.  It was 60 degrees outside yesterday and down to 34 degrees this morning.  The two zones are set for 70 degrees and the heat never came on last night.  its been the same for the past three nights.  Hahaha.  Gotta get some cold weather to see what this thing will really do.  Maybe I should leave the windows open.


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## Gasifier (Oct 18, 2012)

Woodsrover said:


> The problem with this little house and figuring this boiler out is its so well insulated I haven't really used the heat yet.


 
How big a house are you heating with your Gun?


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## infinitymike (Oct 18, 2012)

Woodrover,

Can take a picture of the cycle timer and do you have a model number. 

I was actually thinking the same thing about the cycle timer overheating the unit and blowing off the pressure valve. 
Like I said I shut off at 190 and it can swing up to 200 and even 205. I'm not sure how cool it will get in 2 hours but if the timer kicked on it may overheat. I'm not sure what my T&P valve is rated for or if I can buy one rated for 220 or higher. 

But I asked this in te past and the WG guys say its not an issue.


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## Woodsrover (Oct 18, 2012)

Gasifier said:


> How big a house are you heating with your Gun?


 
1500 sq-ft built in 1991 so it's very well insulated and has good windows in it.  I joke that I can heat the whole place with a candle.  I used to heat the whole place with just a VC Vigilant in the basement and usually didn't fire it up until November 1st.


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## Woodsrover (Oct 18, 2012)

infinitymike said:


> Woodrover,
> 
> Can take a picture of the cycle timer and do you have a model number.
> 
> ...


 
Sure.  I won't be home until late tonight but I can let you know Friday morning.

While we're talking about boiler temperatures, there's about a 10-degree difference between the aquastat and the gauge on the boiler.  I have the aquastat set to kick the boiler off at 180 which gives me 170 at the gauge.  Not sure what to believe but I'll er on the side of caution and believe the gauge.


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## avc8130 (Oct 18, 2012)

Woodsrover said:


> Thanks for looking at the number for me.
> 
> Yup, it is, but what I see is that WG doesn't offer a low-temp shut-off when a cycle timer is installed....which kinda makes sense. I'm still tuning this cycle timer in and have set it up to fire for 12 minutes every 2 hours. If I'm not a dummy and charge it with enough wood and get the cycle timer tuned in right, the boiler should be fine for at least 12 hours (especially this time of year) and won't every run cold. It hasn't really gotten cold here yet so the test of wood load will come later, but I think I might be alright without the low-temp shut-off. Everyone says it's a learning curve with these boilers. I'm getting to see what they're talking about. We're only at 7 days online....All things considered it's doing pretty well so far.


 
It shouldn't be that hard.  All the cycle timer does is parallel the purge circuit.  The lower water temp basically parallels the overtemp, but in the opposite direction.  When the low temp limit is satisfied it allows power through.

I am interested to hear about your cycle time experiences.  I will be wiring one into mine once it is up and running.  What was the AHS suggestion for timer settings?  Why didn't that work?  Did the fire not restart?

ac


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## Gasifier (Oct 18, 2012)

Woodsrover said:


> 1500 sq-ft built in 1991 so it's very well insulated and has good windows in it. I joke that I can heat the whole place with a candle. I used to heat the whole place with just a VC Vigilant in the basement and usually didn't fire it up until November 1st.


 
Wow. That Wood Gun is going to be doing some idleing. Perfect application for some thermal storage of water. Do you think you will add storage in the future? You could have a fire once every two days a lot of the year and heat your house.


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## avc8130 (Oct 18, 2012)

Woodsrover said:


> These little Taco pumps only draw about .5 amps and have a 100% duty cycle so I'm not too worried about it, but these are the exact questions I was asking my plumber too. I'll insulate the pipes running between the two boilers but the WG bleeds off so much heat from the front and rear of itself its probably insignificant what comes off the pipes. I actually cracked a window in the basement because it's so warm down there.
> 
> I had my limit set at 180 but as I'm still messing around with the cycle timer I wanted to give myself a little room. I had visions of the boiler kicking off after a heating cycle at 180, coasting up to 190 and then the cycle timer coming around right afterwards and switching the boiler back on for 12 minutes and pushing it to 210. As I'm away from home for 12-hours a day with a new boiler I like to play it safe.
> 
> I have baseboard radiators. The problem with this little house and figuring this boiler out is its so well insulated I haven't really used the heat yet. The boiler has only been heating hot water so far. It was 60 degrees outside yesterday and down to 34 degrees this morning. The two zones are set for 70 degrees and the heat never came on last night. its been the same for the past three nights. Hahaha. Gotta get some cold weather to see what this thing will really do. Maybe I should leave the windows open.


 
I had a fear this thing would heat my basement.  That's why I put in an electric water heater for summer.

No worries about the cycle timer boiling you over.  The overtemp protection is #1 in the circuit.  Nothing but a failed overtemp aquastat will make this force itself to boil.

Sounds like a nice problem to have.

ac


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## Woodsrover (Oct 18, 2012)

avc8130 said:


> ... What was the AHS suggestion for timer settings? Why didn't that work? Did the fire not restart?
> 
> ac


 
It was set at the factory to fire for 12 minutes every four hours.  At that setting with nothing calling for heat the fire would go out.  Yesterday I changed it to fire for 12 minutes every two hours.  We'll see how that works.


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## Woodsrover (Oct 18, 2012)

Gasifier said:


> Wow. That Wood Gun is going to be doing some idleing. Perfect application for some thermal storage of water. Do you think you will add storage in the future? You could have a fire once every two days a lot of the year and heat your house.


 
I don't have any plans to, but I'll keep an eye out for old propane tanks and water tanks. With the way these WGs bleed heat off I'd have to isolate them from the boiler after they're up to temperature. I like the simple layout I have now...I'll be slow to add more whistles and bells to it.

If there's one thing I like to do, it's cut and split firewood. My wife thinks I have a problem. Go to the beach, go for a hike, go to the city, go to the amusement park...I really want none of it. Put me in the woods with my tractor and a chainsaw or behind the barn with a maul in my hand and I'm a happy boy. I have all the woods and wood that I can use already and on top of that we had a wicked storm blow through here on June 22nd and knock over probably 5-years worth of firewood (and timber for lumber) on my property alone. The amount of wood I burn isn't really an issue for me. 5 cord a year or 8, I don't really care.


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## Woodsrover (Oct 18, 2012)

avc8130 said:


> Sounds like a nice problem to have.
> 
> ac


 
If I were smart I'd sell the new coal boiler and run 250 of insulated pex out to the barn and heat it with the Woodgun.  I'm going to pipe underground power, water, compressed air and phone out there next year anyway.  I'm still considering that.....  The WG would run more often and more efficient and I wouldn't have two different boilers to take care of.  Food for thought.


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## avc8130 (Oct 18, 2012)

Woodsrover said:


> If I were smart I'd sell the new coal boiler and run 250 of insulated pex out to the barn and heat it with the Woodgun. I'm going to pipe underground power, water, compressed air and phone out there next year anyway. I'm still considering that..... The WG would run more often and more efficient and I wouldn't have two different boilers to take care of. Food for thought.


 
Now THAT sounds very smart!

ac


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## Gasifier (Oct 18, 2012)

Woodsrover said:


> If I were smart I'd sell the new coal boiler and run 250 of insulated pex out to the barn and heat it with the Woodgun. I'm going to pipe underground power, water, compressed air and phone out there next year anyway. I'm still considering that..... The WG would run more often and more efficient and I wouldn't have two different boilers to take care of. Food for thought.


 
That is a long ways. I wonder what you would need to pump that far and back? And other considerations you would have to make.


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## Woodsrover (Oct 18, 2012)

infinitymike said:


> Woodrover,
> 
> Can take a picture of the cycle timer and do you have a model number.


 
C8845.  I'll take a picture for you tomorrow.


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## infinitymike (Oct 18, 2012)

Woodsrover said:


> C8845. I'll take a picture for you tomorrow.


 
thanks. Funny thing is I was just reminded that I allready knew that and had posted it in an old thread last year. So I looked it up and I'm good to go.


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## Bad Wolf (Nov 8, 2012)

Do you need more coal?
http://hartford.craigslist.org/zip/3395610229.html


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## phil johnson (Nov 8, 2012)

As far as Hawken energy, i bought 2 global hydronics thru them and both leaked, after patching and leaking and patching and leaking and finally getting a lawyer we got them replaced at considerable cost to us and 2 years without the boilers now one is leaking again and it has been patched several times. total junk.


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## Woodsrover (Nov 8, 2012)

Thanks for the link!  Probably worth the drive.
BTW, here's a picture of the coal I have on-hand right now.


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## Woodsrover (Nov 8, 2012)

Greg H said:


> Do you need more coal?
> http://hartford.craigslist.org/zip/3395610229.html


 
Already gone.  Thanks anyway!


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## mpilihp (Jun 12, 2013)

Woodsrover said:


> Alright, pictures as promised.
> 
> The Woodgun running happy and warm. My plumber busted my stones for putting it at an angle to the wall but I wanted to get to the cyclone and ashpan and having square to the wall was a little tight. Having it square would have made it clumsy coming in the door too. By the way, those little shoes aren't mine. You'll see we wired the smoke hood into the control box and installed a switch for it. Just nicer and cleaner than the box and cord WG gives you. We also installed a switch to run the circulator independent of the boiler.
> 
> ...


 
Hi Woodsrover I am reading up about the Wood gun boiler to learn more about them and Im curious about how you have yours ducted.  I see in the first picture two horizontal stove pipe/ducts running towards the wall, the top being your smoke hood exhaust and the lower one Im thinking is the air intake.  What Im curious is where they go.  Does the hood exhaust go out the wall or into the chimmny pipe?  And the air intake does it just stub off inside the room or vent to the outside?

So Im curious how its been running it, do you get a lot of smoke into the room even with the exhaust hood?  

Thanks

~ Phil


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## Woodsrover (Jun 13, 2013)

mpilihp said:


> Hi Woodsrover I am reading up about the Wood gun boiler to learn more about them and Im curious about how you have yours ducted. I see in the first picture two horizontal stove pipe/ducts running towards the wall, the top being your smoke hood exhaust and the lower one Im thinking is the air intake. What Im curious is where they go. Does the hood exhaust go out the wall or into the chimmny pipe? And the air intake does it just stub off inside the room or vent to the outside?
> 
> So Im curious how its been running it, do you get a lot of smoke into the room even with the exhaust hood?
> 
> ...


 
Hi Phil,

The smoke hood pipe goes just goes through the wall to a dryer vent with a flap.  The intake air is the same thing but with a screen to keep the critters out instead of a flap.

It's been running great.  We shut it down the first week or two of May but was running up until then without a hitch.  And no, with the smoke hood running I get little if any smoke in the room.  It does a pretty good job.


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## NE WOOD BURNER (Jun 13, 2013)

Woodsrover said:


> Great, take it. And take this 8-tons of coal too


 
sounds like the good old days! nice when a person can be in a position to gain some satisfication of a gift, knowing that a person will benefit from the use.


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## mpilihp (Jun 13, 2013)

Woodsrover said:


> Hi Phil,
> 
> The smoke hood pipe goes just goes through the wall to a dryer vent with a flap. The intake air is the same thing but with a screen to keep the critters out instead of a flap.
> 
> It's been running great. We shut it down the first week or two of May but was running up until then without a hitch. And no, with the smoke hood running I get little if any smoke in the room. It does a pretty good job.


Hi thanks for the info, I am very intrigued by the wood gun, a possibility for us as we do not have the space for storage or the desire for a complicated system.  So did you have a conventional or outdoor boiler and did you see any reduction in the amount of wood you burn going to  the Wood Gun?

Thanks  ~ Phil


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## Woodsrover (Jun 14, 2013)

Heated with a VC Vigilant before this boiler.  Used 5-6 cord a year.  Only one season under my belt with this WG now but I burned probably 4-5 cord, heated hot water and burned until April.


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## Coal Reaper (Jun 14, 2013)

If 





mpilihp said:


> Hi thanks for the info, I am very intrigued by the wood gun, a possibility for us as we do not have the space for storage or the desire for a complicated system.  So did you have a conventional or outdoor boiler and did you see any reduction in the amount of wood you burn going to  the Wood Gun?
> 
> Thanks  ~ Phil


if you can install a wood boiler then you can install a wood boiler with storage. Space should be your only limiting factor.


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## mpilihp (Jun 15, 2013)

Coal Reaper said:


> If
> if you can install a wood boiler then you can install a wood boiler with storage. Space should be your only limiting factor.


Yes space is the issue, no room in the basement and I don't want to do something outside nor does my wife.  I fully understand that no matter what I install without storage it will not be as efficient.  I am trying to find a gassifier that can perform ok without storage, run with minimal creosote buildup is my main concern, second is to reduce the amount of wood we burn, not looking for cutting it in half but dropping it by 20-30% would be nice. The other thing is I want to cut my wood at 2ft lengths, its easier, less pieces, less handling.

~ Phil


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## infinitymike (Jun 15, 2013)

mpilihp said:


> Yes space is the issue, no room in the basement and I don't want to do something outside nor does my wife.  I fully understand that no matter what I install without storage it will not be as efficient.  I am trying to find a gassifier that can perform ok without storage, run with minimal creosote buildup is my main concern, second is to reduce the amount of wood we burn, not looking for cutting it in half but dropping it by 20-30% would be nice. The other thing is I want to cut my wood at 2ft lengths, its easier, less pieces, less handling.
> 
> ~ Phil


I see a Wood Gun in your future


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## Coal Reaper (Jun 15, 2013)

infinitymike said:


> I see a Wood Gun in your future


Theres your ticket


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## mpilihp (Jun 16, 2013)

Yeah maybe it sounds intriguing, im a slow spender...


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## infinitymike (Jun 16, 2013)

mpilihp said:


> Yeah maybe it sounds intriguing, im a slow spender...



Just jump right in and spend some dough and you'll be very happy you did.


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