how to tell with seton boiler if you are in gasification?

[stokes79]

How do you tell if you are getting gasification with a seton type boiler? From what I have read on here a lot of the other boilers have a second chamber and you can see it happening, on my greenfire all I can do is open the door. I have an IR thermometer but it only reads up to 950 degrees and it goes into error when I shoot it at the coals or up near the exchanger through the door.
I am in southeast alaska, no hardwood here, and my wood is unfortunately wet 30% mostly with some of the "dryer" stuff at 10% Next season this shouldn't be an issue but right now the boiler is heating my home and my electric boiler has been off for a week so goodbye to the 450 dollar electric bill
I am running a thousand gallons of pressured storage which is uninsulated. I get about 50 hours of house heat and DHW plus a 90 degree shop which as soon as I insulate with a framed box and cellulose insulation should improve, would be a real bummer in summer when I hope to make my hot water with maybe one fire a week don't know if that is realistic or not but again even if it is a couple fires a week it is better than doing it electrically, but I don't want my shop that warm, its too hot right now with snow on the ground, except when you first get in there it feels pretty nice.
I am having quit a bit of trouble getting a control package together also I have tried to draw my system as it is plumbed and would like to know what kind of controllers, switching relays I should get to make everything run the most efficient

 

[sparke]

Like you stated actually seeing gasification in these type boilers is difficult. But these 2 rules of thumb will help you:
1. Exhaust temps should be 300 - 450* (internal flue temp).
2. You should not be seeing any smoke coming out of the chimney except on start up and reload.

Seton and Green Horizon (formerly Greenfire) both have manuals on their web-sites with drawings for the piping. If you have a Greenfire, you can PM me and I can hook you up with a control package specifically made for that boiler...

 

[2.beans]

i can tell when its "gasifiying" by no smoke and my temp gauges climb real fast and hold untill the wood is spanked. i hate to open the door and load at this time but its usually when im heading down to the house. i have some simple home built controls built if you pm me ill try explain them to you if you want. not saying its the best but it works great for me.

 

[antknee2]

My favorite way was to ask my wife if when looking directly at the chimney when the boiler is running , Do you think the boiler is on ? I the answer was no . Your in gasification mode , or for Seton type boilers super hot refractory burning the smoke .
Anthoy