Direct connect combustion air - Wood Gun E100
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WOW MIKE
! That is one HUGE pile of wood! and nice wood - looks like maple & oak. From AC's pics earlier I see you have huge (wood) piles also - I gather you both have your own forest to cut from. You are very privileged to have that much wood available and so much space to store it. Thank you for the video.
I agree it is hard to quantify how much you are burning - like you are showing in your video Mike, that small stuff will burn up faster. I have not (in my whole month -almost - of WG burning) put anywhere near that much wood in my WG. That one load is more than I burn on a cold day. If I may humbly suggest - please don't be offended - your wood looks nice and straight, maybe try stacking the wood, kind of tightly bundling it in the WG so there is less air space (surface area), so it is more like one very large piece of wood in there, leaving a gap all the way around the outside - not touching any walls - it should give you about the same heat but burn much longer - just a suggestion to try, maybe save some wood - it is how I always loaded my forced air wood furnace and I have carried that over to the WG. I am very into burning as little wood as possible as I don't have the equipment you guys have or the space to store alot of wood. I cut mine from standing trees with a Stihl 028, a chopping maul and wedges, and haul it home with a GMC Sonoma S15.
My burning schedule is very similar to what you are describing AC - EXCEPT - I load only enough for a decent fire in the morning, bring the house solidly up to temp (78) let the WG naturally cycle off, then power down everything for the day. If it is no colder than 0F the house will stay above 68 until 6pm and I have burned no wood.
I took some pics - basically my full days burning for yesterday. Our daytime high was 14F and overnight minus 12F.
When it is cold like that we keep the low temp (sleeping & away) at 72, regular temp 78-80F.
In the morning there was still lots of coals so I added a 4 inch and a 2 1/2 inch round just for some flame. They didn't really burn by the time I powered off the boiler so they are still intact and are under the large piece on the right in the 6pm (catch up) photo. For whatever reason, my cheap camera will not capture flame or red coals as my pics look like the wood is not burning, especially the 11 pm pic, but you can see the red reflecting in the door frame. Those 2 pics are my full wood load for yesterday, there was nothing left but a bit of coals this morning, but my fluid temp was still high (170F). My wife was up before me, turned up the thermostat and did not realize there was no fire in the WG as nice warm air was coming through the floor vents.
Still figuring out this infrared temp reader. Adjusted its settings for the type of material it is reading - now getting temps closer to 400F (like Muncybob) on the cyclone - hard to know what is accurate with this thing. I am looking for fittings today and hope to get started on the cyclone heat recovery loop this weekend - every time I see my magnetic thermometer on the cyclone go over 300F I cringe at all the heat I am losing up the chimney.
! That is one HUGE pile of wood! and nice wood - looks like maple & oak. From AC's pics earlier I see you have huge (wood) piles also - I gather you both have your own forest to cut from. You are very privileged to have that much wood available and so much space to store it. Thank you for the video.I agree it is hard to quantify how much you are burning - like you are showing in your video Mike, that small stuff will burn up faster. I have not (in my whole month -almost - of WG burning) put anywhere near that much wood in my WG. That one load is more than I burn on a cold day. If I may humbly suggest - please don't be offended - your wood looks nice and straight, maybe try stacking the wood, kind of tightly bundling it in the WG so there is less air space (surface area), so it is more like one very large piece of wood in there, leaving a gap all the way around the outside - not touching any walls - it should give you about the same heat but burn much longer - just a suggestion to try, maybe save some wood - it is how I always loaded my forced air wood furnace and I have carried that over to the WG. I am very into burning as little wood as possible as I don't have the equipment you guys have or the space to store alot of wood. I cut mine from standing trees with a Stihl 028, a chopping maul and wedges, and haul it home with a GMC Sonoma S15.
My burning schedule is very similar to what you are describing AC - EXCEPT - I load only enough for a decent fire in the morning, bring the house solidly up to temp (78) let the WG naturally cycle off, then power down everything for the day. If it is no colder than 0F the house will stay above 68 until 6pm and I have burned no wood.
I took some pics - basically my full days burning for yesterday. Our daytime high was 14F and overnight minus 12F.
When it is cold like that we keep the low temp (sleeping & away) at 72, regular temp 78-80F.
In the morning there was still lots of coals so I added a 4 inch and a 2 1/2 inch round just for some flame. They didn't really burn by the time I powered off the boiler so they are still intact and are under the large piece on the right in the 6pm (catch up) photo. For whatever reason, my cheap camera will not capture flame or red coals as my pics look like the wood is not burning, especially the 11 pm pic, but you can see the red reflecting in the door frame. Those 2 pics are my full wood load for yesterday, there was nothing left but a bit of coals this morning, but my fluid temp was still high (170F). My wife was up before me, turned up the thermostat and did not realize there was no fire in the WG as nice warm air was coming through the floor vents.
Still figuring out this infrared temp reader. Adjusted its settings for the type of material it is reading - now getting temps closer to 400F (like Muncybob) on the cyclone - hard to know what is accurate with this thing. I am looking for fittings today and hope to get started on the cyclone heat recovery loop this weekend - every time I see my magnetic thermometer on the cyclone go over 300F I cringe at all the heat I am losing up the chimney.
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infinitymike
Minister of Fire
Thats the key to your success.
You shut it off all day and night and only have it running to bring house up to temp and then let it drop in temp.
My house is so poorly insulated that I would drop way more than 10 degrees overnight and my outside temps are no where near yours.
I also maintain 70* all day so I need to keep the WG on.
I tried a 5 degree set back overnight from 70 to 65 and the unit still burned almost a whole box of wood over night just maintaining 65*
Plus it takes so much longer to bring back up the 5 degrees and maybe even more wood.
That is an old pic from a year or two ago and I try to pack it as tight as possible like you suggested.
This winter I have been loading a 1/4 box of the small splits and than stuffing it with those large splits and yet still burn it all up.
Glad you have a good efficient rhythm.
I hope once I get some real insulation in my walls and attic and even change my heat emitters I can do the same as you.
You shut it off all day and night and only have it running to bring house up to temp and then let it drop in temp.
My house is so poorly insulated that I would drop way more than 10 degrees overnight and my outside temps are no where near yours.
I also maintain 70* all day so I need to keep the WG on.
I tried a 5 degree set back overnight from 70 to 65 and the unit still burned almost a whole box of wood over night just maintaining 65*
Plus it takes so much longer to bring back up the 5 degrees and maybe even more wood.
That is an old pic from a year or two ago and I try to pack it as tight as possible like you suggested.
This winter I have been loading a 1/4 box of the small splits and than stuffing it with those large splits and yet still burn it all up.
Glad you have a good efficient rhythm.
I hope once I get some real insulation in my walls and attic and even change my heat emitters I can do the same as you.
I don't cut wood on my property. My buddy is a tree guy and he brings me logs by the truck load. That is privilege. Having the space to store it and process it is earned and paid for with hard work.
Your house is clearly very efficient. No way I could heat my house with the amount of wood you show in those pics at the temps you say.
The math really doesn't support that turning the boiler on/off like you do and letting the temp drop is really more "efficient". How LONG does your WG run to burn that load of wood?
What is the length of those splits?
ac
Your house is clearly very efficient. No way I could heat my house with the amount of wood you show in those pics at the temps you say.
The math really doesn't support that turning the boiler on/off like you do and letting the temp drop is really more "efficient". How LONG does your WG run to burn that load of wood?
What is the length of those splits?
ac
No arguement here AC - probably using close to the same "weight" in wood with the day time off time as (as you mentioned yesterday) you have to play catch-up if the house cools. My photo of the 6 pm load is my catch-up - it will heat the house to 80F and last until 11pm - at that time, if it is colder than -10F (as it has been for the last few days) I add a load like the second pic - if it were more like 0F or balmier I would only add the two smaller pieces in pic 2 - that would hold at 70F all night and leave enough coals for a fast re-light in the morning. Most mornings I add pieces 2 slightly smaller than the small rounds in pic 2 - thoroughly heat from 70F to 78F let WG cycle off naturally with all demands met, then power down.
At night, once the house is thoroughly warmed to temp (not just the air warmed) I dial my forced air fan speed back almost to the stall point so there is always a slight bit of warm air coming from the floor registers - uses very little heat and saves electricity.
My wood is all 23 1/2 inches long. My wifes job in the bush is, once I fell a tree, to start at the stump with a marker and marking rod and mark off each cut - makes it much faster for me to cut and pieces are uniform. I have terrible eyeball measurement.
I am still hoping to make my WG more efficient - I think there is room for that. Got most of the supplies for my cyclone heat recovery EXCEPT - cannot find an aquastat that closes (turns on) at 180F AND is rated for a bulb temp of at least 500F - this is becoming a problem - could be a stopper - well no, there is always a McGyver, but it sure would be nice to just find the right aquastat.
Also - I have been trying to figure out how I could have an LED indicator on my main floor panel, to light when the start/run switch is in the "start" position. Not sure what part of the circuitry to tie into to get an on/off - I have forgotten to switch it a couple times now. Anyone done this?
I am having an LED indicator light when the combustion fan is running (blue wire bundle & white wire bundle in the main box) - sometimes we cannot hear it on the main floor - as I only reload that way now.
At night, once the house is thoroughly warmed to temp (not just the air warmed) I dial my forced air fan speed back almost to the stall point so there is always a slight bit of warm air coming from the floor registers - uses very little heat and saves electricity.
My wood is all 23 1/2 inches long. My wifes job in the bush is, once I fell a tree, to start at the stump with a marker and marking rod and mark off each cut - makes it much faster for me to cut and pieces are uniform. I have terrible eyeball measurement.
I am still hoping to make my WG more efficient - I think there is room for that. Got most of the supplies for my cyclone heat recovery EXCEPT - cannot find an aquastat that closes (turns on) at 180F AND is rated for a bulb temp of at least 500F - this is becoming a problem - could be a stopper - well no, there is always a McGyver, but it sure would be nice to just find the right aquastat.
Also - I have been trying to figure out how I could have an LED indicator on my main floor panel, to light when the start/run switch is in the "start" position. Not sure what part of the circuitry to tie into to get an on/off - I have forgotten to switch it a couple times now. Anyone done this?
I am having an LED indicator light when the combustion fan is running (blue wire bundle & white wire bundle in the main box) - sometimes we cannot hear it on the main floor - as I only reload that way now.
maple1
Minister of Fire
I'm not sure how directly it can be related to the operation of a WG, but I have found efficiency gains by not making a fire on until the house starts losing temps, timing that with the period of day the demand is the most, and not charging storage up as high. What that does is keep the return water to the boiler at the minumum for as long as possible (thereby scrubbing more heat from the fire), and reduce standby losses from keeping everything hot for longer. So Pontypool might be seeing some reduced fuel consumption by not keeping his boiler fully up to temp all the time (less heat up the stack or radiating from it, while 'asleep'), and getting the most heat he can into the water when he does burn due to the lower overall return water temps from the more active loads.
I gather many of you do not have your boiler "in" your house but rather in a room separated from the house where heat radiated from the boiler and near boiler piping will not naturally disipate into the living space?. Pros & cons for everything - you probably don't have the stink problem I have, and regular cleaning is not as much of a concern (the mess). I cleaned the tubes & ash tray last night - what a @##%%^!! mess - every door/port you open, ultra fine dust spews out into the room and becomes air bourne. Well that's in my basement and travels. On the flip side, the only heat loss I have is what goes up the chimney. Any radiant heat loss is heating my house which is also why I always allow the WG to cycle off nayurally before I power off.
Green Mt Heat
Member
Pontypool My WG is in my house, below my bedroom in the garage. Whenever I load the WG or clean the cyclone or tubes I open the garage door to let out the dust or smoke. I am working on building a smoke hood to minimize the dust and smoke. Things were pretty interesting the first few months while I was learning how to run the WG. Lots of great help here
Sounds like it is still - more or less - separated from the rest of the house - I am used to seeing built in garages insulated and drywalled to prevent auto fumes/fire from infiltrating the rest of the house. When I say basement I am meaning an open unfinished basement, no walls/doors, no drywall, no ceiling.
So how often do you load, how much wood per load, and what type and size of wood? and how dry?
So how often do you load, how much wood per load, and what type and size of wood? and how dry?
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maple1
Minister of Fire
Ours sits in our basement on a concrete floor...basement is made of 4 stone walls about 110 years old. Exterior doors and down 3 concrete steps to bring wood in and about 12 wood steps up to the living area. I always have the smoke hood running when cleaning and most of the fine fly dust goes up it and out the side of the house. There is still a bit of dust accumulation so I run the ShopVac every other month or so. Unless you stand by the basement door in the kitchen area and really take a deep sniff there is no odor in the house. My friends thought I was kinda weird because initially I would ask them every time they came to visit if they could smell anything other than my dogs in the house...just in case I had become immune to any smoke smell.
Green Mt Heat
Member
Yes My WG is under my bedroom in my garage. The garage is insulated but not finished off. During the learning curve I experienced many huffing/ puffing episodes where a fair amount of smoke found its way into my bedroom, not good. Everything stunk like smoke it was terrible. Since then I have learned a lot about the WG and life with it is much better.
I load the WG about twice a day, once in the AM when I leave for work 7:30-8:00 and again before bedtime 9:30-10:00. I do add a few pieces when I get home from work around 6 PM. I listen to the weather and base the volume of wood that I load based on the temperature for the burn cycle. It's been cold here the last couple of weeks 5-10 below at night and low teens during the day. I have a 6 cubic ft wheel barrow that I fill about 1-1/2 times per 24 hours. This is much less than my old conventional natural draft boiler which would have to be fed like a locomotive during these temps. I am heating about 2200 sq/ft w/ 6" walls and 12" in the attic. 3 zones of baseboard and all of the dhw.
The wood that I am burning was most of the issue with the learning curve last season. It was well seasoned wood for my old boiler that sprung a leak in the fall of 2012. Small splits and 20" long w/ very low moisture less than 20% which I have learned the WG does not like. I did process about 4 cords this year of 24" large splits 8-10" from the advice of the other WG owners here. A big help, WG runs much better, I still have about 4.5 cord left of the smaller wood which I mix with the 24" stuff. I am
looking forward to using all large split 24" wood next year with a higher moisture content.
I have no other gassifier experience other than my WG and I have to say that I am amazed how efficient this unit is considering the age of the design. Wow 25 years ago Eshland was able to get wood gas burn temps over 1800* and 4' from the cyclone I can hold my hand on the stove pipe that is awesome! I don't know how much longer my WG will last but I will never go back to a non-gasser again.
I load the WG about twice a day, once in the AM when I leave for work 7:30-8:00 and again before bedtime 9:30-10:00. I do add a few pieces when I get home from work around 6 PM. I listen to the weather and base the volume of wood that I load based on the temperature for the burn cycle. It's been cold here the last couple of weeks 5-10 below at night and low teens during the day. I have a 6 cubic ft wheel barrow that I fill about 1-1/2 times per 24 hours. This is much less than my old conventional natural draft boiler which would have to be fed like a locomotive during these temps. I am heating about 2200 sq/ft w/ 6" walls and 12" in the attic. 3 zones of baseboard and all of the dhw.
The wood that I am burning was most of the issue with the learning curve last season. It was well seasoned wood for my old boiler that sprung a leak in the fall of 2012. Small splits and 20" long w/ very low moisture less than 20% which I have learned the WG does not like. I did process about 4 cords this year of 24" large splits 8-10" from the advice of the other WG owners here. A big help, WG runs much better, I still have about 4.5 cord left of the smaller wood which I mix with the 24" stuff. I am
looking forward to using all large split 24" wood next year with a higher moisture content.
I have no other gassifier experience other than my WG and I have to say that I am amazed how efficient this unit is considering the age of the design. Wow 25 years ago Eshland was able to get wood gas burn temps over 1800* and 4' from the cyclone I can hold my hand on the stove pipe that is awesome! I don't know how much longer my WG will last but I will never go back to a non-gasser again.
HAhahahaha lol - Muncybob - I have been asking everyone who comes to the house the same question, some say they don't smell anything - I think they are just being kind. My smoke smell is getting better since I sealed the seams on the single wall smoke pipe & replaced the rope on the blower motor. There is still a smell on the main floor when the Wg has been off all day and there is no air circulating, but much more bearable now. I have a manual make-up air vent beside the boiler, I open that then turn on the smoke hood always before I open the loading door as any smoke release goes up into my living room. I consider managing smoke releases totally normal if you are burning wood although I gather some appliances will release more than others, and it is more significant to some then others - like those of us with the WG in the basement.
More words on huffing - I think we all have slightly different experiences due the wood types, seasoning, possibly chimney draft and make-up air - I am not having any more issues with huffing since I started burning my "good" wood. I always separate the stump cuts and difficult to pile stuff and make a separate pile in the basement to be burned first during the lower demand part of the season. This stuff will not stack well so when loading into the WG there will be more (InfinityMike) surface area. Because my wood is seasoned a minimum 2 years (the stuff I am burning this year is seasoned 4 years - 3 years indoors) it is quite dry 14-20% - so if I have too much surface area I get huffing that even closing the damper will not stop. I believe it was MuncyBob who is running with the damper at 3/4 closed - I am doing that now also. My experience with Hickory is that fire does not spread on it like it does with maple and oak (I burn a bit of that - collateral damage when I am felling) but it burns quite hot - as long as I load it as a bundle I have no issues. My (limited) experience with WG is telling me there is nothing wrong with dry wood as long as splits are large, you load it properly to keep the surface area to a minimum and keep that fresh air in check. Large splits resist heating up (gassing) so they burn slower - you have less surface area per pound of wood.
Large splits don't last longer just because there is more wood, it also because they heat up slower so they don't gas off as quickly.
I have been burning as my only source of heat since 1990 - my experience has been that dry wood is ALWAYS best. We all know wood does not burn, heat causes gasses to be released and the gasses burn. The wetter the wood is (even with the WG) the greater the percentage of energy from that piece of wood that will be used to heat and evaporate that moisture from the piece of wood before it will heat up to gassifying temperature before it will "burn". Try burning a damp piece if newspaper, it will burn only where the flame is applied because the flame has to evaporate the moisture first. When the moisture content of the gasses becomes low enough, the paper/ink gasses burn. So to burn that wet newspaper you need to add a constant heat source and use that energy too and you probably will not get any heat from the burning of the actual newspaper. If it was a dry newspaper, you need only a moment from the other heat source to light it, that tiny bit of flame will cause the chain reaction of heating, gassing & burning and the whole newpaper burns rapidly and generates noticeable heat - it is the same with wood.
From everything I have read and my experience this is just a fact of physics so - I am probably going to get some darts thrown at me for this but - I am thinking burning wetter wood to reduce huffing is going to cause you to burn more wood because basically you are reducing the efficiency by throwing (absorbed) water on your fire so it will not burn so intensely.
Sometimes with my old wood burner, when lighting a fire near the begining of the season, I would get a hissing and foaming at the cut ends - these pieces would not really burn until the hissing and foaming was done and sometimes, if there was not enough kindling, the fire would go out because there was not enough heat to dry out/heat up the piece so it gas off and "burn". All the energy from the kindling was wasted. Also - and this is a big one - wetter wood generates alot more creosote (which is basically moisture filled smoke - wet smoke). I am guessing (but I don't know this) that if your wood is wetter that you might start getting creosote outside (downstream - starting at the cyclone) of your WG burning chamber - just a hunch - I am extrapolating here.
Before I purchased my WG, Mike Purnell gave me a list of WG owners I could call - I spoke with 5 or 6. One guy was from Canada - he was felling and burning as required in winter. His WG would not burn unless he left the door open - he had 3 chimney fires in the first season. One other person (from the US) told me that they also had a chimney fire.
Pretty sure a chimney will only catch fire if it has creosote, pretty sure ash has nothing left to burn.
Explosions - that's another topic, I still get random explosions.
Nuff said, get out the darts.
More words on huffing - I think we all have slightly different experiences due the wood types, seasoning, possibly chimney draft and make-up air - I am not having any more issues with huffing since I started burning my "good" wood. I always separate the stump cuts and difficult to pile stuff and make a separate pile in the basement to be burned first during the lower demand part of the season. This stuff will not stack well so when loading into the WG there will be more (InfinityMike) surface area. Because my wood is seasoned a minimum 2 years (the stuff I am burning this year is seasoned 4 years - 3 years indoors) it is quite dry 14-20% - so if I have too much surface area I get huffing that even closing the damper will not stop. I believe it was MuncyBob who is running with the damper at 3/4 closed - I am doing that now also. My experience with Hickory is that fire does not spread on it like it does with maple and oak (I burn a bit of that - collateral damage when I am felling) but it burns quite hot - as long as I load it as a bundle I have no issues. My (limited) experience with WG is telling me there is nothing wrong with dry wood as long as splits are large, you load it properly to keep the surface area to a minimum and keep that fresh air in check. Large splits resist heating up (gassing) so they burn slower - you have less surface area per pound of wood.
Large splits don't last longer just because there is more wood, it also because they heat up slower so they don't gas off as quickly.
I have been burning as my only source of heat since 1990 - my experience has been that dry wood is ALWAYS best. We all know wood does not burn, heat causes gasses to be released and the gasses burn. The wetter the wood is (even with the WG) the greater the percentage of energy from that piece of wood that will be used to heat and evaporate that moisture from the piece of wood before it will heat up to gassifying temperature before it will "burn". Try burning a damp piece if newspaper, it will burn only where the flame is applied because the flame has to evaporate the moisture first. When the moisture content of the gasses becomes low enough, the paper/ink gasses burn. So to burn that wet newspaper you need to add a constant heat source and use that energy too and you probably will not get any heat from the burning of the actual newspaper. If it was a dry newspaper, you need only a moment from the other heat source to light it, that tiny bit of flame will cause the chain reaction of heating, gassing & burning and the whole newpaper burns rapidly and generates noticeable heat - it is the same with wood.
From everything I have read and my experience this is just a fact of physics so - I am probably going to get some darts thrown at me for this but - I am thinking burning wetter wood to reduce huffing is going to cause you to burn more wood because basically you are reducing the efficiency by throwing (absorbed) water on your fire so it will not burn so intensely.
Sometimes with my old wood burner, when lighting a fire near the begining of the season, I would get a hissing and foaming at the cut ends - these pieces would not really burn until the hissing and foaming was done and sometimes, if there was not enough kindling, the fire would go out because there was not enough heat to dry out/heat up the piece so it gas off and "burn". All the energy from the kindling was wasted. Also - and this is a big one - wetter wood generates alot more creosote (which is basically moisture filled smoke - wet smoke). I am guessing (but I don't know this) that if your wood is wetter that you might start getting creosote outside (downstream - starting at the cyclone) of your WG burning chamber - just a hunch - I am extrapolating here.
Before I purchased my WG, Mike Purnell gave me a list of WG owners I could call - I spoke with 5 or 6. One guy was from Canada - he was felling and burning as required in winter. His WG would not burn unless he left the door open - he had 3 chimney fires in the first season. One other person (from the US) told me that they also had a chimney fire.
Pretty sure a chimney will only catch fire if it has creosote, pretty sure ash has nothing left to burn.
Explosions - that's another topic, I still get random explosions.
Nuff said, get out the darts.
Ponty,
What do you want? You just want a light to come on when the start switch is in "start"?
That portion of the controls are 110V so all you need to do is run wires right off the switch in parallel with the aquastat. Use a light bulb or a 110V LED like those used for indicator lights on the WG.
I've often thought about replacing the start/run switch with a latching relay setup so the boiler would go into "run" automatically once the temp was high enough.
ac
What do you want? You just want a light to come on when the start switch is in "start"?
That portion of the controls are 110V so all you need to do is run wires right off the switch in parallel with the aquastat. Use a light bulb or a 110V LED like those used for indicator lights on the WG.
I've often thought about replacing the start/run switch with a latching relay setup so the boiler would go into "run" automatically once the temp was high enough.
ac
It has been a couple weeks since I looked at it but the problem went something like this.
The start/run is an on/off switch which simply completes the circuit when the low temperature cut-off breaks the circuit (the circuit which operates the damper and blower).
Once the low temp has been satisfied (temp is above 150F) both terminals on the start/run have power, no matter which position it is in so it will light the indicator no matter if it is in the start or the run position.
What I am trying to accomplish is to have an indicator light which stays on ONLY if the switch is in the start position
and - this is the trick - even when the low temp is satisfied.
The reason is so if I forget to switch to run, an indicator (on the main floor) will stay on to basically say "hey putz, you forgot to switch to run".
Before I looked I thought the start/run would be a 3 way switch, but its not. This is a little trickier than it looks like.
The start/run is an on/off switch which simply completes the circuit when the low temperature cut-off breaks the circuit (the circuit which operates the damper and blower).
Once the low temp has been satisfied (temp is above 150F) both terminals on the start/run have power, no matter which position it is in so it will light the indicator no matter if it is in the start or the run position.
What I am trying to accomplish is to have an indicator light which stays on ONLY if the switch is in the start position
and - this is the trick - even when the low temp is satisfied.
The reason is so if I forget to switch to run, an indicator (on the main floor) will stay on to basically say "hey putz, you forgot to switch to run".
Before I looked I thought the start/run would be a 3 way switch, but its not. This is a little trickier than it looks like.
Easiest way would be to swap the switch out for a DPDT switch. Then just wire up your light bulb to the new set of terminals.
ac
ac
Was doing my weekly ash clean out last night, noticed my center bricks (I have 2 - a long and a short) are cracked down the center - right through - don't want to remove them in case they come apart. I have only been using the WG since Dec 17 - feel like I am re-building the whole unit - door gaskets, blower seal, cyclone gaskets, op-limit differential not working
properly, temp gauge off by 10*, center bricks are not "wearing" at the nozzles but cracked right dowm the middle, and when I removed the center tube plug a piece of the (the corner of the main slot) refractory fell off.
Starting to seriously re-think this purchase - there may be a WG E100 SS coming up for sale - I was looking to make my life easier - so far the WG has only made things more difficult - not a happy camper.
properly, temp gauge off by 10*, center bricks are not "wearing" at the nozzles but cracked right dowm the middle, and when I removed the center tube plug a piece of the (the corner of the main slot) refractory fell off.
Starting to seriously re-think this purchase - there may be a WG E100 SS coming up for sale - I was looking to make my life easier - so far the WG has only made things more difficult - not a happy camper.
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maple1
Minister of Fire
Not sure if you mentioned earlier - did you get this boiler new? Or used?
And I'm not sure of centre brick arrangement, and we have totally different boilers - but one of my top refractories (horizontal, forms 1/2 of the divider & nozzle between the primary & secondary chambers) cracked a couple months after I started using mine. I have done nothing about it - it has stayed put after another 2 years of use. If that matters.
And I'm not sure of centre brick arrangement, and we have totally different boilers - but one of my top refractories (horizontal, forms 1/2 of the divider & nozzle between the primary & secondary chambers) cracked a couple months after I started using mine. I have done nothing about it - it has stayed put after another 2 years of use. If that matters.
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Bought the boiler new in Oct 2009 from AHS, but didn't fire it until Dec 17 2012. It was kept in my basement - dry.
I guess that makes me feel a little better - but wow, just one thing after another. This thing cost me $10K to buy plus $2K to get it to my house (shipping, customs ) - my expectation was a little higher.
I guess that makes me feel a little better - but wow, just one thing after another. This thing cost me $10K to buy plus $2K to get it to my house (shipping, customs ) - my expectation was a little higher.
I doubt the center crack will affect anything but it probably will fall apart when removed. When you first starting using the WG did you start with a few smaller fires to help dry out the refractory? Although I would have thought it should have dried out since 2009? Other than the door gaskets(a now known design flaw by AHS) I am at a loss for the other problems as you are the only person I've hear from with those situations. I guess at least you can take some small comfort in knowing that by now you will have all the possible bugs worked out?
maple1
Minister of Fire
I don't think new refractories will dry out a whole lot just by sitting - and they do indeed need a few small starter fires to complete the drying/curing process. I think my boiler was packed on its shipping pallet for quite a while before I got it to where I could make a fire on in it - like over a year - and I couldn't believe the water that came out of it the first couple of small burns. Damage or significantly shortened refractory life would very likely result from burning full speed from the get-go.
All the plumbing for my WG was completed at the beginning of the heating season this year (September) but there were some finishing touches so I was heating with a regular forced air natural gas furnace. I was running my circulators while the gas furnace was running, circulating fluid through the hot/cold coil in my main duct. In effect I was "stealing" heat from the forced air system which (after about 2 hours running) would heating the entire hydronic system up to 120F - including the WG - that should had done some drying/curing. I did have small fires 3 days in a row before putting in larger loads - but then I have never had more than about 4 pieces of wood in my WG at one time. If I can get a reasonable offer on this thing, I am thinking to go to a natural gas, condensing, modulating boiler.
Most, if not all of the Wood Gun owners posting here are happy with their units or have taken the intricacies of the Wood Gun in stride. I, on the other hand, had everything that could go wrong with a wood boiler happen to my WG. From door gaskets to refractory breakdown, odor, explosions, condensation, fire in flue pipes, etc,etc. I suffered for eight years and finally the thing that put it out of service was the firebox rotting through which will not happen on yours because mine was carbon steel. In a sense it was a blessing since it relieved the suffering although the financial hit was painful. If I had natural gas available I would switch to it in a minute especially if your heating load is as light as it appears.
Well Fred61, I have also had most of what you listed - nearing my limit on patience. This thing is consuming all my time at home. I have posted pics above of my wood supply - would like to use up the stuff in the basement - much harder to go back up the stairs than it is to throw it down. From a quick initial look-see, it look like n-gas boilers cost about half of the price of a WG - (what I paid). Sooooo...... if I can get enough for the WG it may cover the cost of a n-gas unit???? - don't know, obviously would still be a loss, but what is the cost of "suffering" with it?
I gather many of the other WG users who are taking the WG issues in stride are in a similar situation where n-gas is not available. I am still confident that going to a boiler from a forced air wood furnace was a good choice - just that the WG was not such a good choice for me.
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I gather many of the other WG users who are taking the WG issues in stride are in a similar situation where n-gas is not available. I am still confident that going to a boiler from a forced air wood furnace was a good choice - just that the WG was not such a good choice for me.
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