EKO 40 1500 gallon Storage project

[Ryedale]

Hi
Looks great.
Is the small tank sideways on the ceiling your only expansion tank?
If it is...1 i think it would be to small
2 i think you need a way to isolate it,so you can drain it in case it becomes waterloged.
3 i think your expansion tank should be downstream from your circ pump,you don't want to be pumping into the tank.
Just in case it's just not in the pic's.
Looks Great
Thomas

I have the auto air eliminator, as well as the hand vent (by the galvanized bucket) the hand valve is actually the highest in the system. I fill the system from the bottom and up, with the hand valve open, before any pressure is registering on the gauges. I hope this is getting out any bulk amounts of air. I have let it fill a couple times, and run a little then vent down at the high points again. I think the tank is suppose to have water and not air right? The port for the exp tank is "half a pipe" lower than either of the air bleeds, so I'm hoping most the air is going out before it goes into the tank.
The closed system holds the volume of the boiler, plus the 1 1/4 pipe, and the ~400 feet of 1" copper heat exchangers in the tank, not sure what the volume is but I have noticed that I'm building pressure from where I start at ambient temp around 65 or 70 at 8psi, and it likes to be around 18 when up to temp the highest I've seen is 172 on the loop so far. The 1500 gallons in the big tank are just thermal battery, just being heated up, and then cooling off with house loads. I call it the "Stupid water" lol.

I started heating the big tank of water this past weekend, and got the top up to 130, the bottom is about 110 right now. A 20 degree delta top to bottom.

The circ pump is low and pushes directly into the bottom of the boiler, and the boiler feeds right out to the highest line. Then past the Pop safety valve (30psi) into the air eliminator, past the TEE for the tank, then finally to the bypass or recirculation loop, which goes down the wall past the two pressure gauges and the throttling valve. I use the throttling valve to put a little more pressure going towards the heat exchangers, so it is forced out to the tank except enough for the 3 way thermic valve to sense boiler water temp. Then turns back through a strainer and into the inlet of the pump.
The pics didn't show the pipe arrangement the best, so I'll probably draw a diagram and post it up here.

 

[Ryedale]

Do you have a T&P relief valve plumbed in and if so where? The reason I'm asking is that I see a ball valve in the line between the boiler and the expansion tank. When you get old and feeble like me that could be a problem. Even though you aren't going to be shutting off things on a regular basis, accidentally leaving it closed and firing the boiler it is a receipe for potential disaster.

Believe me....I feel old and feeble already after wrestling that black iron for a couple weeks.

My Pics are kindof mixed, and that one with the valve is now gone (valve is gone) But just to the left (upstream) of where that valve is pictured, there is a 30lb pop (like a water heater has) right to its left, and remains there today, it has the yellow flag on it. I wanted the pop between the boiler and any first valve on the outlet.

This pic shows the final arrangement, water flowing up out of the boiler (cut off on the left) and turning right along the ceiling past the pop, then a union, Air eliminator, past the tank tee, then it has a choice of going to the tank (straight to the right) or turning left back toward the wall on it's return to the boiler past the thermic valve near the floor, not show is the thermic valve, strainer and pump.
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee208/Ryedale_photo/BOILERPROJECT/boiler6-2.jpg

 

[Fred61]

I see it!

 

[PassionForFire&Water]

Nice Job !

Any source for that "Perfection Compulsive Disorder" ?

 

[Hunderliggur]

If I understand correctly, your boiler goes to an in tank HX to heat the storage. If so, the smallish expansion tank will probably work. You may want to plumb an unrestricted drain to the pop valve (Temperature/Pressure Relief valve) so when it DOES blow (it will eventually, or it will leak) the mess is contained at a drain/sump/bucket.

 

[Ryedale]

If I understand correctly, your boiler goes to an in tank HX to heat the storage. If so, the smallish expansion tank will probably work. You may want to plumb an unrestricted drain to the pop valve (Temperature/Pressure Relief valve) so when it DOES blow (it will eventually, or it will leak) the mess is contained at a drain/sump/bucket.

Good Idea, and I was planning on it, just got excited to make the first fire.

 

[stee6043]

Amazing install. I feel poorer just thinking about all the cool tricks you have on your rig. Absolutely awesome.

Once you have a few fires under your belt you should tackle that orange flame. Make her scream BLUE! You'll be amazed at how much more heat you can force out of that boiler with a little tweaking on your primaries and secondaries...and lowering your fan speed...and closing off the shutter.

 

[Ryedale]

Amazing install. I feel poorer just thinking about all the cool tricks you have on your rig. Absolutely awesome.

Once you have a few fires under your belt you should tackle that orange flame. Make her scream BLUE! You'll be amazed at how much more heat you can force out of that boiler with a little tweaking on your primaries and secondaries...and lowering your fan speed...and closing off the shutter.

certainly not meant to make you feel bad, this is my "hot rod" you might say, and Im fortunate to work in an environment where I get many tips from professional pipe fitters, and see examples daily of systems that would make this look laughable in the pharmaceutical industry. I'm an industrial refrigeration mechanic (Journeyman) by trade but work mostly now with pipe fitters, electricians and insulators on about 3 or 4 hundred miles of outdoor piping here in Kalamazoo. It's an amazing site. I've acquired many of my extras from a friend who sells new old stock HVAC parts which has kept the prices lower than full supply house. Many parts are from Ebay too.
I really don't dare add things up 1$,$$$.00 I'm afraid too lol. Definitely a labor of love.

For the air adjustments...
I'm planning on a system where i can turn a T-Handle outside the air plenum one left one right, to make adjustments to my primary air. I'll have to spot weld a couple "guides" on the air gates. I'm searching for some Metric Threaded Rod right now, so that one turn equals 1MM. I'll post some pics if it works. A fine thread 6MM bolt is a 1MM Pitch I think. Could just use a bolt where I drill and tap the flange of steel (not the water jacket lol) around the green air box, but behind the green sheet metal and rope packing.
The Secondary air is already accessable but still a little bit low tech it seems.
I played with my fan speed, and it seems to want to run at 50% or higher, cant seem to slow it down below that. Plus, it seems that the fan is turning much faster than 50 percent of it's full speed at 100%. Static pressure will be the best thing to monitor in the air plenum.

 

[Hydronics]

Very nice work, you may want to thread the exp. Tank into the bottom of your airscoop. With it mounted sideways the top half could get filled with air.

 

[Stlshrk]

Very nice looking set-up you have there! As echoed in some of the other poster's comments, it is a drool worthy system.

Well, I'm going to go out to my dirt floor wood/boiler shed to fire up my EKO 40. ;-)

Again, very nice work.

 

[Briquetmaker]

That is some very nice craftsmanship, I live for that perfection stuff. I admire your attention to detail and wish I lived closer, I would have come by to lend a hand. Your welder is awesome.

 

[Ryedale]

OK.... I blew a couple days improving the Primary Air gate under the plenum area. I can now adjust it by turning a screw outside the case.

Two upgrades were made, one on the weak flange that the "sheet metal screws" that pinch the 20ga metal against the glass gasket. The other was to make external reliable control of the primary air.

I will post some pics of the new bolted flange arrangement which now has a welded back up ring and 1/8 inch angle iron as the landing area for this, and welded 1/4 20 bolts.

I really am horrible at making welds look good, and I found too that with the thin metals it was even harder to keep it looking halfway decent.
I got a TIG welder a couple years ago and have done some work with it, and I'm getting better, but probably would have done better with a wire or stick welder on these. I dont have the wire, and didn't have the electrode holder yet for my TIG, so I just did my best...... The grinder is my best friend.

Anyway you can see the arrangement I made. Basicly got some 18GA carbon steel sheet, and tossed the factory "Galvanized" slides. The new ones are touching on the top where the metal turns back outward, and this allows them to "ride" the metal so I only needed the one bolt.
I used a spring washer sandwiched between washer and the nut to provide tension, but not push so hard as to pinch the plate.

I used angle iron for my bracket, and some 1/4 steel to make my nut for the 6MM x 60 MM bolt that goes out through the steel to gain access outside.

the springs provide "return" or OPENING pressure, where the screw pulls the gates shut, all the way


The pitch of a 6mm bolt is 1mm, so for every one complete turn, you move the gate one MM. The springs remove all "Lash" so the gate is "moving" if you are turning the bolt, never any deadband or stop points.

I have used the boiler once to test, and it is very interesting how just one turn changes the static pressure of the air box quite a bit. 4 and 5 turns....dramatically change the air flows. I'm using a Magnehelic Pressure Guage to monitor the changes as they occour. This is similar to a gauge that a service tech would use to change over a Natural Gas system to an LP system to properly set the gas pressure. Keep in mind though that the pressures are very low. With full fan pressure and a pretty good blue gassification flame, I'm seeing about .08 to .09 IWC (inches water column) on the magnehelic.
I will keep some better notes as I go and report back, possibly in the Fine Tuning EKO area.

EXTERNAL ACTIVATION SCREW TURNED WITH A 5MM HEX KEY

 

[Gasifier]

You da man! (That means I am envious of your abilities. :lol: ) NICE WORK DUDE! Thanks for sharing your project with us. And keep us posted along the way as the winter progresses.

 

[Fred61]

Good work on the flange arrangement. Something I wanted to change on mine from the start on mine but a simple fix did not come to mind. I just used some high temperature putty (Babbitrite) on the joint to prevent leaks. The thing that I was concerned about with the original fastening set up was distortion of the plate, causing the little flapper door to hang up.
I also wanted to be able to make air adjustments without removing the plate but put it off. Now, after running for three years and with my wood being quite consistent, I don't feel the effort will be worth it for me since it has been working very well and I haven't felt a need to adjust the air.
Tying them together with springs was a good idea. I guess the only thing I would want to add to it if it were mine would be an indicator that tells me where they are set.

 

[Ryedale]

More pics of my "back up flange" and where I picked up my Air pressure reading, and associated Magnehelic gauges.

Top gauge is for the chimney draft and reads higher (to the right) as the draft increases.
Bottom one is for the plenum air pressure pushing on the primary air sliders, and secondary air throttle plates. Would not need to be a combination (vac and pressure) gauge, but it had the right sensitivity range so thats what I bought. I'll probably switch them around, as the pressure fan will almost always show positive, and the chimney draft could be neutral or in vac.