The "new and improved Greenwood boiler"

[bigburner]

I saved the green wood PDF in by "building a boiler " File. I come to this site to get better ideas for my wood burning experience. If GW is building something new I am watching. Little changes can have big results. I am a fan of refractory & simple. The R&D of building your own has some emotional up and downs, but way more ups. I buy the factory built stuff for my customers. [put it in front of them, they make the choice] I am Heating 12,000 sq ft +/- with HOMEMADE. I was inspired by the original GW & Garn, both very simple designs.

 

[djblech]

Henfruit,
I had one loop to a hx in my basement from the garage that had 3 pumps on it.(including the mixing pump from GW to keep the return water from getting to cold.) The other loop included my propane boiler in the basement and had 2 pumps on that loop. Because of the distance I would have to run 2 inverters with batteries. All my zones are powered through the gas boiler, so I would have to power that also. By the time I put all this together, I might as well buy a 8k auto back-up generator at a cost of $2500-$3000. I really believe that these boilers should come with overheat protection or a gravity(convection) dump zone that is tested to work for that boiler. I would be happy to pay for this. After 4 overheats I have replaced all 5 pumps, 2 aquastats, and the last time I blew a line and flooded the basement. MN Power has gone down 6 times so far this year.
Doug

 

[ozzie88]

Doug, This may help you with the over heat problem, what I did is on the air intake for fan I got a reducer from the 6inch. fan opening to 4inch. galvanize duck pipe then put a ele. atomatic flap air control in it that will be closed with NO electric. It is hooked up to come to open and close with the heat control for the boiler, This snuffs the fire out, Then in the 1 1/4 inch hot water pipe outlet I have a manual adjustable flow control which I leave just cracked a little so when ele. is out the left over heat will still flow out and circulate,[my boiler is in basement] this also is enough so if and when I run my oil boiler it does not back feed in wood boiler. So far this is working good for me I have tested it couple times with water temp on my boiler to shut off at 1808 when I shut ele. off it got to 190 to 200 highest which is ok.
Hope this helps you some,,Chuck

 

[Dick Cook]

Do any of these units address a power outage overheat situation? After 2 overheats last year I would not even think of purchasing another boiler unless this problem was solved.(And that is if I could talk my wife into another one, which is very doubtful.) I know I could spend more money and come up with a solution, but why shouldn't it be part of the system. My plumber was surprised that a solid fueled appliance didn't have some kind of overheat protection.
Doug

Doug,

I have a greenwood model 300 and have had maybe 4 power failures in a 6 year period. My solution was to install a Generac 22kw Quiet Source generator. The last power failure a few days ago, the Generator was producing in about 20 sec's and the Greenwood didn't over heat. The only other cause of an overheat is if the damper motor does not close - and that has happened a couple of times. I'm thinking of putting a plate above the motorized damper that will drop down when a fuse link gets too hot.

Best,

Dick

 

[PassionForFire&Water]

Doug,

I have a greenwood model 300 and have had maybe 4 power failures in a 6 year period. My solution was to install a Generac 22kw Quiet Source generator. The last power failure a few days ago, the Generator was producing in about 20 sec's and the Greenwood didn't over heat. The only other cause of an overheat is if the damper motor does not close - and that has happened a couple of times. I'm thinking of putting a plate above the motorized damper that will drop down when a fuse link gets too hot.

Best,

Dick

Just curious what a 22 kW Generac runs these days ?

 

[PassionForFire&Water]

Henfruit,
I had one loop to a hx in my basement from the garage that had 3 pumps on it.(including the mixing pump from GW to keep the return water from getting to cold.) The other loop included my propane boiler in the basement and had 2 pumps on that loop. Because of the distance I would have to run 2 inverters with batteries. All my zones are powered through the gas boiler, so I would have to power that also. By the time I put all this together, I might as well buy a 8k auto back-up generator at a cost of $2500-$3000. I really believe that these boilers should come with overheat protection or a gravity(convection) dump zone that is tested to work for that boiler. I would be happy to pay for this. After 4 overheats I have replaced all 5 pumps, 2 aquastats, and the last time I blew a line and flooded the basement. MN Power has gone down 6 times so far this year.
Doug

What about using a Watts STS20 or Honeywell HS130 thermal relief valve to cool down the boiler water in case of over heating via an integrated cooling circuit.
We use them in a lot of our decorative hydronic wood boilers.
Works great with city water and well water

https://www.google.com/search?q=wat...gGG8IC4CA&sqi=2&ved=0CC4QsAQ&biw=1680&bih=947

 

[Fred61]

With well water I'm only going to get the amount of water that's in the pressure tank if I don't have electricity to run the deep well pump.

 

[PassionForFire&Water]

With well water I'm only going to get the amount of water that's in the pressure tank if I don't have electricity to run the deep well pump.

Yes, but this in combination with a small generator and/or DC circulator will bring you safely trough the blackout.

 

[Dick Cook]

Just curious what a 22 kW Generac runs these days ?

Doug,

I think with everything (Generac 22Kw, cold water block heater kit, battery warming kit, wireless indoor monitor, and battery), it all came to under $10k with me doing the installation. I already had the 200amp auto transfer relay from the older generator that I was replacing. A propane generator will NOT start when it is -20F ! Your local codes may not allow you to do your own work....

Best,

Dick

 

[Dick Cook]

Just curious what a 22 kW Generac runs these days ?

I forgot to mention that I purchased the Generac through Electricgeneratorsdirect.com - but there are many other sources.

 

[Fred Seton]

I forgot to mention that I purchased the Generac through Electricgeneratorsdirect.com - but there are many other sources.

The Seton Boiler design requires several things to work properly. During a power outage the draft will close, damping the fire down, there should be two relief valves on top of the boiler, one thirty pound pressure relief and one 120 degree T&P. Also a very critical thing is a check valve behind the relief valves, this causes the cold fill water to rout from the fill valve on the back of the boiler up through the pressure vessel. In my opinion, the new Greenwood will have a short life because of the straight tube design. Each tube will have a different expansion rate and will put a great amount of stess on the headers. Every water tube boiler built uses a bent tube design for this reason. I show how to build a 12V backup and how to plumb the Seton Boiler or copies of it, on the Rohor site, page 19 and 21.

 

[henfruit]

Welcome Fred,
Long time coming.

 

[BoilerMan]

I saw the new GW at the NE Forest products Expo in Bangor Maine. It does look interesting, the refractory design boilers seem to work well IF controlled correctly. GW did not make any HX cleaning improvemnts, still have to unbolt the top and remove a bunch of stuff and brucs the HX tubes. The boiler skin is totally enclosed and the rep claimed the combustion process was totally seperated from the insulation benieth the skin which is a HUGE improvment IMHO. It is alot of $$$$ for what it is. One could build one themselves, as we have proven here many times!

Oh and a seemingly sketchy thing was the REALLY small flue outlet into the really small draft inducer.

TS