BoilerMan
Minister of Fire
Did you tell the elves that Thanksgiving break is over? Maybe they thought they had an extended vacation. "Some people's elves..........these days"
TS
TS
... I'm not sure why laundry is taxing your boiler. We do all of ours in cold water.
ac
Did you tell the elves that Thanksgiving break is over? Maybe they thought they had an extended vacation. "Some people's elves..........these days"
TS
LOL, Depends on how good the kids have been. Could give them a lump of coal, but there is another source of heat.
TS
Whatever helps you sleep at night. If the boiler idled, it wouldn't need the cycle timer. I liken it to my car. When I leave my car idling, it will sit there until it runs out of fuel ready for me to drive it. It doesn't require an outside source like a battery and me to turn the key to get it to start. This is what the cycle timer does, it allows the oxygen back to the party and forces draft.
Who knows, maybe the elves just took a day off?
Call it whatever you will, I really don't care. This fire goes OUT if there isn't enough demand, whether it runs out of fuel or not.
Now to just figure out the proper amount of "WOT" to keep it happy.
ac
Let me ask you this:
When your car idles, is there not exhaust?
When I first had issues with my WG flue connection, I had a full on fire established just after a major smoke show. I flipped the switch off and the fan stopped and the damper closed. I completely removed the flue connection. Absolutely nothing on the cycle.
NOT a whisp of smoke. Nothing. No exhaust.
ac
The exhaust on idleing car is intermittent. The engine is just cycling on a much faster basis than a wood boiler so the exhaust seems continuous.
On an ic engine there is a intake stroke, compression, power and exhaust stroke.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arbeitsweise_Zweitakt.gif
And you will also get to the point AC where you will not need to measure the right amount of wood in the boiler. It took me a while but if your splits do not create a bridge effect and there is enough demand for it to turn on once every couple of hours or so, it will not go out completely. It is a balancing act, that is for sure. I have had my boiler go for much longer than that and had that little ember get fired back up again by that powerful fan. And away the gassification went. So many variables involved. But getting that good coal bed going and keeping it over the nozzle. I drink a cold beer with my elves sometimes. It seems to help. Hopefully my wife won't ever hear me talking to them when I am down there.![]()
Remember I caught one in the act of relighting the fire after it was off and not idling![]()
ac, that's the reason I let oak season for 2+ years. We had a fire going outdoors late summer during a small party and I decided to throw in a few oak splits that were probably 1.5 yrs seasoned...just about put the fire out!
I used my cycle timer last night for the first time this year since the night before I woke at about 4am with a chill I just could not shake. It was nice to have a 70+ degree house 1st thing in the morning and instant hot water...not that it was a big deal before as I have several "chores" to do 1st thing in the a.m. that allow the WG to get me hot water when I need it. The trick to me in order to find the sweet spot on the timer is to be sure there is a nice bed of coals to begin with and a roaring fire going...then I engage the cycle timer to give that first burn run at about 30 minutes out...it's then on 1 clip every 60 minutes from that point. Soon this will be a mute point as the nights and days will be getting cold enough not to use the timer.
It's getting colder here (-12c when I got up this morning, not getting above freezing in the daytime), but I'm still only burning in the evenings although starting a bit earlier the last couple days (just before supper vs. just after). Last evening I put around 2-1/2 not-full firebox loads through, last 1/2 was on the way to bed at 10pm. When I checked things this morning at 7:30, my top of storage was still over 180f - lots to keep the house warm until this evening again. I need to start from scratch every day with the fire building unlike you guys with the elves/gremlins & cycle timers, but I absolutely love the warm house when getting up, and not needing to feed the boiler first thing in the morning or even all day until the evening. Storage changes everything - even more than gassification does.
That's great to hear too.
I'm just as happy as a pig in, well, you know, about how mine is doing too. Everyone has different preferences or priorities - for me, after the past years of living with late night & early morning stumbles to the fire to keep us warm, not having to worry about firing for basically a whole day is big. I think I could also get through a couple of days with no one home with everything heated up before I left.
I keep forgetting that AC has some other things I have to remember. First. A Wood Gun that is big enough to heat 2-1/2 times what he is heating right now.Yea baby! And the size and insulation of his house.
I have a 400 gallon buffer tank, as they like to call it. And I am keeping my eye open for another inexpensive air reciever tank to add to it. This time I will need something that is easier to move into the cellar and will not require me to cut through the concrete floor and pour concrete base and walls, etc, etc. I still can't believe I did all that. But it was fun and the tank is working great. I have my eye on a 200 gallon tank that would go into the basement easy enough. It would be nice to have 1/2 again what I do now. And then I would still have room to add another one beside it.
Yeah, this oak is 2 years old...but apparently I'm going to mark the rest of it for 2013/2014 winter.
Really? Just 1 clip? That is only ~2 mins of running. I guess that would be sufficient since when I use the purge the fire is usually fully engaged again within 1-2 minutes.
Are you rotating the dial to put the next clip ~30 mins out after you reload?
ac
I'm thinking just by reading what you posted above about your oak that you'd see quite an improvement on what your unit could heat if the wood was drier? I know when I grab some pieces from the pile that aren't as dry as others, it sure makes a difference in heat output.
Just one more on the storage - everyones mileage will differ depending on their local sourcing potentials & current system layout, but I think the storage part of mine 'only' amounted to about an extra $1k. Major components were boiler ~ $5500, laddomat ~ $650, propane tanks ~ $800 (including one for an expansion tank), welding ~ $200. The rest of the necessary controls, pumping, etc. to use storage my system already had. Piping & fittings to tie everything else together, plus the electric boiler & new electric hot water tank etc. remain to be totalled - I'm kinda scared to do that.
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