Total newbie, completely fubar system.

[ColdInMichigan]

Went to town to grab dinner after he left and got back to 95° and rising....oops. Got her back into the mid 80s now so getting there. Going to test the controler tomorrow and see if i can keep this thing from blowing up. Thanks again stee6043 for all your help. And i can't bury you in the woods till my boiler is at 100% functionality!

 

[stee6043]

Hah. At this point I think it'll only be the controller holding you back. I hope those outputs show 120v when you check it so you can immediately wire in the fan and pump. You gotta get those things off the wall plugs. And if the current controller isn't going to do the trick your money will be best spent on a new one. I say the only "must haves" for this year are the controller (if your current rig wont work), the refractories and the mixing valve. Still far, far cheaper than 100gallons of propane!

 

[ColdInMichigan]

Totally agree. Hopefully the controler will work. The "holy balls it's hot" light works!

 

[Eric Johnson]

You're a good man, Stee; a credit to the board.

 

[TCaldwell]

Stee,
Its only the 8th day into to the new year and look at all the good karma that should be coming your way!

 

[1kzwoman]

I will look into the Wood Shed.
Someone once told me not to use pine because it creates alot of creosote....which I have anyway due to the crappy wood I do have!

DRY wood Pine or what ever Wood is needed , All I burn is DRY Pine.

Welcome to forums

 

[1kzwoman]

Awesome!

+1

 

[ColdInMichigan]

Nice to know!!

 

[Clarkbug]

Stee, you are a good man, helping a fellow burner out like that. Good on ya. You come through NY some point, beer is on me.

ColdinMichigan, I hope you get things square with your setup, and that you and your family are feeling better about your setup today! once you get through the winter, stick around and ask questions about how to make your setup even better....

Oh yeah, and start cutting/splitting/stacking now for the next few years!

 

[Armaton]

Do you happen to know the moisture content of your wood? Hoping stee had a meter and checked it. I live in Hastings, and my system isn't quite on line yet. I could part with some ash that has been CSS for 2 years, you could mix it in with your stuff. Couldn't get it to you before middle of next week though. Let me know!

 

[boB48]

I'm still shivering. I left ColdInMichigan's place an hour ago. When I left my truck said it was a solid 1 degree F outside. Fortunately his boiler is covered but it's still basically outside. Not far from a large opening on the front end of his pole barn. Dang cold out there today, fellas!

I think we made some great progress but too early to call this a complete win. His system has some pretty wild "enhancements" from the prior owner. I wish I could have stopped shaking long enough to take some photos for the forum.

So...the progress we made today was primarily due to pulling the front panel off and adjusting air settings while also cleaning out the secondary air tubes. His primary air sliders were too far open and the secondary was both too far closed as well as the tubes filled with ash. We set primary at about 1/2" and ran the secondary's out about 6 turns. With wet wood I wanted to push a little more air in there than normal. We had a decent flame when I left and it was holding decent temp, showing signs of improvement.

We also slowed his circ pump a bit by throttling down one of his valves. Initially we were getting less than 10 degrees delta T in his furnace HX coil. I was trying to get it closer to 20. I think we ended up with 15ish.

I think his buried pipe is less than ideal but far from his biggest challenge right now. It looks like 5 degrees temp loss per side on maybe 100 foot run. Very livable for this winter.

His controller setup is pure awesome. It displays temp but does not control the fan nor the pump. Both the fan and pump have been modified to plug into the wall. Functional, but kinda scary. He will be checking the outputs on the controller to see if it works. The controller wants to run the pump based on the lights on the front but it's not currently being given the chance. If it shows no signs of life on the fan and pump outputs a new controller will be the first thing that needs to be purchased (along with a mixing valve and lower refractory).

Had a good time out there today. Was glad I didn't end up mugged and buried in the woods. ColdInMichigan has a solid boiler that just needs some TLC and some minor plumbing corrections. That and some good dry wood next year will lead to full on winning.

Wish a great guy like u lived closer to Otsego Plainwell north of Kalamazoo..... Built my own boiler, and now that it is really cold out temps at the coil r only 115 and between 160 and 180 at the boiler.but on a positive I will not give up .

 

[skfire]

Stee for president...got my vote.
Great to see...
I almost signed him up for beer delivery...

 

[ColdInMichigan]

Well, its midnight and ive been fighting to keep the temp up for the last 3 hours. Its running 65°c with the furnace fan on for now, but it keeps dropping off. Without that controler I'm just SOL. My main concern is that if the fire goes out, and the controler has the pump off due to the low temps, that my lines will freeze.

 

[rkusek]

Maybe someone can verify this that has an extra controller but I'm sure the controller has "freeze protection" that runs the pump output when boiler temp is close to freezing. Bad thing is it could still freeze in your case if not running constantly since the boiler area is not in heated building. You really need a shot of warmer weather where you can add a circulator loop similar to what Eric Johnson described. The way I'm visualizing it you would actually need 2 more circs or 1 circ and the danfoss (or similar) boiler protection valve. 2 circs would be cheaper up front and probably better with your freeze potential. Picture the underground line to the house on a loop with your existing circ plugged into wall. A second loop with one new circ plugged into wall also connecting boiler input and output. Both of these loops would need a set of 2 tees connected by shortest "close" nipple. The 3rd loop would have the a new circ connected to the controller pump output and utilize the "closely spaced tees" and probably need a spring check valve to prevent ghost flows when the 3rd circ is not running. You are having trouble keeping boiler hot because it can't get up to temp with the house loop constantly sucking the heat away. My controller does not start pump til boiler hits 165 and shuts off when it drops to 160 or below.

 

[rkusek]

Another temp solution for you would to add an aquastat in the home where the pipe goes into the furnace HX. So the blower would only run when water in loop was above 160 degrees. No cold weather plumbing changes doing this way. Do you run the furnace with propane or something else when not burning wood?

 

[ColdInMichigan]

It is a propane furnace but my tank is almost empty and cant afford the $550 minimum to put gas in it till I get my taxes so the boiler is 100% of my heat.

 

[stee6043]

Well, its midnight and ive been fighting to keep the temp up for the last 3 hours. Its running 65°c with the furnace fan on for now, but it keeps dropping off. Without that controler I'm just SOL. My main concern is that if the fire goes out, and the controler has the pump off due to the low temps, that my lines will freeze.

Well that's not great to hear.

As stated above the controller will run the pump if it senses the rig is getting too close to freezing. But once you have the controller hooked up (or replaced) you shouldn't have to worry about the fire going out. It's going to do the job for you. Your loads of wood will last longer since 1.) with the mixing valve the boiler will be able to maintain it's own temp and 2.) it will shut the fan off on it's own once the setpoint is reached, thus reducing the fire during those times.

Part of me thinks you should just go ahead and buy a new controller now. Yours is old enough that I don't know for sure how it's going to work even if the outputs work. If you do buy one let's chat about how you cover the thing up. Having it exposes like it is now probably isn't the best idea.

 

[ColdInMichigan]

I agree. Maybe I need to build a door for the barn sooner rather than later. The boiler stayed above 45 all night but thats it. I will look into controlers, maybe someone here has one.

 

[stee6043]

Also, you have zero risk of freezing right now, ColdInMi. With the pump always running the water through the house and back out it will not get the freezing even with zero fire in the boiler.

Maybe someone has a spare controller they'd make you a deal on. I see they are $200 new. More than I was expecting.

 

[stee6043]

I agree. Maybe I need to build a door for the barn sooner rather than later. The boiler stayed above 45 all night but thats it. I will look into controlers, maybe someone here has one.

Did you throttle the valve on your return back down after the cool down last night? And open the air back up a bit?

 

[ColdInMichigan]

Oh well. I had a pipe burst int he garage last night too so theres that! I got maybe 5 hours of sleep.

 

[boB48]

OK, my homemade boiler heat up fine ,160 turns the draft fan on and shuts off at 180. My circulation pump runs continous. The water going into the coil is reading about 105 to 115.furnace fan continuous because it warm just not hot it is 91 @ the floor vent. But on a better note last week it was doing better at keeping up.... Any idea's

 

[stee6043]

Do you happen to know the moisture content of your wood? Hoping stee had a meter and checked it. I live in Hastings, and my system isn't quite on line yet. I could part with some ash that has been CSS for 2 years, you could mix it in with your stuff. Couldn't get it to you before middle of next week though. Let me know!

His wood is pretty green. I tossed a load in for him and it's far from ideal. This is why I ran his primaries and secondaries further open to help with wet wood. He also needs to work to get and keep a good coal bed. I figured not letting the wood level get too low will help with this.

 

[stee6043]

OK, my homemade boiler heat up fine ,160 turns the draft fan on and shuts off at 180. My circulation pump runs continous. The water going into the coil is reading about 105 to 115.furnace fan continuous because it warm just not hot it is 91 @ the floor vent. But on a better note last week it was doing better at keeping up.... Any idea's

I'd suggest starting a different thread, Bob. Troubleshooting homemade boilers is a whole lot different than OEM units.

 

[boB48]

I'd suggest starting a different thread, Bob. Troubleshooting homemade boilers is a whole lot different than OEM units.

OK stee, ,,,see if I can figure out how to make a new tread.

I'm pretty handsome but not very sharp on these forms