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Author Topic: Insulation  (Read 17046 times)

gandgracing

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #15 on: October 26, 2008, 06:49:59 PM »

Well after that day that it sweat so much it hasn't done it since.  I also turned the pump on to run all the time.  To keep the water circulating.  Yoda, do you have your pump running all the time or with the furnace?  Also do you rake all your coals up over the grate when you add wood and how much wood do you add?  Thanks for replying, all. 
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yoda

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #16 on: October 27, 2008, 02:29:15 PM »

 I did wire mine so the pump runs all the time, after reading about other brands online and talking to people it seems thats the way most of the owb do it, I also thought it just made more sense since my stove sits aprox 125 feet from the house I didn't want my forced air furnace to blow cold air untill the hot water made it from the stove to the house. May also help from getting hot spots and boiling. (It makes sense to me and the voices in my head agree) ;D
  I do ussually rake the coals over the grate and fill it pretty full with aprox. 24 inch logs,  I noticed it works better if I don't push the logs all the way back to the back of the stove, instead I leave them as far forward as possible so they sit over the grate, also then the chimney isn't always in the way. But then you can only use logs up to about 24 inches. Hope this helps
« Last Edit: October 27, 2008, 02:40:22 PM by yoda »
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Northern MN

willieG

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #17 on: October 27, 2008, 05:33:19 PM »

i also run my pump 24/7 during the heat season as I heat all domestic water during that time...when I light my stove for the winter I shut my water heater off at the electric panel and circulate my furnace water through my home made exchanger 24/7

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home made OWB (2012)
Ontario Canada

gandgracing

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #18 on: October 27, 2008, 08:39:15 PM »

Thanks guys for all your help!  Stove has been working the best it ever has.
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charlie

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #19 on: October 28, 2008, 06:15:18 AM »

Great! :thumbup:
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woodmaster 434 since 2002, 612 gal. storage stss; super splitt;stihl ms360.

yoda

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #20 on: October 28, 2008, 12:37:38 PM »

gandgracing, how many times do you have to load your stove? I've been loading mine 3 times a day, it's not very cold out yet, I'm a little concerned when it gets below zero It's not going to burn all night. Although I'm burning soft wood right now, saving my birch and maple for when it gets cold. Does anyone have experience with the shaver165 in cold climates?Expected burn times etc.? Will birch and maple burn considerably longer than pine,poplar,cottonwood?
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willieG

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #21 on: October 28, 2008, 05:07:18 PM »

gandgracing, how many times do you have to load your stove? I've been loading mine 3 times a day, it's not very cold out yet, I'm a little concerned when it gets below zero It's not going to burn all night. Although I'm burning soft wood right now, saving my birch and maple for when it gets cold. Does anyone have experience with the shaver165 in cold climates?Expected burn times etc.? Will birch and maple burn considerably longer than pine,poplar,cottonwood?
Yoda, try this link for BTU's in different woods

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/W/AE_wood_heat_value_BTU.html

three times a day may not be excessive if you are heating a large area...most foks around me (southern ontario canada)  get by on two fill ups a day in the dead of winter

what you call "fill" and what others consider "fill" may be different things
and teh area you heat may be more or less

my house is a story and a half older (100 year) brick home although i have reinsulated and added on to the old shack a time or two it is what i would consider an average insulated home

now it comes in at about 1900 square feet with upstairs and a full basement  we heat this to 72 all winter plus domestic hot water and a 30 x 40 is kept above freezing (around 50) we do this on 2 fill ups a day (my fill up is normally what doesn't spill out of a wheel barrow) and i burn mostly  dead elm trees, dried 2 years that have around 20 million BTU per cord

here in Ontario the government heat aheet says it takes on average to heat an "older ontario home of average size" (not sure what average means) about 100,000,000 BTU a heat season if you look at white pine on the chart that would work out to about 10 cords a year..if youhad black locust it would only be about 5 cords

an if you compare your pine to birch and maple you will see there is quite a bit of difference in usable BTUs

i hope the link works and it helps you understand  better the  heat value in your wood
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Ontario Canada

gandgracing

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #22 on: November 02, 2008, 12:47:05 AM »

Last year when it wasn't working so well I would fill it at 5 pm.  Then my wife would fill it at 9 or 10 pm and then when I would get home at 6 am it would be out of wood and the water below 100 degrees.  Couple of weeks ago at about 30 degrees been filling it 2 times a day and I am happy with that.  Last couple of days its been up to 60 degrees out and I haven't put any wood in for 2 days and the fan still hasn't came on.  Its really holding the heat in now.
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gandgracing

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #23 on: November 10, 2008, 12:24:11 AM »

Well thought I would give an update since its down to around 30 degrees outside.  Cant believe how much better this thing is working.  I can fill it full around 4 pm before I go to work and it still has wood in it the next morning at 6:30 and the fan isn't even on.  Finally got it dialed in.
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PhinPhan

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #24 on: November 10, 2008, 09:29:34 AM »

Great news gandgracing!  Good to hear everything is working now.
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Pomeroy, OH
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yoda

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #25 on: November 10, 2008, 07:33:52 PM »

Well thought I would give an update since its down to around 30 degrees outside.  Cant believe how much better this thing is working.  I can fill it full around 4 pm before I go to work and it still has wood in it the next morning at 6:30 and the fan isn't even on.  Finally got it dialed in.
Do you think it made a big difference insulating it ? or did you just get the hang of how to use it better, load it etc?
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yoda

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #26 on: November 10, 2008, 08:14:18 PM »

 Ok I'm a little concerned, I was out of town hunting this last weekend and had my father in law stop by twice a day to fill my stove for me. Before I left I had turned my thermostat down to aprox 58.  When I got home all was well, It had been about 12 hours since my father inlaw had filled it. I had a nice bed of hot coals water temp. according to my infrared thermometer was aprox 165 the fan was off. I filled the stove with wood, went in the house, turned the thermostat up to 68. Also my wife did 4 loads of laundry, ( I do use the pottable hot water coil for heating my DHW) It was about 25 degrees outside and very windy. Anyway within about an hour it had raised the temp in the house to 65 but by this time the water temp had dropped to 125 and it seamed to be struggling to bring the temp up any higher. The forced draft fan was on and the fire looked to be burning good, so I turned on my propane furnace to help bring it up to 68 degrees, then I turned the propane furnace off.  I went to bed around 10:30 I was having trouble sleeping, half listening for my forced air furnace fan kicking on and off, finally I got up at 12;30 and went down to the basement, it was keeping the house at 68, but my water temp was still only 125. I went outside and checked my boiler and the forced draft fan was on and the fire was burning pretty good. I loaded up the boiler again went in the house, turned on the propane furnace, brought the house up to 71, turned off the propane, left the fan for the furnace set at 68 thinking this would give the boiler a chance to raise the water temp and "catch up" Went to bed, finally fell asleep at about 2, got up with the alarm at 6:30, house was at 68 water temp 165, wood almost gone but nice bed of hot coals.
 Does this sound normal? should I have left the thermostat at 68 when I left for the weekend? or used my propane furnace to bring up the temp in the house then turn it off? I guess i'm concerned when it gets -20 outside it may not keep up. Maybe it's much easier to maintain temp in the house than to raise it by 10 degrees. Maybe I'm just obsessive like my wife says  ???
« Last Edit: November 10, 2008, 08:20:45 PM by yoda »
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gandgracing

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #27 on: November 14, 2008, 01:38:27 AM »

I do think the insulation made a big difference.  I hardly ever see the fan on so it must be holding the heat.  I think thats normal on what you had to do to heat up the house from being that cold.  I even tried using my adjustable thermastat for the house ( colder during the day and warm up at night) but it seems to work better if I leave it at 73 all the time so the furnace comes on for about 20 mins. then shuts off.  If you let your house cool say 4 or 5 degrees then it takes a lot longer time to heat up and the boiler takes longer to react.
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ckbetz

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #28 on: November 14, 2008, 04:32:00 AM »

Yoda, I've done a lot of reading on setting your thermostats and whether it's more efficient to keep them set at one temp or adjust them when you're not home.  Everything I've read is that it's better to adjust your thermostat because the amount of energy you use to get your house back up to temp is still less than you would have used to keep it at a constant temp when you're not there.  When companies do your energy demand calcs one very important input they use is delta T - the difference in temperature between the outside and inside your home.  The smaller the delta T, the less energy needed.  So what I'm guessing if everything is working fine is that your boiler was playing catch up and the net use of wood, even though you used a lot to get it back up to temp, would be less than if you kept your house a constant temp.  The question remains though whether your boiler has enough heating potential to keep your house warm when your delta T continues to get bigger.  I'd keep an eye on it during normal use before I'd get too excited.
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Pomeroy, Ohio

yoda

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #29 on: November 15, 2008, 04:30:11 PM »

Thanks for the input, I quess I'll wait and see what it does when it gets really cold, doesn't do any good to worry about it at this point. And I figure even if I have to supplement with propane on extreme days it wouldn't be the end of the world, I'm still saving a butt load of propane. Grandgracing, do you think I will get more heat out of my shaver in extreme cold if I open the flapper on the forced draft blower more? or would I just use more wood?It's open about 1/3 now.
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