Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Username: Password:
Pages: [1] 2

Author Topic: Hows the burning season going for everyone?  (Read 6070 times)

Watt2323

  • Training Wheels
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 49
  • OWF Brand: Portage and Main
  • OWF Model: BL-3444
  • Oxford, Indiana
    • View Profile
Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« on: December 20, 2016, 05:55:10 AM »

It has been -5 at night here in Indiana and I have been getting 16 hour burn times with my BL-3444. I have been keeping my garage at 60 as well as my shop and the house is a constant 68. Love this time of year, didn't even mind going out yesterday at 12 degrees and loading it.
Logged
Stihl 661 & MS 291
County Line 35 ton log spliter
P&M BL-3444 OWB
Lots of wood

coolidge

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1409
    • View Profile
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2016, 06:15:41 PM »

Always seems nicer to load the boiler when it's below zero.
Logged
Western Maine

mlappin

  • Fabricator Extraordinaire
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4140
  • OWF Brand: homebuilt, now HeatmasterSS
  • OWF Model: Martin Steel Works Gen 1 then, now a G200.
  • North Liberty, Indiana
    • View Profile
    • Altheatsolutions
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2016, 06:29:27 PM »

Burning tons of rounds here yet, dropped another 4 ash trees this afternoon and topped em out. I lost count of how many I’ve done this fall, need to get em all dragged out of the woods so I can run em thru the processor.


Was -13 here the other morning, house was a toasty 73 and the shop didn’t take long to get to 65.
Logged
Stihl 023
Stihl 362
Stihl 460
Sachs Dolmar 112 and 120
Homemade skid steer mounted splitter, 30" throat, 5" cylinder
Wood-Eze model 8100 firewood processor

HeatmasterSS dealer for Northern Indiana

tinfoilhat2020

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 634
  • OWF Brand: POS
    • View Profile
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2017, 05:47:39 AM »

Beven cold here in southeast michigan for the past week or so. Burning 1/2 firebox of poplar/pine/locut/oak mix every 12 hours. House is at 70, garage at 60 and shop at 60. So far so good....lost track of how much wood I've went through since mid October.
Logged

Watt2323

  • Training Wheels
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 49
  • OWF Brand: Portage and Main
  • OWF Model: BL-3444
  • Oxford, Indiana
    • View Profile
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2017, 10:18:48 AM »

Well so much for the cold days of January in Indiana. What crazy weather we are having.
Logged
Stihl 661 & MS 291
County Line 35 ton log spliter
P&M BL-3444 OWB
Lots of wood

bowood

  • Training Wheels
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 33
  • OWF Brand: Central Boiler
  • OWF Model: E-1450
    • View Profile
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2017, 03:56:50 PM »

Second winter with a CB 1450.  Works great for heat, but my propane backup still comes on for hot water.  I figured it was a temperature sensor issue, but I just traced all the pipes the installer had setup and realize now that they left it such that it does not serve the hot water.  Looks simple to fix with another pump, a check valve, and some pipes.  I've mocked up all the fixes in a Visio diagram.  I'd love to have a diagram that could do some animations so I could run through all of the fluid flow scenarios.
Logged

RSI

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3100
  • OWF Brand: HeatMaster
  • OWF Model: G200 and B250
    • View Profile
    • RSI
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2017, 05:55:57 PM »

Can you post some pics of how the pipes are connected? You shouldn't need check valves.
Logged

Watt2323

  • Training Wheels
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 49
  • OWF Brand: Portage and Main
  • OWF Model: BL-3444
  • Oxford, Indiana
    • View Profile
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2017, 08:34:28 AM »

I use propane as well not very much but I figured it was because there are 5 people in my home taking showers relatively close together and the exchanger cant keep up?
Logged
Stihl 661 & MS 291
County Line 35 ton log spliter
P&M BL-3444 OWB
Lots of wood

mlappin

  • Fabricator Extraordinaire
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4140
  • OWF Brand: homebuilt, now HeatmasterSS
  • OWF Model: Martin Steel Works Gen 1 then, now a G200.
  • North Liberty, Indiana
    • View Profile
    • Altheatsolutions
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2017, 09:24:29 AM »

I use propane as well not very much but I figured it was because there are 5 people in my home taking showers relatively close together and the exchanger cant keep up?

You using a side arm or plate exchanger? if a plate exchanger when was the last time it was cleaned?
Logged
Stihl 023
Stihl 362
Stihl 460
Sachs Dolmar 112 and 120
Homemade skid steer mounted splitter, 30" throat, 5" cylinder
Wood-Eze model 8100 firewood processor

HeatmasterSS dealer for Northern Indiana

MISHOOTER

  • Training Wheels
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6
  • OWF Brand: Portage & Main
  • OWF Model: BL 34-44
    • View Profile
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #9 on: January 19, 2017, 03:50:59 PM »

how do you clean a plate exchanger?
Logged
Holland, MI

hondaracer2oo4

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1471
  • OWF Brand: Heatmaster. Past Hardy
  • OWF Model: G200. Past H4
    • View Profile
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2017, 04:04:30 PM »

Most of us use CLR. They do make commercial flat plate products out there too. Either you remove the flat plate from the system and soak it in clr then flush it or flush it when it's off. The way I do it and some of us have done is to have hose bib connections between the flat plate and a quarter turn valve. We turn the quarter turn valve off to isolate the flat plate from the system then I use a little drill pump that I hook up to the hose bib and run the clr through it for 30 mins.
Logged

bowood

  • Training Wheels
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 33
  • OWF Brand: Central Boiler
  • OWF Model: E-1450
    • View Profile
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #11 on: January 19, 2017, 05:00:58 PM »

My setup is a little crazy.  I think a diagram will be better than pictures which I need more time to finish.  Basically the wood boiler is a an always on loop off a low loss header for radiant floor and then heat exchanger to a loop out to the boiler.  So it keeps the low loss header hot and prevents propane that monitors the header from coming on.  This is perfect because it means if the boiler runs out of wood the propane supplies the boiler heat and thus I never installed the thermostatic valve that came with the boiler.  My boiler stays an even 150F without wood and then the 175F-185F cycle with wood.  Should keep the temperature swing triggered condensation to a minimum.  Though its a little wasteful if I fail to use the boiler for an extended period of time.  The problem is that it is essentially a completely separate loop from the hot water tank to the propane boiler.  Little to no flow goes between those two loops.  Its an indirect heated water tank with a mixer for domestic hot water so no concerns having it just be 185F when wood is in the wood boiler, so I'd like to just have always on loop to it when the wood boiler is on but I've got a few other similar loops in mind for other purposes.  For example the house also has a geothermal forced air system.  The installer put a heat exchanger into the duct work, but they gave up on figuring out how to give it wood heat.  I've mapped out how to do it, but then its yet another loop to get to flow in the right direction at the right time (i.e. pump only on when a zone demands forced air).  My diagram with too many loops makes me think some check valves are a good idea to ensure that some of the pump scenarios still flow the directions I intend.  I'll figure it out eventually and share a diagram or too.
Logged

FrozenMongrel

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 75
  • OWF Brand: Heatmaster
  • OWF Model: G200
  • Southern Maine
    • View Profile
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #12 on: January 19, 2017, 06:48:49 PM »

My setup is a little crazy.  I think a diagram will be better than pictures which I need more time to finish.  Basically the wood boiler is a an always on loop off a low loss header for radiant floor and then heat exchanger to a loop out to the boiler.  So it keeps the low loss header hot and prevents propane that monitors the header from coming on.  This is perfect because it means if the boiler runs out of wood the propane supplies the boiler heat and thus I never installed the thermostatic valve that came with the boiler.  My boiler stays an even 150F without wood and then the 175F-185F cycle with wood.  Should keep the temperature swing triggered condensation to a minimum.  Though its a little wasteful if I fail to use the boiler for an extended period of time.  The problem is that it is essentially a completely separate loop from the hot water tank to the propane boiler.  Little to no flow goes between those two loops.  Its an indirect heated water tank with a mixer for domestic hot water so no concerns having it just be 185F when wood is in the wood boiler, so I'd like to just have always on loop to it when the wood boiler is on but I've got a few other similar loops in mind for other purposes.  For example the house also has a geothermal forced air system.  The installer put a heat exchanger into the duct work, but they gave up on figuring out how to give it wood heat.  I've mapped out how to do it, but then its yet another loop to get to flow in the right direction at the right time (i.e. pump only on when a zone demands forced air).  My diagram with too many loops makes me think some check valves are a good idea to ensure that some of the pump scenarios still flow the directions I intend.  I'll figure it out eventually and share a diagram or too.

Sounds like you need to use primary/secondary plumbing to supply all of the different loops that you want to. If the water temp needs to be consistent for all of them you can use parallel primary/secondary. Here's a link to a very complete overview of boiler plumbing http://www.slideshare.net/cooppower/siegenthaler-presentation-small
slide 40 shows a parallel primary/secondary plumbing example.
Logged

bowood

  • Training Wheels
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 33
  • OWF Brand: Central Boiler
  • OWF Model: E-1450
    • View Profile
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #13 on: January 19, 2017, 07:00:40 PM »

Sounds like you need to use primary/secondary plumbing to supply all of the different loops that you want to. If the water temp needs to be consistent for all of them you can use parallel primary/secondary. Here's a link to a very complete overview of boiler plumbing http://www.slideshare.net/cooppower/siegenthaler-presentation-small
slide 40 shows a parallel primary/secondary plumbing example.

This is fantastic.  I figured much of this by drawing my own diagrams for thought experiments, but I had not deduced these hydraulic separation concepts.  This is going to help me solve this.
Logged

mlappin

  • Fabricator Extraordinaire
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4140
  • OWF Brand: homebuilt, now HeatmasterSS
  • OWF Model: Martin Steel Works Gen 1 then, now a G200.
  • North Liberty, Indiana
    • View Profile
    • Altheatsolutions
Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« Reply #14 on: January 19, 2017, 07:16:49 PM »

Logged
Stihl 023
Stihl 362
Stihl 460
Sachs Dolmar 112 and 120
Homemade skid steer mounted splitter, 30" throat, 5" cylinder
Wood-Eze model 8100 firewood processor

HeatmasterSS dealer for Northern Indiana
Pages: [1] 2