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1

Home Made / My Homemade OWB

« on: January 23, 2010, 08:33:41 PM »

Well I have made it through building my own owb and have been running it for 5 days now and just can't believe how well it is working to start out with. I was wanting to purchase a Shaver, but after thinking about it, and researching- I realized that I could build my own way cheaper. I decided to copy thier unit basically. I didn't know at the time that they had issues with them or I had probably changed my mind. But I guess in the end i am so happy right now to see it work I may have made the right decisions- time will tell. I used a 36 in diameter air tank cut in half to 45 in long- has a 1/4 wall. I used .120 for the outer jacket- all mild steel on the unit. I wanted to use 1/4 but the cost factor held me back. I had 2 sheets broke and welded them into the box so it saved me 2  4ft long welds. I did weld everything inside and out with the exception of the front panel which I installed last and could only do the outside. Total capacity 203 gallons. I ended up using a 75 cfm dayton blower- turned so the fan inlet pointed to the ground. I jb-welded a dryer vent onto pVC then to the fan housing. I drilled 5- 3/16" holes above the vent in the pvc adapter to use for draft while in idle mode. I figured I could adjust by putting a #10 screw in them and plugging if needed. Inside I ran my hot "out" lines into the bottom and all the way up front staying about 3 inches off the bottom and about 12 inches from the front. The returns dump in at the top in rear. I am pulling the water out of lower left front corner and dumping back in top right rear corner. I used a Grundfos 3 spd pump at the outlet on the tank. Ended up with a Ranco controller with the sensor going into a well in the top center of unit. My lines are buried closer to 5ft deep- wrapped in the foam pipe wrap and placed in 4 in pvc. I have 2 sets- each run to the house- one set for house hotwater and forced air exchanger, the other will run on to my polebarn through my basement and run a future hotub and existing polebarn. I  alos used a sidearm water heater exchanger - bought one that has the roll threaded inner tube- seems to be keeping up fantastic. Thanks to you guys for your help and suggestions- I managed to find my furnace schematic and get the blower wired to rn just my exchanger and that was it- I was into business! Now- let me see if I can add pics into this post - I'll try just a couple first......http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=8524&id=100000268149132

2

General Discussion / Posting Pictures

« on: January 22, 2010, 04:06:51 PM »

Before I even try- whats the best method to include a picture in a post on this board?

3

Electronics / How do I wire in my OWB to my existing forced air furnce blower?

« on: January 11, 2010, 06:09:34 PM »

Well as I work my way through my homemade boiler setup I am nearing the end. One of my last major obstacles( I hope) is figuring out how to connect into my existing furnace to use the blower. I currently am running a Superior Bio-mass Forced air furnace burning corn. This is my only furnace- it has a standard wall mount thermostat just like any other forced air unit. I plan on shutting the unit off as soon as the OWB is up and running, but need to figure out how to be able to run the blower on it as my OWB heat exchanger will be mounted in the furnaces plenum.
One thing I can add is that it has a honeywell controller on the side of it that senses the firebox temp and can be adjusted for blower on off time. This controller has a button on it which allows to run the blower in the summer to draw cool air out of basement without having the furnace running. Its just a simple button that pushes in and pulls out. I am no electrician- so if anyone can help- please try to keep it simple!!!!

Thanks, Bob in Mi.

4

Home Made / Combustion blower size for my homemade boiler?

« on: December 28, 2009, 06:18:09 PM »

Hello guys- I have been working on building  boiler also- I see some nice work on here! I have not been able to come up with a cfm size rating from any of the manufacturers for what they are using on the combuston blower. What size units/brands are you guys using? My burner is a 36 in barrel in a box design. Water capacity is 200 gallons. I am nearing the end of construction and hope to move it out of my workshop to an outside storage building where it will be housed. I have to finish up the firebox / ashpan doors and I believe that will be the end of the fabrication work.I have been searching for several months for info on do it yourself boliers- this is the first decent place I have just turned up!

Thanks for any help- Bob in Mich