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31
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Winter
« on: April 01, 2017, 09:28:00 AM »
8"+ of snow so far here and still coming down for the rest of the day. Wet and very sticky. 
32
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Winter
« on: March 11, 2017, 03:43:00 PM »Not selling boilers here guys, helping my mother in law pack to move to Maine however for some reason I think I may have sold 3 in Maine FROM here!
That's awesome on both counts! We've had below zero wind chills up here and I just got over 24 Hr burn time from my g200. Went out of state overnight from 5pm last night to just a few min ago and didn't want to trouble anyone to load it while I was gone so filled it 3/4 full with maple and came back to a full coal bed still going strong. High winds and a high temp of 12° during that time
33
General Discussion / Re: My office window view today
« on: February 13, 2017, 03:50:07 PM »
I'm about 10 min from slimjim and we've had about 38+/-" of snow since last tuesday. Over 16" from this last one. Been giving my little fisher homesteader plow a workout.
34
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Which OWB
« on: January 22, 2017, 08:56:35 PM »
I purchased and installed a Heatmaster G200 this past November and I really like it. I replaced an old Shaver conventional and the difference is night and day! There are a lot of options on the market right now and they all have individual perks. Do your own research so that you'll be comfortable with your choice. Not sure where you are, but the local OWB dealer may have an impact on your choice as you will be able to see whatever they have on hand and probably have better service from a local dealer.
35
Portage & Main / Re: Hows the burning season going for everyone?
« 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.
36
HeatMaster / Re: G200 on the way!
« on: January 11, 2017, 12:46:13 PM »Well it was either a bridging issue or it just didn't catch, I haven't messed with the factory settings and don't plan to, but I usually try to stir up the coals every time I load, even did it with my old boiler.
Oh well, no harm no foul. It was amazing with that forced draft to see how quickly the whole bottom of the firebox was glowing hot coals after only a few minutes. Temps here today and tomorrow are in the high 40's approaching 50, so tonight's load will be a light one.
I had that problem a couple times right after I fired my boiler for the first time. I changed the idle times to 60 min instead of 90 between calls for heat as the pine and maple that I'm using seems to not last that long with no airflow even though I have a good coal bed. With the warmer temps it can be multiple hours between calls for heat at my house during the day as I have a lot of passive solar heating from large windows on the south side of the house. Since I changed the idle time I haven't had the issue. It wasn't bridging or antlything else, just simply going out from lack of airflow. I haven't changed it back to 90 min with the colder weather, but if it gets cold again and stays cold I may give it a try.
37
HeatMaster / Re: G200 on the way!
« on: January 05, 2017, 10:38:58 AM »
Nice! You'll enjoy running that I'm sure!
38
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Put the deposit down
« on: January 04, 2017, 04:29:48 PM »22 inch length is actually perfect in my book. Fill the fire box depending on outside temps for the next 12 hours. Depends on your heat load but many days I fill to the bottom of the door.
That's about what I've been doing with mine. I've gotten 14+ hours on the warmer days and I'm using dry pine mixed into semi-dry maple. I got all my wood before I bought the g200 so it's random lengths from 16" to 26". It all works, just load it so that it will burn properly from the bottom and you can use the small random chunks too.
39
General Discussion / Re: Current Oil Prices
« on: January 04, 2017, 04:55:56 AM »Trump will impose a huge penalty/ tax if it goes above 60 barrel .
Diesel was 2.94 where I was working yesterday, haven't checked current heating oil prices.
Heating oil typically tracks about $.50 less than diesel as it's the same thing without the road tax and added dye. The reason #2 has dye in it is to catch anyone using it in an on road vehicle attempting to avoid paying road tax. It dyes everything it touches, and if an on road vehicle is discovered to have run #2 there can be some extremely hefty fines.
40
Electronics / Re: Indicator Light or Buzzer
« on: January 03, 2017, 06:43:15 PM »IT WORKS was the text message I got last night while I was at a game club meeting. I had no idea what that meant. The I got another text that read don't worry I got it going again. Confused I walked out and called my wife. I asked what works? and what wasn't going? She replied your alarm thing you put on the boiler went off so I went out and checked it and the boiler was out so I put some paper in there and got it lit again , all set. It's always good to see when a plan works out well.
That's great! Both on the system working and the wife that restarted the boiler! Sounds like a good woman!
41
HeatMaster / Re: G200 on the way!
« on: January 03, 2017, 06:25:15 PM »
I'll just echo what everyone else said. I don't think you can go wrong with both the g200 and Richard's work. I'm amazed at how easy the g200 I bought this fall is to run and maintain for a gassifier. My 1 year supply of wood I had on hand instantly became at least 2 if not 2 1/2.
42
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Mobile home furnace converted to barn heat
« on: January 01, 2017, 05:21:55 PM »Intake air temp is a good point. If it is warming the air from 20-110 that is huge.
It was 22* in the barn when I fired it up, so that would still be an 89* temp increase at a huge cfm.
43
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Mobile home furnace converted to barn heat
« on: January 01, 2017, 02:25:55 PM »Nice job, looks good. I'm surprised you are only getting 111 degrees out of the front? My hydroair box puts out 125 degrees at the closest register which is about 15 feet from the coil and blower. My water also goes though a flat plate to get into the pressurized side of the system then goes to the water to air hx so I lose some degrees right off the bat there.
I was using a cheap craftsman multimeter and hadn't let the furnace run long. We'll see the next time I run it how it performs. I was on my way out so I didn't have much time to evaluate it or let it run for more than a couple min.
44
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Mobile home furnace converted to barn heat
« on: January 01, 2017, 12:14:22 PM »What you basically created was a quieter and cheaper version of a unit heater
And higher btu rating!
45
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Mobile home furnace converted to barn heat
« on: January 01, 2017, 07:26:06 AM »Looks like a good job to me. Simple and to the point.
The design is from slimjim. He has a couple different mobile home furnaces he's converted this way. They work great and are inexpensive compared to a hanging unit heater.