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1
Heatmor / Re: chimney pipe suggestions
« on: January 04, 2012, 08:02:37 AM »Thanks for the reply. I had a feeling it might be the moisture content on the wood. My sources and level of seasoning will vary, so I guess the streaks will just be a fact of life.
I'm tempted to spray the whole thing a satin or matte black anyway to better blend with the rest of the furnace chimney and roof.
Aside from being ugly to look at... should the creosote be cleaned off frequently? Will it just hose off or is this going to be a big pain in the butt?
Thanks!
- Aaron
2
Heatmor / Re: chimney pipe suggestions
« on: January 04, 2012, 07:00:03 AM »
Ridgekid - no, I didn't remove the screen. I wanted it to function as a spark arrestor since I've seen enough hot cinders come out and hit the ground glowing (at least before I added the extension). Setting the woods on fire wasn't high on my list of goals for 2012. 
I'll post a picture of it later, but I installed it around 7:30 PM on a pretty cold night. I loaded the furnace late that night pretty heavily (probably stacked a little higher than Heatmor suggests, but I wanted a long burn through the night). Had good coals and some log carcasses in there by 7:30 AM the next morning. Most of the mesh and the underside of the cap had turned black (as expected), but I also had brownish creosote streaks all down the shiny chimney extensions and, to a lesser degree, down my Heatmor's roof to the edge and dripping to the ground. Never seen that prior to extending it. I did NOT see any signs of liquid like that inside the firebox, on the door, etc. Was strictly on the chimney and roof.
Lovely. Every "improvement" I make seems to come with some new irritation.
So is the creosote normal as a result of this? Is it due to overloading the furnace and not getting the right burn? I'm pretty sure my wood (all oak) is in the 20-30% moisture range according to my moisture meter (and as recommended by Heatmor in the manual).
As I said, I'll post a picture in a bit when I have a chance to take one.
Thanks!
- Aaron
I'll post a picture of it later, but I installed it around 7:30 PM on a pretty cold night. I loaded the furnace late that night pretty heavily (probably stacked a little higher than Heatmor suggests, but I wanted a long burn through the night). Had good coals and some log carcasses in there by 7:30 AM the next morning. Most of the mesh and the underside of the cap had turned black (as expected), but I also had brownish creosote streaks all down the shiny chimney extensions and, to a lesser degree, down my Heatmor's roof to the edge and dripping to the ground. Never seen that prior to extending it. I did NOT see any signs of liquid like that inside the firebox, on the door, etc. Was strictly on the chimney and roof.
Lovely. Every "improvement" I make seems to come with some new irritation.
So is the creosote normal as a result of this? Is it due to overloading the furnace and not getting the right burn? I'm pretty sure my wood (all oak) is in the 20-30% moisture range according to my moisture meter (and as recommended by Heatmor in the manual).
As I said, I'll post a picture in a bit when I have a chance to take one.
Thanks!
- Aaron
3
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Cold Night - Clear Skies (photo)
« on: January 03, 2012, 10:26:01 PM »
Just a little long exposure silhouette I took for fun tonight (and froze my face off doing it).
Around 20 here tonight and due to be a stupid 60 again by Saturday. What a screwy winter here in Virginia.
Night!
- Aaron
Around 20 here tonight and due to be a stupid 60 again by Saturday. What a screwy winter here in Virginia.
Night!
- Aaron
4
Heatmor / Re: chimney pipe suggestions
« on: January 02, 2012, 08:22:38 PM »
Just bought a 36" SuperVent extension at Lowes this evening and installed it barely three hours ago. It twist-locks into the 200CSS perfectly and feels rock solid. It's shiny silver, so I might be inclined to spray it black after I see it in the daylight. I also put a Chima-A-Lator cap/spark arrestor on that my dealer sold me. Will be glad to report back on any changes I see in the system with these new additions.
The SuperVent I found at Lowes was $139 and insulated. Quite heavy and seemingly well built.
- Aaron
The SuperVent I found at Lowes was $139 and insulated. Quite heavy and seemingly well built.
- Aaron
5
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Chimney significantly smokes when idle - air leak?
« on: December 11, 2011, 06:18:14 PM »The smoke I get seems to not vary much by wood type. Obviously, it puts out a lot of smoke when it first fires up from idle and when it goes back to idle. When going full bore, I see nothing but rippling heat waves and virtually no smoke.
I may take a shot of it doing its average idle smoke and post it soon for reference.
One thing I've wondered is whether the roofline of the shed that extends partly over the front of the furnace is angled such that it's whipping wind either right across or down into the chimney. This is one reason I thought about extending the chimney. The desire for a spark arrestor is because I've seen enough roman candle-like behavior sometimes that I worry about setting the neighborhood on fire on a dry, windy night.
Granted, it seems to smoke whether it's windy or not.
Lastly, I do get a lot of black gunky/crusty stuff on the door and on the walls of the firebox, but I seldom see any watery black liquid running down any of the surfaces. I didn't open our flue to clean it until the start of this second season and I expected it to be full of stuff - name creosote. It was virtually empty except for some light ash which was easily pushed back down into the firebox.
So, yeah... maybe I'm fine.
Thanks for the input!
- Aaron
6
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Chimney significantly smokes when idle - air leak?
« on: December 11, 2011, 11:11:47 AM »
Everyone says there should be nothing more than a wisp of smoke - if that - coming out of an idling Heatmor 200 CSS. We're in our second season and our furnace has always had vastly more than a wisp from the day it was installed. It's not a thick column - more like a Halloween-esque witch's cauldron spilling from the chimney whenever it's idle.
I can't seem to find the source if this is, in fact, a problem. The blower seems fine and the flap on it appears to close properly when I test it. The door seal seems undamaged, but I'm not sure how to test it further. The spring-loaded panel that covers the ARD tube seems fine. My dealer told me to put a wad of steel wool in the ARD tube, but the first time I did that I just about got set on fire by the flames that rolled out the door. The steel wool came out pretty fast after that.
The furnace sits on a concrete pad, has all the sand in it that was required and is even silicone caulked all around its base.
I've wondered if adding four feet of proper twist-lock chimney and a spark arrestor on top would help matters... but I've just finished reading a thread where several people who added chimney actually saw increased draw that worsened the problem.
Any thoughts?
- Aaron
NOTE: Let me add that, when idle and smoking, I never open the door to a low burning fire. In fact, it often takes a moment to see any coals start to glow due to the air from the open door.
I can't seem to find the source if this is, in fact, a problem. The blower seems fine and the flap on it appears to close properly when I test it. The door seal seems undamaged, but I'm not sure how to test it further. The spring-loaded panel that covers the ARD tube seems fine. My dealer told me to put a wad of steel wool in the ARD tube, but the first time I did that I just about got set on fire by the flames that rolled out the door. The steel wool came out pretty fast after that.
The furnace sits on a concrete pad, has all the sand in it that was required and is even silicone caulked all around its base.
I've wondered if adding four feet of proper twist-lock chimney and a spark arrestor on top would help matters... but I've just finished reading a thread where several people who added chimney actually saw increased draw that worsened the problem.
Any thoughts?
- Aaron
NOTE: Let me add that, when idle and smoking, I never open the door to a low burning fire. In fact, it often takes a moment to see any coals start to glow due to the air from the open door.
7
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / LONG saga and related questions: plumbing, wood sizes and burn cycles
« on: December 11, 2011, 10:36:11 AM »
This is our second season with our Heatmor 200 CSS. We installed it in somewhat of a hurry last year after abandoning the propane that was costing an obscene amount of money. When I say obscene, I mean that one year of propane paid for the furnace itself. I suspect that got your attention.
The house is early 1900's, 10.5 ft ceilings, just under 3,000 square feet, two huge fireplaces (I keep chimney balloons in them 99% of the time to minimize heat loss) and a mixed bag on insulation. Our twenty-seven, seven foot high windows are modern replacements that are quite efficient, but our insulation is older blown stuff in the attic and we have balloon walls. We have huge cast iron radiators that were steam when we had the propane boiler, but are also water-capable. So we switched to circulated hot water to accommodate the Heatmor and retired the propane furnace entirely last year.
Our original installers last fall did a horrible job (this is not a Heatmor or dealer problem - they were a clueless couple of private HVAC guys I stupidly hired that took us for a ride). This included everything from putting our pumps on backwards to providing almost NO support to the tens of feet of 1.25" black iron pipe in the basement that tie into our radiator system. They just suspended the new pipes on top of the old, pre-existing pipes of the radiator system, etc. I am amazed I was never awoken in the night to the sound of rending metal as hundreds of pounds of water-filled pipe tore off the basement ceiling.
A tremendously capable builder/renovator friend of mine came to our rescue and redid the furnace-side plumbing. We weren't in a position to address the basement plumbing mess at that point. That got us up and running the weekend of Thanksgiving last year and we finally had heat (after a solid month of using electric space heaters in key rooms and the rest of the house in the 50's).
Our biggest problem last season was that the original design had the two thermostat-called circulator pumps running the water directly through the radiators and back to the furnace. When the cycle would start, the impact on the furnace was massive with all of that room-temperature water from over a dozen radiators dumping into the furnace. The needle on the furnace gauge easily dropped 70 degrees and a huge burn cycle would start.
Worst of all, we had water level and pressure problems. In a nutshell, I think the water in the radiators - sitting several feet above the level of the furnace (which is a good 70 feet from the house), would rush "downhill" to equalize. If you topped off the furnace, this situation caused it to push water out of the Heatmor's overflow pipe on the top repeatedly after the pumps would stop. Once it "balanced out" to the point that it wasn't forcing water from the top, I think the end result was less water in the Heatmor than it should have had. This led to overtemps during the burn cycle followed, of course, by huge drops in heat when the system was called and all that cool water came rushing in again. Radiators, of course, also require periodic bleeding to get air out, etc., that undoubtedly added to the furnace-side hassles.
We made it through the season, though, with a warm house but a lot of wood cutting and loading. Still, we spent less on wood for the whole season than a single month of propane AND we had endless hot water in the showers. Our electric bill was cut in half from the hot water heater savings. Wood was a mixture of stuff: a huge Ash tree we had taken down late in the summer (it was dead in the top and threatening the house) and various loads I bought from some local suppliers. Some of the wood I bought was large, minimally split hardwood that was heavy, but loaded decently. In January, I had a logging truck delivery of 16-18ft hardwood in 10-14" diameters that I sawed up on my own - by far the most cost-effective source dollar-wise, but not effort-wise. I cut it into short rounds based on what I could reasonably lift... but cramming those in the furnace was a bit of a workout and not something the wife was going to comfortably be doing. I have no gripes about the exercise, but I'm a programmer/network admin who gets his cardio workouts on a bike... so this seasonal amateur logging operation is likely a future back injury in the making.
We decided to correct the major problems this fall before the season started. We split the furnace and house into two separate circuits. The two feeds from our furnace cycle through two new heat exchangers in the basement. This puts the furnace on a much smaller capacity loop that never touches the radiators directly. Furnace water levels have been perfect since doing this. The donut-shaped bladder in the Heatmor always has water and a varying amount of pressure in it depending on the water temperature (hot and idle vs. initial start of a cycle).
The other side of the exchangers is a closed loop of just the radiators with a couple of small expansion tanks (which I don't know were even really necessary) and another pair of circulator pumps. We initially tried running the furnace pumps 24/7, but that failed miserably. Turns out that the constantly cycling hot water from the furnace transferring heat across the exchangers to the house loop caused the hot water to rise into the radiators, drawing cool water behind it that kept the furnace going almost constantly. The house kept getting hotter and hotter - a good five degrees beyond the cutoff on the thermostat - and the burning outside was nearly constant. So we switched to having the thermostat turn on all four pumps when it calls for heat. When it satisfies, all the pumps stop and the furnace is free to heat itself back to idle until the house calls for it again.
All of the plumbing in the basement was also redone. The miles of black iron pipe are now insulated and properly hung with pipe hangers so strong that you can literally do pull-ups on them. No more new pipe draped every which way over the older pipes. It looks like a professional HVAC facility in our basement (both in scale and quality of the work). My same perfectionist friend that saved us last year was hired to do this and it took the two of us a solid week to do it right. The results could not be more of an improvement. I will post some photos if people are interested.
Last season I also set the thermostat on a day/evening/night schedule with the usual higher and lower temps in an attempt to be efficient. I think, honestly, that those multi-degree drops put even more stress on the furnace and the burn cycles. I could be wrong, though. This season I've just set the thermostat on a comfortable temperature and left it 24/7. When the thermostat loses one degree, it calls for heat and, on average, I don't think I hear the pumps run for more than about 3- 5 minutes before the house is satisfied. The furnace burns for a while beyond the end of the cycle, of course, and gets back to idle. Mix and repeat. The colder it is, the more often we have these cycles - but they are all quite short from the thermostat's perspective.
So, if you're still alive after reading all of the crap above, here are some questions I have:
1) I'm interested in any general opinions on our old (direct) vs. new (exchanger) configuration and whether it sounds like we did it right. I feel like the system is running more efficiently this way and, above all, feel it's going to be easier to maintain by having the house and furnace on separate loops.
2) Am I wrong in assuming that the constant temperature approach is, in this particular system, a better approach? Or should I be doing the usual day/evening/night cycles with the thermostat? Technically, it should be day/night since someone is almost always home making sleeping hours the only time we might tolerate it being much cooler. The house is MUCH more comfortable and constant this way, too. The radiators tend to stay at least warm to the touch most of the time and never seem to need to be piping hot.
3) Related to question #2: are the short burn cycles of this constant setting preferable to the long, harder burns that come from a 2 or more degree drop in the house and re-heating cool-to-the-touch radiators?
4) I know this is talked about a lot elsewhere, but I'm very curious about wood sizes, etc., in relation of the above questions. Until I get more into gathering and stockpiling my own wood during the year, I am buying loads of various kinds. Most suppliers around here bring seasoned, split, indoor-wood-stove-sized oak. This stuff almost feels like kindling to me compared to the massive logs of last year - but it's seriously easy to load (wife-friendly!) and does burn hot as hell. Yes, a load of it does burn down to just coals over the course of a 20-degree night. But is this smaller, easier-to-load and hot-burning wood a good fit to these shorter cycle burns, or am I better off going back to the heavier rounds? Whatever the case, the guy who brought my current load of comically small 18" split oak toothpicks is going to bring me 24" lengths with fewer splits (more halves, some smaller wholes and quartering only the largest pieces). I'm hoping this will be a nice compromise between burning time/efficiency and preventing my first back injury. Thoughts?
5) What IS the proper moisture level I should be looking for in the wood sizes I'm talking about? I have a moisture meter that shows me between 20% - 30% on randomly sampled pieces in this most recent delivery. Are moisture meter measurements pretty consistent and reliable across devices? The Heatmor manual cites precisely this range, but I want to know that my meter's reading is consistent with their means of measuring. Granted, the Heatmor manual has a tendency to piss me off with its ability to confuse, contradict itself and completely not address other questions I tend to have.
My moisture meter: http://www.amazon.com/General-Tools-MMD4E-Digital-Moisture/dp/B00275F5O2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323624785&sr=8-1.
I'm sorry for the length of this message, but I wanted to tell a full story. I have a lot more questions and any replies I get will likely spur more. I also realize that the reality of what is "right" in the details is what works best for the owner. Is my house warm? Yes. Am I comfortable with how often I load it and how much effort or cost I put into obtaining and loading the furnace? While everyone will find their own comfort level, I want to be sure I'm being at least being sensible on the bigger issues. Input from the experienced and helpful OWB owners on this forum has always been appreciated!
Thanks!
- Aaron
Sweet Briar, Va
The house is early 1900's, 10.5 ft ceilings, just under 3,000 square feet, two huge fireplaces (I keep chimney balloons in them 99% of the time to minimize heat loss) and a mixed bag on insulation. Our twenty-seven, seven foot high windows are modern replacements that are quite efficient, but our insulation is older blown stuff in the attic and we have balloon walls. We have huge cast iron radiators that were steam when we had the propane boiler, but are also water-capable. So we switched to circulated hot water to accommodate the Heatmor and retired the propane furnace entirely last year.
Our original installers last fall did a horrible job (this is not a Heatmor or dealer problem - they were a clueless couple of private HVAC guys I stupidly hired that took us for a ride). This included everything from putting our pumps on backwards to providing almost NO support to the tens of feet of 1.25" black iron pipe in the basement that tie into our radiator system. They just suspended the new pipes on top of the old, pre-existing pipes of the radiator system, etc. I am amazed I was never awoken in the night to the sound of rending metal as hundreds of pounds of water-filled pipe tore off the basement ceiling.
A tremendously capable builder/renovator friend of mine came to our rescue and redid the furnace-side plumbing. We weren't in a position to address the basement plumbing mess at that point. That got us up and running the weekend of Thanksgiving last year and we finally had heat (after a solid month of using electric space heaters in key rooms and the rest of the house in the 50's).
Our biggest problem last season was that the original design had the two thermostat-called circulator pumps running the water directly through the radiators and back to the furnace. When the cycle would start, the impact on the furnace was massive with all of that room-temperature water from over a dozen radiators dumping into the furnace. The needle on the furnace gauge easily dropped 70 degrees and a huge burn cycle would start.
Worst of all, we had water level and pressure problems. In a nutshell, I think the water in the radiators - sitting several feet above the level of the furnace (which is a good 70 feet from the house), would rush "downhill" to equalize. If you topped off the furnace, this situation caused it to push water out of the Heatmor's overflow pipe on the top repeatedly after the pumps would stop. Once it "balanced out" to the point that it wasn't forcing water from the top, I think the end result was less water in the Heatmor than it should have had. This led to overtemps during the burn cycle followed, of course, by huge drops in heat when the system was called and all that cool water came rushing in again. Radiators, of course, also require periodic bleeding to get air out, etc., that undoubtedly added to the furnace-side hassles.
We made it through the season, though, with a warm house but a lot of wood cutting and loading. Still, we spent less on wood for the whole season than a single month of propane AND we had endless hot water in the showers. Our electric bill was cut in half from the hot water heater savings. Wood was a mixture of stuff: a huge Ash tree we had taken down late in the summer (it was dead in the top and threatening the house) and various loads I bought from some local suppliers. Some of the wood I bought was large, minimally split hardwood that was heavy, but loaded decently. In January, I had a logging truck delivery of 16-18ft hardwood in 10-14" diameters that I sawed up on my own - by far the most cost-effective source dollar-wise, but not effort-wise. I cut it into short rounds based on what I could reasonably lift... but cramming those in the furnace was a bit of a workout and not something the wife was going to comfortably be doing. I have no gripes about the exercise, but I'm a programmer/network admin who gets his cardio workouts on a bike... so this seasonal amateur logging operation is likely a future back injury in the making.
We decided to correct the major problems this fall before the season started. We split the furnace and house into two separate circuits. The two feeds from our furnace cycle through two new heat exchangers in the basement. This puts the furnace on a much smaller capacity loop that never touches the radiators directly. Furnace water levels have been perfect since doing this. The donut-shaped bladder in the Heatmor always has water and a varying amount of pressure in it depending on the water temperature (hot and idle vs. initial start of a cycle).
The other side of the exchangers is a closed loop of just the radiators with a couple of small expansion tanks (which I don't know were even really necessary) and another pair of circulator pumps. We initially tried running the furnace pumps 24/7, but that failed miserably. Turns out that the constantly cycling hot water from the furnace transferring heat across the exchangers to the house loop caused the hot water to rise into the radiators, drawing cool water behind it that kept the furnace going almost constantly. The house kept getting hotter and hotter - a good five degrees beyond the cutoff on the thermostat - and the burning outside was nearly constant. So we switched to having the thermostat turn on all four pumps when it calls for heat. When it satisfies, all the pumps stop and the furnace is free to heat itself back to idle until the house calls for it again.
All of the plumbing in the basement was also redone. The miles of black iron pipe are now insulated and properly hung with pipe hangers so strong that you can literally do pull-ups on them. No more new pipe draped every which way over the older pipes. It looks like a professional HVAC facility in our basement (both in scale and quality of the work). My same perfectionist friend that saved us last year was hired to do this and it took the two of us a solid week to do it right. The results could not be more of an improvement. I will post some photos if people are interested.
Last season I also set the thermostat on a day/evening/night schedule with the usual higher and lower temps in an attempt to be efficient. I think, honestly, that those multi-degree drops put even more stress on the furnace and the burn cycles. I could be wrong, though. This season I've just set the thermostat on a comfortable temperature and left it 24/7. When the thermostat loses one degree, it calls for heat and, on average, I don't think I hear the pumps run for more than about 3- 5 minutes before the house is satisfied. The furnace burns for a while beyond the end of the cycle, of course, and gets back to idle. Mix and repeat. The colder it is, the more often we have these cycles - but they are all quite short from the thermostat's perspective.
So, if you're still alive after reading all of the crap above, here are some questions I have:
1) I'm interested in any general opinions on our old (direct) vs. new (exchanger) configuration and whether it sounds like we did it right. I feel like the system is running more efficiently this way and, above all, feel it's going to be easier to maintain by having the house and furnace on separate loops.
2) Am I wrong in assuming that the constant temperature approach is, in this particular system, a better approach? Or should I be doing the usual day/evening/night cycles with the thermostat? Technically, it should be day/night since someone is almost always home making sleeping hours the only time we might tolerate it being much cooler. The house is MUCH more comfortable and constant this way, too. The radiators tend to stay at least warm to the touch most of the time and never seem to need to be piping hot.
3) Related to question #2: are the short burn cycles of this constant setting preferable to the long, harder burns that come from a 2 or more degree drop in the house and re-heating cool-to-the-touch radiators?
4) I know this is talked about a lot elsewhere, but I'm very curious about wood sizes, etc., in relation of the above questions. Until I get more into gathering and stockpiling my own wood during the year, I am buying loads of various kinds. Most suppliers around here bring seasoned, split, indoor-wood-stove-sized oak. This stuff almost feels like kindling to me compared to the massive logs of last year - but it's seriously easy to load (wife-friendly!) and does burn hot as hell. Yes, a load of it does burn down to just coals over the course of a 20-degree night. But is this smaller, easier-to-load and hot-burning wood a good fit to these shorter cycle burns, or am I better off going back to the heavier rounds? Whatever the case, the guy who brought my current load of comically small 18" split oak toothpicks is going to bring me 24" lengths with fewer splits (more halves, some smaller wholes and quartering only the largest pieces). I'm hoping this will be a nice compromise between burning time/efficiency and preventing my first back injury.
Thoughts?5) What IS the proper moisture level I should be looking for in the wood sizes I'm talking about? I have a moisture meter that shows me between 20% - 30% on randomly sampled pieces in this most recent delivery. Are moisture meter measurements pretty consistent and reliable across devices? The Heatmor manual cites precisely this range, but I want to know that my meter's reading is consistent with their means of measuring. Granted, the Heatmor manual has a tendency to piss me off with its ability to confuse, contradict itself and completely not address other questions I tend to have.
My moisture meter: http://www.amazon.com/General-Tools-MMD4E-Digital-Moisture/dp/B00275F5O2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323624785&sr=8-1.
I'm sorry for the length of this message, but I wanted to tell a full story. I have a lot more questions and any replies I get will likely spur more. I also realize that the reality of what is "right" in the details is what works best for the owner. Is my house warm? Yes. Am I comfortable with how often I load it and how much effort or cost I put into obtaining and loading the furnace? While everyone will find their own comfort level, I want to be sure I'm being at least being sensible on the bigger issues. Input from the experienced and helpful OWB owners on this forum has always been appreciated!
Thanks!
- Aaron
Sweet Briar, Va
8
Heatmor / Proper Heatmor 200CSS Chimney Extension
« on: February 20, 2011, 07:25:42 AM »Hello!
For this first season, I've been using some regular, cheap chimney extension pipe and have already had it start to disintegrate. I've been planning to put the proper, high quality pipe on it that twist-lock mates with the top of the furnace's existing stub of a chimney. The Heatmor documentation doesn't cite a product number, brand name, etc., and just leaves the topic as a vague "contact your dealer" issue. As far away as my dealer is located, I'd rather just determine the proper type and buy it from the lowest priced source I can find (online or off).
While the high prices here really took me by surprise, the DuraTech insulated extensions look to me like the right stuff. The twist-lock interconnects on it look exactly like what I see on our furnace. Does this look correct for a Heatmor 200CSS?
http://www.northlineexpress.com/multiple_items.asp?cc=8SPDuratech
Finally, does anyone have any opinions on the use of caps and spark arrestors? I've seen enough sparks come out of my chimney sometimes to worry me when it gets seriously dry and windy (like it has been off and on this past week... already brush fires all over our region).
The pricing on this stuff is kind of crazy, but if it's the right kind, performs well and is going to last me for ages... I'll bite the bullet. Just want to be sure it's the right stuff.
Oh, and they only sell shorter lengths in black. I'd like 48" or so, I think, and that's cheaper in the galvanized lengths. Can I spray it black with any kind of paint that will hold up to the heat and weather?
Thanks!
- Aaron
9
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Wow... just... wow.
« on: January 21, 2011, 07:43:07 AM »
I've been a fan of ThereIFixedIt.com for a while, but hadn't dug back into their archives much. My wife, however, happened upon this by accident today while doing some Google'ing.
Maybe this has shown up on the forums before... if so, apologies.
Wonder what the specs are on this thing.
Attached and embedded.
Enjoy!
- Aaron
[attachment deleted by admin for space issues]
Maybe this has shown up on the forums before... if so, apologies.
Wonder what the specs are on this thing.
Attached and embedded.
Enjoy!
- Aaron
[attachment deleted by admin for space issues]
10
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Unsplit Wood Lengths - Heatmor
« on: January 06, 2011, 03:43:08 PM »Yeah - I had a feeling some gaps would help. When I had five 24" logs in there in a tight stack, they burned... but there was far less flame and coals. Seemed to be a really concerted smolder that improved a lot as I pushed them around later in the burn (no shock there, of course). That leads me to wanting to use these much shorter lengths, but still unsplit to find a balance between handling and airflow. Just trying to find that sweet spot between burn times, heat and easier handling. Think I'm getting there.
And, yes, my 200CSS is designed to combust its own smoke in the upper part of the chamber. There's a "do not exceed" height marker inside the front door that indicates the proper max loading level. Apparently, loading above that primarily inhibits the ability to combust the smoke and you do get a smokier burn. I've witnessed precisely that effect by loading it much higher to the top of the box vs. staying below that marker. If it's loaded right and it's barreling along, you see virtually no smoke... just wavering heat from the stack like you see coming off pavement in August.
Lots of art and science to running an outdoor wood furnace. Have to say that, in a lot of ways, I'm really enjoying learning its personality and experimenting with all these different variables.
Whatever the case, I'm not spending an ungodly sum on propane this winter like the last 10 years! I won't even tell you the obscene expense and volume of propane we burned in past years (last year in particular). Now we just use it for out cooktop. Period.
- Aaron
11
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Have Real Numbers Now
« on: January 06, 2011, 11:05:12 AM »Ok, now I can continue the debate with some real figures. My General MMD4E Moisture Meter arrived from Amazon today. I tested a variety of woods I've been burning and have some numbers to work with.
The original, fireplace-sized highly seasoned oak pieces I have - which I use practically as kindling in my Heatmor now - measure anywhere from 5% - 9% moisture content. They are dry as a bone.
The large, split oak pieces I burned the last half of December are mostly gone - but the two pieces I still had around measure around 14%, I think. It burned quite well and relatively slowly due to sheer size - but it was mostly split wood and therefore had a lot of surface area.
The new load I got that I started this discussion about seems to be around 20% - 24% when I measure against the freshly cut end, nearest the center of randomly selected logs. Naturally, as I measure outward with the prongs toward the bark that drops down to about 9 - 10% on the fresh cut face. But one prong on the center and the other just off it peaks at the highest at around 24%.
My Heatmor 200CSS manual says 20 - 30% is ideal, and diameters of 6, 8 and (in some cases) 10" unsplit. Sounds like I might be right in the sweet spot.
Assuming I'm measuring right and this thing is at all accurate, would this still be considered "green" wood?
Thanks!
- Aaron
12
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Unsplit Wood Lengths - Heatmor
« on: January 04, 2011, 12:57:26 PM »Not going to swear it's a good one - but it was affordable and I ordered it from Amazon last night:
http://www.amazon.com/General-Tools-MMD4E-Digital-Moisture/dp/B00275F5O2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1294170698&sr=8-3
There are certainly more expensive models out. For my needs, if it's reasonably accurate, I'll be in good shape. Should arrive on Thursday (free two-day with Amazon Prime), so I'll let you know then.
I'll also know how green my "greenish" firewood delivery is by then. The Heatmor manual says anything up to 30% moisture content is pretty ideal. I've no idea if what I have is beyond that or not. Best I understand, these 15-16ft poles of mostly white oak I have were dropped in either late spring or early summer... so probably six - eight months old.
Four of them at 24" long pretty well fill my 200CSS to somewhat above the suggested load level. This morning was the first time I've loaded it exclusively with these new logs, so I'll see how the burn goes today. It's just now getting over 40 degrees today and will drop back into the 20's again tonight. And, yes, these 24" logs were heavy and unwieldy enough that there is no question I'm cutting them shorter going forward - even if that means more individual pieces making a full load of the furnace.
Keep ya posted!
- Aaron
13
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Unsplit Wood Lengths - Heatmor
« on: January 03, 2011, 07:07:53 PM »Definitely not keen on screwing up my back. It's not so heavy I can't lift it - definitely not... just not easy to load and therefore a greater change of hosing some back muscles.
I'm going to tinker with the sizes a bit to see what feels best. My main questions were about how densely to pack it - whether it ends up being lengthwise or crosswise, with few logs or with many. I was given the impression unsplit wood would yield a slower, better burn with fewer loadings. I realize greener wood causes the furnace to spend more of its time drying the wood out. In the balance, though, does this longer burn cycle pay off in any way? Aside from trying to just load it twice daily (smaller, split, very dry wood just burns up way too fast in our system)... does this type of wood load (unsplit and greener) fit well with heating a large, older home with cast iron radiators? We don't need instant heat so much as a real workhorse out there that doesn't burn out in a split second.
Thanks!
- Aaron
14
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Unsplit Wood Lengths - Heatmor
« on: January 03, 2011, 06:28:37 PM »I had thought about rolling them sideways, too. That's tempting. My fire door is 24" diagonal and the firebox a good bit wider, so that does present a little bit of a challenge for fitting the width decently vs. lengthwise, though. Hhhmm... must experiment.
I'm trying to mix the wood - greenish and more seasoned - in each load. Can you elaborate on the waste of BTUs? Like to better understand the dynamics. I have burned very seasoned wood in here and it burns up like paper... would go through it incredibly fast.
How do we all get on the same page regarding what is green, what is seasoned, etc? Is there a decent metric for having that conversation?
Thanks!
- Aaron
15
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Unsplit Wood Lengths - Heatmor
« on: January 03, 2011, 04:57:32 PM »
Hello!
Happy New Year to everyone.
Had my first load of unsplit "pole wood" (I think that's the term) delivered this past weekend (attaching a few pictures below). Mostly white oak, dropped around late spring and summer. I did this partly because it's more economical, and mostly because the majority of the advice I've received suggests that unsplit logs with a 6-8" diameter and a bit on the greener side will give me a good, long, hot burn per loading.
I'm getting a better handle on mixing the various woods I have - split and unsplit, seasoned and greener... oak, ash, and a little smattering of some pine... to get different burn cycles out of our Heatmor 200CSS. I load it with various mixtures depending on the weather, if I want it heating faster or burning slower with fewer loadings, etc. I'm new to it, but I'm beginning to see the art and science of it all.
So as I cut up these trees that were delivered, I have to decide on lengths. The first two trees I cut tonight I sawed at 24" and, being 8" or so in diameter, are pretty damn heavy (hey, I'm a network engineer, programmer and freelance photographer - not Mr. Brawny lumberjack guy). I can move them around, but they aren't the easiest thing to toss into the furnace and I don't need to be running a risk of pulling something or fouling up my back in some manner.
My question is whether more manageable 16" lengths might make more sense. I can toss a row into the back, then a row in front to match and stacking on top of those a layer or so. That would be almost like having a 32" log, only divided in the middle. How would that work in terms of burning efficiency, etc? Too tight (it's a 36" deep firebox)? Maybe just 18" logs stacked in the back and some other stuff in the front?
Does it make sense to load the furnace with a tight stack like this or is it best for things to be more random with appreciable gaps for airflow, etc?
Might be overthinking this, but I'd just like to hear what others do to get the most efficient performance without killing themselves.
The photos are of the wood delivery and a shot of my furnace loaded with the split oak I've been using prior to this new delivery.
Thanks!
- Aaron
http://halfpress.com/
http://photos.halfpress.com
Happy New Year to everyone.
Had my first load of unsplit "pole wood" (I think that's the term) delivered this past weekend (attaching a few pictures below). Mostly white oak, dropped around late spring and summer. I did this partly because it's more economical, and mostly because the majority of the advice I've received suggests that unsplit logs with a 6-8" diameter and a bit on the greener side will give me a good, long, hot burn per loading.
I'm getting a better handle on mixing the various woods I have - split and unsplit, seasoned and greener... oak, ash, and a little smattering of some pine... to get different burn cycles out of our Heatmor 200CSS. I load it with various mixtures depending on the weather, if I want it heating faster or burning slower with fewer loadings, etc. I'm new to it, but I'm beginning to see the art and science of it all.
So as I cut up these trees that were delivered, I have to decide on lengths. The first two trees I cut tonight I sawed at 24" and, being 8" or so in diameter, are pretty damn heavy (hey, I'm a network engineer, programmer and freelance photographer - not Mr. Brawny lumberjack guy).
I can move them around, but they aren't the easiest thing to toss into the furnace and I don't need to be running a risk of pulling something or fouling up my back in some manner. My question is whether more manageable 16" lengths might make more sense. I can toss a row into the back, then a row in front to match and stacking on top of those a layer or so. That would be almost like having a 32" log, only divided in the middle. How would that work in terms of burning efficiency, etc? Too tight (it's a 36" deep firebox)? Maybe just 18" logs stacked in the back and some other stuff in the front?
Does it make sense to load the furnace with a tight stack like this or is it best for things to be more random with appreciable gaps for airflow, etc?
Might be overthinking this, but I'd just like to hear what others do to get the most efficient performance without killing themselves.
The photos are of the wood delivery and a shot of my furnace loaded with the split oak I've been using prior to this new delivery.
Thanks!
- Aaron
http://halfpress.com/
http://photos.halfpress.com
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