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16

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Door gasket material

« on: September 30, 2017, 03:01:15 PM »

I always liked to close it with a release agent (grease, wax paper) just to get an impression. If you use too much silicone you might not get the door closed once it hardens.

17

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Door gasket material

« on: September 29, 2017, 04:35:18 PM »

What about coating one surface with good quality grease then giving the other surface a heavy coat of high temp silicone? If there is any hinge adjustment, back it off before closing the door for a day....
Did this on an airtite woodstove once and it worked ....

18

General Discussion / Manure

« on: June 19, 2017, 05:25:47 PM »

I had a tenant who dumped a load of mixed pig/cattle manure behind the garage. Tenant is now history and I have got rid of most of the manure. What I couldn't scrape out with the fel I covered with sand/dirt, but the stench remains especially when wet.
Anyone have a suggestion of something that I could work into the sand to kill the smell for my new tenant.

19

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Heaters

« on: June 04, 2017, 04:21:15 PM »

I would expect that a heater could be designed using 170 degree boiler water. 
 Just the pipes in my basement which feed the heat exchange for the water heater plus 60' of uninsulated pex  makes a big difference in my basement. If I ran 3/4" copper and a reflector I bet I could eliminate the little rad down there....

20

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Wireless thermometers

« on: May 21, 2017, 03:41:19 PM »

Our tenant quit feeding the boiler about the first of April so I valved off his house and gave him a cord of dry split hardwood for his airtight. Meanwhile I fed the boiler as needed and even let it go out at times. (relit today in fact)
It takes about six hours to bring it up to 170 from a cold start (dry wood) and if I add wood a bit at a time the water stays 150-170. When the tenant was running things the water would drop to 110 then take six hours to come back to temp.
Tenant promises to be gone May 31.....

21

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Three common things.

« on: May 21, 2017, 03:25:15 PM »

Looked at the forecast today then went out after lunch and started a fire in the boiler. Fire has been out for the past two weeks. We have been adding a bit of heat to the house with the airtight fireplace in the living room on cold days but the basement has been cooling off and we don't wanna use the geothermal just to heat the cellar.....
Took three hours with a small hardwood fire to bring the boiler water temp from 55 up to 125. I expect it will be 170 by bedtime.
A sunny 20C yesterday, 10C today with rain. 

22

Plumbing / Re: furnace then water heater or water heater then furnace?

« on: April 17, 2017, 02:55:17 PM »

We have two houses fed off the same P&M boiler. In both cases I used a three way valve to split the flow between house heat and domestic hot water. As long as the boiler was above 150F, it didn't much matter but this spring the temp started dropping to 120 for most of the day (wet wood) and we had to watch water usage. The boiler would get up to 170 towards the end of the burn (5am and 4pm) and the water tanks would get hot but when they refilled the boiler with wet wood and the boiler temp dropped to 110-120 we were not producing hot water so what was in the 40 gallon tanks was all we had for that cycle.

23

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Winter

« on: April 02, 2017, 03:41:40 PM »

In the past week we have lost so much snow that I can pretty well fight my way thru anyplace I want to take the tractor. Granted it is 4 wd with chains and I use the FEL to pull myself thru many spots

24

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Wireless thermometers

« on: April 02, 2017, 03:34:33 PM »

Well, the wireless has been installed about a week and I have found that with the wood we are burning (fresh cut maple and beech) it takes about SIX hours for the water to return to the set point. If the boiler temp has dropped to 110-120 when they add wood, it will stay at that temperature until the firewood dries, then will climb from 120 to 170 in an hour or so.  That is with an outdoor temp of around zero C...
It will hold at 170 until the wood burns out.
The two houses are warm enough, but we have started to run out of hot water on laundry  days.

25

Electronics / Second zone

« on: March 26, 2017, 03:43:32 PM »

So everything is working the way we hoped except that the basement is a little cold. Decided to install another heat exchanger (read truck radiator) down there with a fan on it. After 24 hours the upstairs was 80 degrees, basement even hotter, floors all toasty etc. Realized that I gotta control that fan so I ran a pair of 110volt wires up to the kitchen and bought a Honeywell digital line voltage t'stat. As luck would have it, the kid gave me one for baseboard heaters, the one with the triac that cycles the fan every 10-20 seconds when the temp is close to the set point.
Currently I have an old dial type baseboard t'sat in place but we would like one with a little more precision and a readable dial. Don't need multi stage or programable.
Any suggestions of a model number for a line voltage, digital stat? That new truck radiator will then be the main heat source for the main floor as the heat distribution is better than the rad in the furnace duct....

26

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Wireless thermometers

« on: March 26, 2017, 02:42:21 PM »

Wandered thru the seasonal BBQ section of Canadian tire yesterday and found that they had a "no name" wireless thermostat at $27. grabbed the only one on the shelf and taped it to my water line in the basement next to my thermometer.
Initially it was reading about 30 degrees cooler than the water but with better location I have it within 10-15 degrees. Going to add some reflective foil tomorrow. If that doesn't bring it within 5 degrees  I have some heat conductive silicone from a past life (30 years ago I used to service electric boilers).
My piping is right under the kitchen but sweet wife does't want instruments permanently on her newish countertop.

27

Pools & Hot Tubs / Re: heating pool

« on: March 22, 2017, 08:56:29 AM »

Make sure that you insulate the pool walls as well, above or below ground, doesn't matter, still makes a huge difference. Use 1-2" styrofoam, not bubble wrap

28

Fire Wood / Re: First of the year

« on: March 22, 2017, 08:50:25 AM »

Well she use to, until she overheated it because she forgot to shut the ash drawer and had a disaster going on.  Had to get it settled down get a fitting fixed in the basement hat came apart and filled with water and back running all while I was gone and she has limited knowledge about this, which I can understand being overwhelming for a woman. She was so worried she ruined my stove and she also knows how much I spent on it. She no longer wants any part in it while I'm gone.  She will fill it if I'm home or can be home.

I just let mine do the grunt work ,,,[no thinking involved]

That must be a McKellar girl you have there. Growing up on highway 124 the girl next door at our cottage used to split (by hand) all the wood for her family during her summer holidays. I was in pretty good shape back then but she kept me in line....





Don't get me started with the satelite tv......................or the blu ray player

29

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Wireless thermometers

« on: March 22, 2017, 08:11:25 AM »

Seems to be the Canadian way with many items. I could buy a hardwired model locally for a lot less with no shipping, less tax. If we want something special we must pay, just don't know where the money goes, except for the taxes.

30

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Wireless thermometers

« on: March 18, 2017, 10:28:34 AM »

Just found the Maverick....$22 American, $83 plus tax, plus shipping Canadian, but exactly what I need.