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16

HeatMaster / Re: Yup, I had a long conversation with Jake today

« on: May 05, 2017, 10:42:56 AM »

Sorry to hear it. I don't know anything about the situation but I would assume it to be another causality of the combination of a softening owb market due to the over priced new models forced into market by the epa, and the fact fossil fuel prices have come down in recent times. I think slim has helped a lot of people over the years regardless of brand and I hope things work out for everyone involved.

17

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: School me on assessing efficiency.

« on: March 08, 2017, 07:42:39 PM »

Hey guys,
Have had a Woodmaster 4400 for 9 years now...
It is used to heat a 3000 square foot house - old farmhouse, newly (But traditionally) insulated (meaning no blown-in etc..).  Furnace is 75' from basement.  So, 150' loop. 
I burn 15+ Cord of hardwood (of varying degrees of seasoning) in the Oct-May heating season.  Upstate NY but not way upstate - Albany area.  There is a fair amount of wind, also heats domestic hot water.

In reading here, I feel as though I am using too much wood.  We do keep the house fairly warm all winter long. 

So, how do I assess my system -
Woodmaster 4400, pumped by Taco 011 to plate exchanger, circulated to furnace and distribution manifold by an 007 or 005 pump (furnace is oil furnace, sits unplugged), circulated through the house by taco 007's.

I have an infrared gun style thermometer.

What is the best way to get temp readings on PEX? 

What is an ideal drop in temp from leaving OWD to entering OWB when calling for heat?  When not?

How much temp should I expect to lose before it gets to exchanger? 

How much should I lose in exchanger?

Is there a way to turn up or turn down the 011 pump?

What about stack temp?  How do I measure that?  What is ideal?

I know there are a lot of questions that are answered on the site...but sometimes I feel like I am not quite understanding stuff..

I got same stove, heating 1/2 of what u are.
I have a shorter run, but not much.
I use 1/2 the wood u do. [6 bush cords]
Most of the heat from these stoves goes up the chimney.[as Martin says]
In my opinion your not doing too bad on the wood consumption for 8 months use.
If I did not have free wood, I would not bother with the whole exercise.

I agree with this statement. I've been doing this for 10 seasons now. I'm heating over 3000 sq ft and dhw. As much as I love my boiler there is no way to make it effecient. I've tried everything, more air/less air, large diff/small diff. heat reclaimer in the chimney, rounds/splits.  I checked it once at a cold start by weighing a small amount of well seasoned wood and seeing how much the temp of the water rose with no zones calling for heat. It was low 30% tops. That was burning full out with no idling. If you figure idling losses during a normal day it would put it somewhere in the mid to upper twenties(ouch). Don't get me wrong, I love the simplicity, and safety of the boiler but I use a lot of wood, at least 12-15 cord. I watch most of the heat going out the stack. There is no smoke if there was only a way to transfer the heat better. Oh well, it paid for itself 7 years ago and I have a lot of wood.

18

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Online auction for furnace parts

« on: February 21, 2017, 06:36:59 AM »

Does anybody know if the hawken gassers were/are any good? Anybody here own one? They look very similar to empyre style and I guess those had issues?

19

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Wife insisted on going somewhere warm for a week. Now have a frozen line

« on: December 20, 2016, 10:13:20 AM »

Is there a spot somewhere the water just sits behind a zone valve? I cant believe you could freeze a line in that short of time with the water moving.

20

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Where to buy Certified labs water treatment

« on: December 06, 2016, 05:31:06 AM »

As the title reads, where can I buy a gallon of certified labs water treatment?

21

Advanced Plumbing / Re: Vocabulary lesson

« on: November 28, 2016, 02:20:32 PM »

Yes, with today's circs and included check valves, zone controlling is made very easy!

Actually Slim has a point, small circulators can usually be had for less than the cost of a zone valve and the actuator.

Instead of zoning module use one of these instead: http://www.supplyhouse.com/Taco-SR506-EXP-4-6-Zone-Switching-Relay-w-Priority

If you don’t need six zones they can be ordered with less, if you need more they can be piggy backed, order one with a hookup or two more than you need incase you want to add something in the future.

OK thanks, but this is what my problem is. I don't know what a switching relay does and what a priority is and if I need it. In my simple mind you would just tie the thermostat from each zone to its own pump, or zone valve with a seperate relay between them.

22

Advanced Plumbing / Re: Vocabulary lesson

« on: November 28, 2016, 10:36:52 AM »

Stay away from zone valves as they tend to be problematic and severely reduce flow.

Interesting. So what are you recommending? Zoning with separate circulators?
 

23

Advanced Plumbing / Vocabulary lesson

« on: November 28, 2016, 06:22:35 AM »

Well the time has come for me to correctly re plumb the indoor side of my heat system. Back in 07 when I had no idea what I was doing and how complex my house would become, I simply ran my plate exchanger first in series with my forced air hx. Simple, 1 pump on back of the boiler and 2 hx's. Now I am up to 4 hx with the future plans of one more. You can imagine what the head loss is and what my return temps are. Believe it or not it still actually works quite well since there are rarely more than 2 hx's calling for heat at one time. Still, I am currently up to 4 now with the plans for 1 more for sure, and who knows where I go from there. Back in 07 if you would have told me how much I like all this stuff and how it has almost become a hobby I would have laughed.

I've got a pretty good idea how I want to do it, I just need to know all the correct names of the components. I plan on converting to a primary secondary loop. On the secondary loop each hx will be a separate zone, with each zone controlled with a zone valve. A single pump will take care of the secondary. That is where I get a little lost. What exactly do I need at each hx to tell its zone valve to open and how does that zone valve tell the secondary loop pump to turn on or off. I know there are relays and pump controls but I need to know what they are called and how they work and are wired.

24

Hawken Energy, support only / Re: Aternative to Liquid Armour Water Treatment

« on: March 06, 2016, 04:24:25 PM »

80 bucks a gallon isn’t that fan out of line.


http://www.woodboilersolutions.com/store.cfm

I agree. They were using certified water treatment when i bought mine 9 years ago. I think it was around $65 or $70 a gallon. I used a gallon on the initial fill, bought a second for maintenance, and still have half gallon left.   I send in a annual sample and it s always within spec.

25

Taylor / Re: Heard they aren't gonna pull through

« on: February 25, 2016, 10:47:57 AM »

Hummmm, I though WE were in charge....

LOL!!!!!! What country do you live in? Ever here of the IRS where you are assumed guilty until proven otherwise. How about eminent domain? How about property tax on property I already paid for and "own" Now I get to pay rent for it every year. How about the EPA who takes away tools I use to make a living all the while letting imports come from countries that can use what I can't! I could go on but I am starting to get up set, and I am just preaching to the choir. Folks on this forum are not the problem in society.

And the thing that really burns me about property taxes are they are not based at all on the ability to pay.

If you have a bad year not only will your federal and state taxes go down, you may even get a hefty chunk back, not so with property taxes, it’s the same regardless if you can actually pay them or not.

2012 was the last drought year, we got lucky and got just enough rain every time things started to look critical, had record yields here that I sold at $8 for corn and sold a lot of $15 plus beans, paid all my loans off and went into 2013 debt free. Last year I had roughly half the yield as normal from flooding then to add insult to injury prices were in the toilet. Just barely broke even, but I bet those bastards in the county seat will actually try to raise my property taxes again.

Not sure how it works in your state but here in Michigan they love to tell us how our value is "capped". The thing they don't tell you is that the capped value aka taxable value will continue to increases until it hits the assessed value which is determined by the sale price of other properties. Back in 09 there were all kinds of repo homes in the area, I argued our assessed value should also go down but the township told me they can't use "distressed" properties in their equation for value. Seems kinda one sided to me.

26

Taylor / Re: Heard they aren't gonna pull through

« on: February 25, 2016, 06:40:21 AM »

Hummmm, I though WE were in charge....

LOL!!!!!! What country do you live in? Ever here of the IRS where you are assumed guilty until proven otherwise. How about eminent domain? How about property tax on property I already paid for and "own" Now I get to pay rent for it every year. How about the EPA who takes away tools I use to make a living all the while letting imports come from countries that can use what I can't! I could go on but I am starting to get up set, and I am just preaching to the choir. Folks on this forum are not the problem in society.

27

Central Boiler / Re: Eclassic 1450 questions

« on: February 17, 2016, 10:46:44 AM »

The type of wood used makes a huge difference in the amount of ash/ coals. I've been burning mostly apple this winter and it makes 3 to 4 times the amount that beech/cherry makes.

28

Hawken Energy, support only / Re: HE-1100 OWNERS..

« on: February 14, 2016, 09:34:05 AM »

Make sure the fan air restricter slide is open.

29

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: WTH

« on: January 27, 2016, 07:34:20 AM »

Having wood that is too dry is like having too much money, it is not possible. The overall burn time may be decreased but the amount of net btu's is greater since there is less moisture that must be evaporated. It is simply a matter of heat transfer or lack there of and idle times.

30

Hawken Energy, support only / Re: Setting Differential HE1100/2100

« on: January 15, 2016, 05:28:55 AM »

Ya just take the cover off the aqua stat. There is a dial on the side just turn it to the number you want the diff at. 10-30 or anything between.