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Author Topic: Insulation  (Read 17022 times)

gandgracing

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #30 on: November 15, 2008, 06:42:40 PM »

My fan door is open around 1/3 also,  maybe little less than half.   Opening it all the way will make the fire bigger,  but when the fan shuts off it will still draw alot more air with it all the way open and continue to use up all the wood.  I have also looked up the specs on the fan compared to others and ours has around 50 cfm at a high rpm verses like 150 cfm at a lower rpm.  It seemed to me that with the high rpm's that it was sending at lot of heat out the chimney.  If you look at Hardy's fan set-up they have a fan like ours that lays sideways and has a selenoid that opens and shuts a door on the fan that I think would work on a Shaver.  I was going to go with this but my stove right now is working very good.  Another thing I have done different from last year is that I dont tighten the ash pan door that tight.  I leave it so I can slide the handle back and forth maybe an 1/8 of an inch.  I had read that in the owners manual.  Hope this helps you out some.
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fletcher0780

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #31 on: November 19, 2008, 07:50:40 PM »

gandgracing, Awesome idea on the insulation. Where did you get it, and how did you spray it on? Do you have any issues steaming out the vent pipe? How often does your fan come on compared to before you insulated it? My blower seems to run constantly when it's cold out.
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gandgracing

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #32 on: November 20, 2008, 09:56:42 PM »

Seems like I keep making this thing better.  I have also found that trying to burn large pieces isn't as good as smaller ones.  I bought the foam insulation on Ebay.  Stripped all the metal off of it ( front, sides and inside on back).  Removed the insulation and saved it.  After that I started spraying.  I even filled the void so that air couldn't get under the stove.  After all the spaying was done I had to shave down some spots and then I put the insulation back on.The best choice I have made.  The fan hardly runs at all.  Last night I filled the stove at around 3:30.  It got to down to around 29 degrees with a wind and when I went to fill it the next morning at 6:30 after work the water was 160 with a setpoint of 140 and still some chunks of wood left.  I had a steaming problem until I made the pump run all the time.  One other thing I have discovered is when you go to fill it up with wood and its up to temp is to close the fan door for a while since the fire takes off so go with the door open.  It will stop the fire since its not needed for the time being.  And yes thats another trip to the stove,  but if its going to last for over 12 hrs I'm going to do it so I dont have to listen to the wife as she used to go and fill it before she went to bed.  If your stove is up to temp and the house calls for heat and shortly after that (5-15 minutes) the fan kicks on the cold water inlets to the stove might not be right as mine were not.
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fletcher0780

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #33 on: November 21, 2008, 03:09:54 AM »

I've modified my spare blower to work like the hardy one with a solenoid, going to install it this week and see what happens. How do I know if my cold return is in the wrong spot? I've got to remove the coil cover and reseal it, can I tell by looking in there? How difficult was it to remove the siding? I was thinking about pulling it off and cutting rigid pieces of 1-2" foam siding to fit between the framing. My blower runs constantly right now 30* during the day, 15* at night and my water temp won't get up past 160-170, I have it set for 180* on a real thermostat, not the shaver one. I have the Shaver 290* and use to heat my house/garage with a 100K BTU oil boiler with no problems, so I should have enough heat. I ordered my boiler in April and they built it in May (they were still pretty dead then). I'm starting to get tired of modifying this thing. Do you have more pics of yours disassembled?
« Last Edit: November 21, 2008, 03:14:28 AM by fletcher0780 »
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gandgracing

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #34 on: November 21, 2008, 06:17:12 PM »

Talking with the guy from Shaver last year he only sets his around 130*-140*. Mine is set at 140* and sometimes I see it overshoot to around 160*.  I have a temp gauge inside the house in the supply line. I knew something was wrong with mine when every time the house blower turned on,  the fan for the stove would also come on about 5 minutes later.  There is a 6 in chamber at the back of the tank that lets water come over the top to get to the pumps.  Well my cold water returns were dumping into that same chamber.  I dicovered this by draining the tank and spraying the garden hose into the return water ports. So I was only using about 20 of the 170 gallons of water.  Since then I did away with the copper tubing and ran my returns through the holes in the top plate with some steel piping all the way to the front and bottom of the tank. It has to get heated before it get back to the pumps. The rigid insulation will probably work and you could put whats already there over the top of it.  Also remember that the bottom has no insulation at all.  Let us no if the fan deal works out for you so I can do it myself.  I just hope it doesn't let the fire go out.  But I think it will work.  As for the temp I dont think I could keep enough wood in it to have the temperature at 180*.  Even though me neighbor does with his $10,000 Central boiler with 385 gal capacity,  but his will go out from time to time when mine has never went out.
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fletcher0780

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #35 on: November 21, 2008, 08:22:26 PM »

I've got to reseal my cover before I put my updated blower on, but I'll post a link. What type of heat do you have in your house? I have mostly radiant floor, but 1 zone of baseboard too. I'll try 150* once I get everything set. I really like my Ranco digital thermostat. How much insulation did you use? what model Shaver do you have?  Really no insulation on the bottom?
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gandgracing

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #36 on: November 21, 2008, 09:56:51 PM »

Its the 165 ( 170 gal) , 2000sf house and we keep it at 73* with a 22x22 heat exchanger on my furnace in Attica, Indiana.  205 bf of the spray insulation (kit on ebay) and I was able to still use all my existing insulation it came with.  Really no insulation on bottom.  Last year I could feel the bottom and it would be cold to the touch.  I was going to tilt the stove over a bit with a backhoe so I could spray the bottom,  but I decided to just fill in the void around the bottom with foam so cold air coudn't get underneath it.  The back door doesn't have any insulation either so I filled it with batting.  That made such a difference that you cant hear the fan running unless you open the door.  Also last year at this time I was filling it 4 times a day and still not keeping up.  This year 2 times a day and it doesn't loose temp.  One other thing about the spray insulation is that the tanks you spray from need to be warm and stay warm while spraying.  I would warm mine with an electric heater,  spray for a little bit and then have to warm them again.  Took me about 45 min all together.
« Last Edit: November 21, 2008, 10:01:27 PM by gandgracing »
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gandgracing

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #37 on: December 03, 2008, 10:12:14 PM »

Heres a picture of my set-up.  Notice how my cold water return is.
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fletcher0780

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Re: Insulation
« Reply #38 on: December 10, 2008, 11:50:25 AM »

very nice. I got my cover resealed and my modified blower installed. So far so good and not water loss after 1 month.





« Last Edit: December 10, 2008, 11:52:34 AM by fletcher0780 »
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