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3091
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Anyone Heard of Timberwolf or Lil' Powerhouse Boilers?
« on: February 16, 2011, 09:12:33 PM »
I wouldn't rule them out completely, just look very close at them especially stuff that is done different that the more common brands.
How big is the house you want to heat? I would look for boilers with smaller water capacity if you need to use antifreeze so that less is needed. If you could get by with something as small as a Nature's Comfort NCB-120, they are running a sale right now for $500 off them. The $500 would about pay for enough antifreeze for it.
How big is the house you want to heat? I would look for boilers with smaller water capacity if you need to use antifreeze so that less is needed. If you could get by with something as small as a Nature's Comfort NCB-120, they are running a sale right now for $500 off them. The $500 would about pay for enough antifreeze for it.
3092
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Anyone Heard of Timberwolf or Lil' Powerhouse Boilers?
« on: February 16, 2011, 03:44:07 PM »
The point I was trying to make is that the water capacity of the stove has nothing to do with the BTU output. All more water does is allow longer burn cycles. I wonder how they would explain a gas boiler with less than 100 gallon capacity and half million btu output. 
If it takes there stoves exactly one hour to to take the water temp from 55 to 180 degrees is the only possibly use that whole thing would make any sense but they don't mention anything like that and I doubt it would do it in that exact time.
You can not heat a house with 55 degree water so it isn't even the storage capacity of the stove.
In other words they don't know what they are talking about.
If it takes there stoves exactly one hour to to take the water temp from 55 to 180 degrees is the only possibly use that whole thing would make any sense but they don't mention anything like that and I doubt it would do it in that exact time.
You can not heat a house with 55 degree water so it isn't even the storage capacity of the stove.
In other words they don't know what they are talking about.
3093
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: New to the board, thinking about purchasing an OWB. Questions to ask.
« on: February 16, 2011, 10:50:19 AM »
One set of lines from boiler to house then split off.
You will want to leave the gas furnace alone, just add a second thermostat. That way the backup heat is automatic.(just set it low enough that it won't turn on unless needed) If you have manual fan switch on your thermostat then you just disconnect it and connect it to the new thermostat. Or you can move the the wire for the gas furnace to the new thermostat and have the original thermostat control the OWB heat.
You will want to leave the gas furnace alone, just add a second thermostat. That way the backup heat is automatic.(just set it low enough that it won't turn on unless needed) If you have manual fan switch on your thermostat then you just disconnect it and connect it to the new thermostat. Or you can move the the wire for the gas furnace to the new thermostat and have the original thermostat control the OWB heat.
3094
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: using water
« on: February 16, 2011, 10:31:52 AM »
You have a hatch big enough for you to get into the water jacket? 
Do you have a picture of your boiler posted here somewhere?
Do you have a picture of your boiler posted here somewhere?
3095
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: New to the board, thinking about purchasing an OWB. Questions to ask.
« on: February 16, 2011, 10:26:41 AM »
It would be very easy to use both baseboard heaters and forced air. Baseboard heaters are around $10 per foot + fittings needed to connect them and put out 590 BTU/ft/hr @ 4gpm. A 1500 watt electric heater will put out around 5000 btu/hr. A water to air heat exchanger would probably be $150 - $250 depending on the size needed.
3096
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Anyone Heard of Timberwolf or Lil' Powerhouse Boilers?
« on: February 16, 2011, 10:03:33 AM »
I have never seen an Acme in person either so it is hard to say. I personally would avoid them if it came down to having to make a choice between that and something similar just because of this statement on their website:
With any off brand boiler I would look very close at the welds. Larger companies use very experienced welders if done by hand or robot welders that can make perfect welds. If they are sloppy lumpy welds I would look at other options.
Quote
Acme Furnaces have a 235 gallon capacity giving you more BTUs for your money.Seeing something like that makes me think they are clueless about designing a boiler too.
A BTU is the amount of heat it takes to raise the temperature of a pound of water by one degree.
If you start with 55 degree water and you raise it to 180 degrees this is a 125 degree change.
Water weight 8 lbs. per gallon.
235 gal. x 8 lbs. = 1880 lbs.
1880 lbs. x 125 degrees = 235,000 BTUs
Don't be fooled, this is a proven fact you would have to heat 100 gallons of water to 435 degrees to extract 300,000 BTUs. That's not possible or even smart to try!
With any off brand boiler I would look very close at the welds. Larger companies use very experienced welders if done by hand or robot welders that can make perfect welds. If they are sloppy lumpy welds I would look at other options.
3097
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: New to the board, thinking about purchasing an OWB. Questions to ask.
« on: February 15, 2011, 11:25:09 PM »
Baseboard heater would work fine but will cost a lot more than a heat exchanger for the forced air.
Putting radiant on the slab under the house would probably use twice as much or more wood. (assuming it is what I am picturing it looks like)
Post a picture of the gas furnace. It shouldn't be that hard finding a place to mount a heat exchanger. I have heard that putting a heat exchanger in the return can damage plastic parts on newer furnaces. I don't know if it is true though.
Putting radiant on the slab under the house would probably use twice as much or more wood. (assuming it is what I am picturing it looks like)
Post a picture of the gas furnace. It shouldn't be that hard finding a place to mount a heat exchanger. I have heard that putting a heat exchanger in the return can damage plastic parts on newer furnaces. I don't know if it is true though.
3098
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Anyone Heard of Timberwolf or Lil' Powerhouse Boilers?
« on: February 15, 2011, 11:13:25 PM »
The picture page on the timberwolf website looks like they are built pretty crude but for those prices that would be expected.
http://timberwolfstoves.com/timberwolfsept_008.htm
Pic 2 self explanatory pic 3 the shutoff plate was obviously torched off at the edges. Makes it look like some guy is making them one at a time in his garage. It looks like the solenoid pulls straight up with the chain going at an angle. I would think that would wear the solenoid out pretty fast. Door looks thin and might warp easily. The latch looks questionable from the pic. The last pic looks like the return is less than half way up and not that far from the supply. Could have poor circulation.
I wouldn't buy one without looking at it first. I would look at what is the thickness of the steel in the firebox and water jacket is, What is the secondary burn chamber like, Does it even have one? I don't like that it doesn't appear to have an ash pan and the blower is on the door. Oh, just looked again and it looks like there is no blower, I guess it is natural draft.
There are no pictures that show the inside the firebox. I wonder if there is a reason they don't show it.
It looks like they have spray foam insulation. If they are designed poorly and leak on the outside the water jacket (crack) it will be expensive to fix the insulation.
If you look at one, if you can, take some pics of the inside and post here.
The second one I would pass on just because the way the ebay ad is with all the different colored large text. I try to avoid any company that advertises that way.
I was half sleeping when I wrote this so I probably said some stuff I shouldn't have. lol
I was just trying to point out some stuff you want to look close at.
http://timberwolfstoves.com/timberwolfsept_008.htm
Pic 2 self explanatory
pic 3 the shutoff plate was obviously torched off at the edges. Makes it look like some guy is making them one at a time in his garage. It looks like the solenoid pulls straight up with the chain going at an angle. I would think that would wear the solenoid out pretty fast. Door looks thin and might warp easily. The latch looks questionable from the pic. The last pic looks like the return is less than half way up and not that far from the supply. Could have poor circulation. I wouldn't buy one without looking at it first. I would look at what is the thickness of the steel in the firebox and water jacket is, What is the secondary burn chamber like, Does it even have one? I don't like that it doesn't appear to have an ash pan and the blower is on the door. Oh, just looked again and it looks like there is no blower, I guess it is natural draft.
There are no pictures that show the inside the firebox. I wonder if there is a reason they don't show it.
It looks like they have spray foam insulation. If they are designed poorly and leak on the outside the water jacket (crack) it will be expensive to fix the insulation.
If you look at one, if you can, take some pics of the inside and post here.
The second one I would pass on just because the way the ebay ad is with all the different colored large text. I try to avoid any company that advertises that way.
I was half sleeping when I wrote this so I probably said some stuff I shouldn't have. lol
I was just trying to point out some stuff you want to look close at.
3099
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Anybody burning both? (The current experiment )
« on: February 11, 2011, 10:09:55 PM »I have burned my wood stove a few times that is located in basement. It does cut down on wood consumption in OWB. Before buying OWB heated my house with it using a sheetmetal hood over wood stove ducted into supply air duct, with small fan to circulate air. Wood stove would not hold enough wood to keep fire all night so I had to get up at around 3am to add wood. Plus you had to deal with all the mess of wood chips and ash dust in basement all the time.Do you know if you pull that stove out of your house it will lower you insurance? Unless they don't know it is there. If they don't know it is there and the house burns down they can deny the insurance claim. Even if the fire had nothing to do with the wood burner.
One reason I invested in OWB was to eliminate all the mess associated with burning wood inside house. Plus all the other advantages of having OWB.
I currently heat my house and basement with wood boiler plus the advantage of heating DHW. So for me I may use the old wood stove on ocassion but not on a regular basis.
3100
Electronics / Re: CB Solenoid failure
« on: February 09, 2011, 10:40:42 PM »Thanks I knew I wasn't the only one having these issues.I would assume a downdraft boiler should work well with it. I haven't tried it yet but am planning on testing pallet wood in my Nature's Comfort GT220 this spring.
Does anyone know if there is another boiler out there that can deal with the extra gasses of scrap wood better than CB?
3101
Plumbing / Re: Heating my domestic water
« on: February 09, 2011, 10:36:05 PM »
Back to the original posting, is the sidearm one that just has a single 3/4" pipe through a larger pipe? If so you probably just get plenty of hot water by just putting a decent sidearm on. If that doesn't do it adding a recirc pump will.
3102
Plumbing / Re: Heating my domestic water
« on: February 09, 2011, 10:32:57 PM »I install a 20 plate exchanger with 1" ports. Never heard of anyone say the water wasn't hot enough or that they ran out of hot water either. It's very consistant and it makes for a easier install with no mixing valve and the other garb. My OWB is currently set on 158 degrees and my DHW is HOTT . You have to turn the cold over half way to take a shower.I sure hope you don't install them like that for other people. If you do you are crazy. You could get sued real good when someone's kid get's scalded. All it would take would be to leave a faucet trickling overnight and the water would come out of the faucet at the boiler's temp.
Now if it is your own and you know what to expect, that is fine. I have the same setup on mine but with a 10 plate and it works real well.
3103
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Anybody burning both? (The current experiment )
« on: February 09, 2011, 10:20:19 PM »
Well if you like the indoor wood burner then keep using it, I was just saying you can probably do the same thing with the outdoor boiler.
3104
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: using water
« on: February 09, 2011, 10:17:07 PM »
What brand stove do you have? It can leak inside and the fire boils away the water as it comes out so you don't see it.
3105
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Anybody burning both? (The current experiment )
« on: February 08, 2011, 05:02:19 PM »
If the savings in wood is just from not heating the rest of the house as hot then why not add a radiator, baseboard heaters, airhandler, etc to heat the part where you want it warmer?