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1

Portage & Main / Second guessing myself after the install

« on: February 16, 2015, 04:26:08 PM »

Well, as luck would have it...I am second guessing myself on the size of the P&M I went for.  I have the 28-44 and I work this boiler to death...it burns hot constantly when the temps get below 20 degrees.  I can get a good 8-10 hour burn if the temps are 20 degrees or so if I pack it completely full.  Now, that the temp here in NC is below 10, I am lucky to get 6 hours...which means filling the heater in the night which sucks with a capital S.  Now I admit, we probably only have 4 or 5 nights a year that it gets that low so I can't complain but I am kicking myself for not buying the 3444  as the price difference is not what steered me away from it.  I was just not wanting to have a fire that smoldered most of the time, but of course now that I think about I could have controlled that by how much wood and the size of the fires I build.  Oh well...it is what it is.  You can see in my earlier post where I was waffling between units and like gambling I chose wrong which I why I don't gamble.  Outside of the shorter burn times and working the unit hard... is there any other downsides to having a slightly undersized boiler? 

2

Portage & Main / Accurate measure of temp drop

« on: February 16, 2015, 04:19:13 PM »

How do you guys measure the temp drop from the boiler to the home plumbing accurately?  I have a 150' of logstor pipe and the aquastat says 190 on the boiler but my watts dial at entry to the home is saying 180.  I know that its would be impossible to loose this kind of heat through the logstor pipe but it does have me wondering? 

3

Portage & Main / DHW Temperature Variation

« on: December 18, 2014, 08:10:53 PM »

I have my DHW plumbed with a flat plate exchanger, with a bronze pump on the bottom that circulates the water via an aquatstat when the hot water in the tank drops below 120 degrees.  When taking a shower after 5 min or so the water turns extremely hot requiring you to turn the shower down then it turns cooler and you have to turn it back up.  I have a Honeywell mixing valve after the exchanger before going to the house fixtures for safety.  I thought maybe it was due to the pump kicking on and off but wasn't for sure.  Any ideas on the cause and how to address the issue? 

Thanks,

4

Portage & Main / Found another use for my P&M Boiler

« on: December 03, 2014, 08:23:48 PM »

Well, not only does my boiler do a great job heating the house, it came in handy the other day.  On my set of pallet forks I use on the tractor, one of the forks has been bent for a while from trying to dig up a fence post.  Something I should have never done, but I was to lazy to switch implements.  I had a bed of hot coals the other day that were glowing red with the fan going and it was warm outside so I had a thought.  I opened the door, took the fork off and laid the tip of fork in the bed of coals for a few minutes..... I thought, heck it is like a forge lets see what happens.  Pulled the pallet fork out while it was glowing red, put it on a 2x4 and with a quick few hits of the sledge hammer it fixed it good as new.  And just the other day I was talking about having to buy a new set of pallet forks, not now.   The P&M may have more uses than just heating your home on those warm days where the BTU's are not needed

5

Portage & Main / P&M Chimney Brand

« on: December 01, 2014, 06:30:37 PM »

I am wanting to add another section of Chimney to our boiler, are all of these insulated Chimney's interchangeable?  I am not sure what Brand the P&M uses but the local Lowes Home improvement carry's a 6" superflow insulated chimney?  I don't know if all of these will fit as they all look like they have a common twist locking system.  I have my current chimney fastened to the building so adding another section will be simple.  Our prevailing winds are NE and SW which take the smoke away from the house but from time to time we get a West wind that will bring the smoke directly to the house and another section of stack will get it up above the house. 

6

Portage & Main / Proper Placement of wood int the fire box

« on: November 20, 2014, 09:10:26 PM »

Read a couple of post and now I am wondering if I am doing something that I should not be doing.  At night, to get a 10 hour burn, I have to put as much wood as possible in the stove.  I normally fill the bottom and keep stacking.  Of course some pieces fall and lay against the metal sides as I feel the entire fire box, is this a problem?  The next morning all the ashe is down on the bricks not on the sides touching metal so I was under the assumptions that the wood next to the metal is not a problem.  Will stacking the heater that full cause issues with the wood touch the metal sides?  I am burning seasoned split red oak, hickory, and maple.  If the wood can't touch the metal sides I will not be able to get enough wood in the firebox to get a full night of heat.   

7

Portage & Main / Portage and Main installation start to finish the entire process

« on: March 19, 2014, 07:37:26 AM »

Hello Gents.  I have an idea that may help everyone in the long run.  I am going through the process of planning and will be installing a P&M 28-40 throughout the summer before next winter.  There is lots of good information on the forum but it is in piece-mill format.  I decided, since I know nothing about boilers but being an engineer I am mechanically minded so I can learn, should start a topic that will take everyone through the entire process.  I will ask questions that I have and post pics as the process moves forward but I want to do it under one topic.  I plan on going through the entire process, from calculating heat loads, to designing the system, to installation.  This will be a several month process, but I think it would be good to share exactly the entire process and all of the questions that  newbie like myself has so everyone can see and learn.  If this is ok with everyone I will begin the process:

Thanks,

EE Farm Boy

8

Portage & Main / BL28-40 Pad Footprint ( Can't get from website for two days now)

« on: March 14, 2014, 07:32:38 PM »

Does anyone have the footprint drawing that you can get from the website on their local drive they can send me for the BL 28-40?  I have tried for two days to get from the P&M website but every time I click on the link nothing happens.  They must be having issues with their size or something as I have viewed before.  Logstor pipe will be here next week and I was wanting to layout the unit and mark were I am planning to bury. 

Thanks,

9

Portage & Main / Which P&M BL would be best fo me

« on: March 08, 2014, 05:43:01 PM »

Newbie here so lots of questions.  I am an Electrical Engineer so I normally have to analyze something 10,000 different ways before I pull the trigger so I apologize.  I am going to install an P&M outdoor wood boiler before next winter so I am in the planning phase right now.  I would like to get everyone's opinion on which size BL boiler I need.  Here are the details of my setup:
I live in NC so the winters are not too harsh normally.  Outside temp are around 30-40 degrees with nights getting down to the teens.   I have a 4 ton heat pump for downstairs and a 2 ton unit for upstairs but it is just not cutting it as we have to burn gas logs 24-7 on a thermostat.
I built the house in 2003 contracting out myself so it is insulated fairly well.  When I calculated the needed BTU's, on average is around 130,000 BTU/Hr but if I use the lowest temperature around 10 degrees it comes out to 180,000 BTU's.  I have a force air system which I will install heat exchangers in.  I have two units, one for the downstairs, and one for the upstairs.  Total square footage is 3,000 on these two levels.  I currently don't heat the portion of the finished basement but would like to with the boiler, another 800 sq ft.  I would also like to heat the garage, 25 x 25 on occasion.  I also have an outside post frame building that 36 x 50 with 14.5ft ceilings.  Insulation in this building is only R9 with spray foam closed cell.  I plan to keep this building around 40 degree but when I want to go work on things maybe twice a week then I will turn up the heat to make it comfortable, but only twice a week.  The distance from the boiler to the house will be 170ft, then another 60ft in the basement to where I want to put in a manifold.  The distance to the post frame building will be 70ft from the boiler.  Once at the manifold, I have only a few feet to the heat exchanger for downstairs unit and water heater.  I have to then go from the manifold to the upstairs unit which is another 80ft.  I hope this gives the details of my setup.  I plan on using 1" Logstor insulated Pipe.  I was recommended to go with the BL34-44 but I know that most of the time I may not use all of the BTU's and from what I read it is not good to oversize the boiler therefore I am asking what others think.  We farm on the side, so no neighbors and plenty of wood from our own land, mostly hardwoods.  I have already started preparing my wood, up to about 3 1/2 chords so far.  I plan on taking lots of pics and keeping track of the install.  Any pointers and suggestions are welcome. 

Thanks,