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1

Portage & Main / Re: Second guessing myself after the install

« on: February 21, 2015, 08:01:16 PM »

Just an update.  The other night it got down to 0 degrees here which broke the records in our our part.  I did not how long the water temp would stay up so I set the alarm clock for 4:30 AM.  I loaded as much wood as would fit.  I think turned off all uncessary zones like DHW at night, radiant floor heat in the MB to warm the tiles, and the cut the main home down to 70 degrees.  This kids rooms were left at 75 and our MB room was left at 72.  When I went out at 4:30AM, I had a bed of coals at the top of the fire brick.  I think I probably could have went till 7:00 AM before loading.  I believe that when it gets in the signle digits, I am just going to have to turn down the t-stats and cut off all uncessary loops.  Still would have rather had the BL3444 but this works..

Thanks for the inputs.

2

Portage & Main / Re: Second guessing myself after the install

« on: February 19, 2015, 07:41:05 AM »

If I had to estimate, I think I am at the 9 or 10 chord mark.  I will have a better estimation next year.  Last year I cut 7 chords and and cured all summer in the dry.  I started the boiler around the first of Oct as we had a cold snap and I was anxious to get it going.  I went through that and had to start cutting dead fall that had been laying the woods for 12 months so its not green but not ideal as it is not cured as much I would like.  I am focusing on increasing the total efficiency of the system.  I insulated my manifolds in the basement as well as the Pex that runs up into the uninsulated areas of my attic.  This has helped a lot.  Basement temps are much lower now. This year, I will put up no less than 12 chords cut and stacked and will probably put up 15.  Having to cut wood to heat with for this year as well as trying to collect for the following year is tuff.  All I do is cut wood every Sat and Sunday for the past month and a half.  If I get ahead so that I only have to cut for the following year it would be better.  If I had to do all over again, I still would go this route, just with the 3444 instead of the smaller one.

3

Portage & Main / Re: Second guessing myself after the install

« on: February 17, 2015, 09:24:00 AM »

I was thinking, since I am close to where I need to be could I just add about 200 gallons of storage?  I have an extra taco 007, so if I was to buy a small heat exchanger and build be insulated storage box in the basement, heat the 200 gallons of storage during the day when the boiler goes idle quite often, then have this extra capacity at night to extend the heating time.  Seems like this may be more efficient as well cutting down on the start stops of the burn cycle during normal operation?  Thoughts? 

4

Portage & Main / Re: Second guessing myself after the install

« on: February 17, 2015, 07:34:47 AM »

Thanks for the comments, I think I will try insulating the pipes and see if that gets me there.  Last night is got down to 15 degrees, I filled the boiler at 10:30 and at 6:30 still had two logs left so I am not that far off from what I need.  One thing I did was, remove zone with the DHW.  Manually turned it off to limit the flow of hot water to the stove. 

For me Slim, the problem with looking at a 3 year avg, I froze to death keeping the house on 69 due to electric heat pump...  then once I got the boiler, it felt so good so I keep it 75 now.  And then comes the idea, its just wood, I will cut more so now the Great Danes have a 65 degree garage to sleep in.  That's why I did the calculations, which I included everything I wanted to do.  I think the this size boiler will work, may after insulating a few pipes and making the complete system more efficient.  Wednesday night will be the real test, it will get to 0 degrees here, and I used 10 degrees in my delta T calculations.... 

5

Portage & Main / Re: Second guessing myself after the install

« on: February 16, 2015, 08:07:35 PM »

Its a fairly tight house. I built it 12 years ago, R25 in the floors above the basement, R 15 in the walls and R30 in the attic with double pane windows.  I did all the BTU calculations but I think where I messed up.  I did not count on heating the basement but since the 1' pex runs through the floor joist it radiates.  Our basement is always warm now where as before we did not heat it.  I think that is where my calculations messed up.  Sometimes the simplest things you can over look.  If I would have only thought to control the BTU output of the 3444 by only building small fires then I would have went bigger.  Just upset with my self as I did so much research, calculations, drawings, and the perfect installation but I missed the common sense when choosing the boiler.....

My house is 3000 sq ft but we are in NC so the delta temp is not near as sever as you guys up north.  If you add in the basement that is being heated (not planned but just from radiating pipes) it is almost 5000 sq ft.  Problem here is when it gets mid 50's it will run you out of the house.  Many nights in Dec when it was mid 50's, we would have to open the doors to cool the house.  This is why I put everything on zones to limit the flow of hot water to areas unless it called for heat, but the radiating of the manifold in the basement along with the pex to the hot water heat exchanger ( this is the only thing not on a zone valve) will run you out. 

6

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? 

7

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? 

8

Portage & Main / Re: DHW Temperature Variation

« on: December 19, 2014, 09:11:09 PM »

The taco aqua stat I currently have clipped on to the copper pipe is preset to on at 95 and off at 120 so I can't adjust.  Does anyone know of one that is set higher?  The other option is just to buy a Honeywell that clips on but it was about double the price of this one.   

9

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,

10

Portage & Main / Re: Questions to get my house up and running.

« on: December 16, 2014, 09:31:56 PM »

Sounds very similar to my setup.  First at the boiler I used a Taco 013 to pump 150' through logstor into the basement.  Followed by filter, guage and then into my heat exchanger.  I used a bell and gusset BP410-30MT, I oversized considerably 400,000 BTU's and I think it was around 400.00. I ordered everything online through  Supply House.  SS pumps on the open side, cast iron Taco 10 on the closed loop side.  Bronze Taco 3 for the DHW.  I have zone valves and a controller to operate the upstairs heat, downstairs heat, MB tile floor, garage heat.  I did not tie my taco 10 into my controller as I have manual value allowing the heated water to flow to the DHW exchanger all of the time.  I use an aquastat to turn the DHW circulating pump on when the water in the tank gets below 120 degrees in the hot water tank.   Take a look at my post as I have pics of the complete setup start  to finish.  I am pleasee with my system, but never owning one of these before, they sure do eat the wood.... On my manifold, I did connect the supply side and the return side together with a ball valve this way in case I wanted open and allow water to flow I can, but I have it turned off when everything is working properly.

11

Portage & Main / Re: Plate exchanger /pump size

« on: December 08, 2014, 11:54:18 AM »

I have 150' of run on mine and I use a taco 013 Stainless Steel model.  I also used a bell and gosett BP410-30MT 400k heat exchanger for my main house loop exchanger to go from open loop of the boiler to closed loop for the house.  I then use a taco 010 cast iron on the closed loop side with 4 taco zone values and a taco zone controller.  I want to be able to route the heat where it was needed based on thermostats. 

12

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

13

Portage & Main / Re: P&M Chimney Brand

« on: December 03, 2014, 08:15:34 PM »

Well, no luck yet on finding a place to get the chimney section from.  P&M can send but chance of damage in shipment is a concern coming from Canada and the shipping is fairly pricey.  Does anyone know a an place in the US that is closer to North Carolina that I can order security chimney products from?  I found an online site called woodstove pro but it may be a drop ship site, vs a physical business location.  I would rather deal with a physical business.  Any suggestions?

Thanks,

14

Portage & Main / Re: P&M Chimney Brand

« on: December 01, 2014, 07:10:53 PM »

Thanks for the input, looks like I have the brand Security Chimney International on my new 2840.  I was hoping to pick something up local as to not have to pay for the large shipping cost from P&M coming out of Canada to North Carolina.  Looks like this brand is not very popular in the States so I may have to get from P&M

15

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.