Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers WITH EPA-Certified Models => Central Boiler => Topic started by: Roger2561 on January 03, 2012, 11:35:35 AM
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Hello all, This morning while I was stretching getting ready for my daily 4 mile run, I heard my oil furnace kick on. But, it lasted only for about a minute. I was not worried due to the fact that I still use the oil burner to keep my domestic hot water hot. But, about 15 minutes later, it kicked on again. This is unusual I said. So, instead of going for the run, I put my old clothes on, went outside (dang it was cold) and noticed the water temp was lower than it should have been for that time of day (night?). I opened the door and saw that I had stacked the firewood too tight and it wouldn't let the air flow correctly to keep it going. So, on goes the leather gloves, out comes the unburned wood. Thankfully, I caught it early and there were red coal, not many but enough to get it rekindled again. I then put the unburned stuff on top of the coal, loosely, and let the furnace do its thing. I think it was maybe 20 to 25 minutes later that the water temp was up to 185 and providing heat to the house again. This furnace is new to me and there is definitely a learning curve to it. It operates so different the usual indoor woodstove. But, it is just awesome to get home from work or get up in the morning to a warm house and not hear the oil furnace running. So, the moral of this story is not to stack the firewood so tight as to prevent the OWB from operating properly.
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A four mile run? REALLY??? (from SNL-Seth Meyers)
Anyway, bet your glad you caught it. I've gone out and found my stack suspended above the coals before. But never almot out becuase I overstocked it. What size pieces do you normally put in?
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Roger,
I've had that happen before, especially when nothing called for heat in a long time and temps being mild outside. Also after cleaning, when I let her burn down for clean out. Wasn't enough of bed of coals to keep fire.
Going to be real cold tonight and is under 20f outside now. Getting it's first real work of the season and mighty fine inside!
I just poke around and rearrange wood a bit and can usually get a fire back with just one piece of newspaper and little kindling under pre-charred wood. Don't think we'll have any problems as she is firing quite often now. Thinking of setting from 5 to maybe 8 deg diff during this cold snap? Maybe burn less wood and get longer burn times....
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Do you have the pulse set?
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A four mile run? REALLY??? (from SNL-Seth Meyers)
Anyway, bet your glad you caught it. I've gone out and found my stack suspended above the coals before. But never almot out becuase I overstocked it. What size pieces do you normally put in?
Ridgekid; Yup. 4 mile run. I generally can do it in 8 to 9 minutes per mile. Not too bad for a 50 year old.
The firewood did not "bridge", I simply stacked it too tight. It did not allow for the fire to engulf the wood properly. I'm glad I caught it when I did. When I arrived home from work at 5:00pm, it was 68 degrees. I then serviced the furnace. I was somewhat surprized to find 4 pieces completely unburned but a huge beautiful bed of red coals remained. I took my poker and moved things around a bit and returned the unburned pieces and added to what I think will last the very cold night. It's supposed to be below zero with a healthy north wind. Man, am I happy I purchased this thing.
I was considering of turning off the pulse. I have it set to run every 15 minutes for 30 secs. Just to keep the coals fresh. But, the temps are supposed to get into the 40's over the weekend again and with how little this thing runs when it gets into the 40s plus, I may just leave it alone until we start to get a real New England winter. Any thoughts on this?
Roger