Outdoor Wood Furnace Info

Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers WITH EPA-Certified Models => Central Boiler => Topic started by: muffin on March 05, 2012, 07:58:01 AM

Title: recovery time
Post by: muffin on March 05, 2012, 07:58:01 AM
I am having some issues with me CB6048.  When I am bad and let the fire die down to far, it seems to take a really long time to recover.  For instance, the other day it had died down a bit.  There where still plenty of coals, but really no chunks of wood.  The water temp had dropped to 155.  I raked it real good and filled it up.  My wood is pretty green and i keep it in large peices, 24" long by ~8".  After an hour, it was oly up to 160.  The weather was very mild, it was like 60 outside.  I had turned the pool off so it only had the occasional house heat call.  i did not get a fix on when it finally recovered, but I would really expect it to recover in under and hour with little load.  I also have the blower kit which would seem to aid this if anything.  i do have a good bit of ash in the bottom right now, it is probably due for a cleaning out.  Any thoughts?  Is this normal?  I would guess it was fully recovered in 2 hrs.
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: johnybcold on March 05, 2012, 10:39:59 AM
What is the chamber temp when this happens? If the chamber temp is low that tells you it might be because of the green wood taking to burn , your using heat to dry  I find it works best by keeping it full so the greener wood has time to dry out before it hits the bottom
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: muffin on March 05, 2012, 02:26:00 PM
The chamber temp is HOT.  I do not know.  I have no sensor in the chamber.  Is there a good way to read this?
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: johnybcold on March 05, 2012, 02:58:43 PM
Hopefully someone else will jump in here, I have only had mine for about 6 months but it has a digital panel that gives me the chamber and water temp
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: hddmax66 on March 05, 2012, 03:24:43 PM
The classic models dont have a chamber temp
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: martyinmi on March 05, 2012, 03:32:34 PM
muffin,
   When it's down that low, throw dry wood in and it will recover very quickly. It's never a good idea to use green wood. I have a few of friends with the 6048 and they have the same issues with wetter wood. You can burn it, but you'll need to add wood often to maintain a good coal bed and keep the excessive smoke to a minimum.

johnnybcold,
   His boiler is an old school conventional(non-gasser) work horse compared to yours. He can only monitor the water temperature.
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: hddmax66 on March 05, 2012, 03:50:37 PM
 I dont know for sure how this works?? 400 gallons x 8(weight of gallon of water)=3200 which i think would be the amount of btu to raise 400 gallons one degree x that by 30( degree raise) = 96,000 btu to heat water to temp. i guess heat loss out the chimney would also need to be calculated. 30% maybe idk. So id add 30,000 btu to that number which would equal 130,000 btu. Is this any close to being right? Central boiler rated these stoves at 500,000 btu per hour which im assuming is in absolute perfect conditions. so at a unrealistic 500,000 btu per hour would heat the 400 gallons of water to temp in 15 mins. Even at half the rating at 250,000 btu per hour would be 30 mins?

I know a few people on here know these calculations real well. i hope they will help me with this math problem
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: boilerman on March 05, 2012, 05:14:55 PM
If you let your furnace burn down to just a coal bed and throw 24" long x 8" diameter green wood in that furnace. It will take hours before that wood can even burn. Up to  half the btu potential will  be wasted just drying the wood out so it can even burn. Once you get the wood to a decent burn state, you are finally going to start heating that 400 gallons back up to your set point. There is nothing wrong with your furnace. If you find it has burned down that far, you need a pile of smaller seasoned wood kept off to the side that can be used in the lower third of the new loading anyway.
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: dwneast77 on March 06, 2012, 07:16:51 AM
I agree with Boilerman.  I'm running CB E-Classic 2300 (with some modifications) and Wood Doctor HE-10000, both gassers, but I find when I let them run down to coals adding a couple of good arm loads of small diameter well seasoned wood to the bottom of the pile helps a great deal.  I've burned my share of green wood and had very similar problems.
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: muffin on March 06, 2012, 08:57:38 AM
muffin,
   When it's down that low, throw dry wood in and it will recover very quickly. It's never a good idea to use green wood. I have a few of friends with the 6048 and they have the same issues with wetter wood. You can burn it, but you'll need to add wood often to maintain a good coal bed and keep the excessive smoke to a minimum.

johnnybcold,
   His boiler is an old school conventional(non-gasser) work horse compared to yours. He can only monitor the water temperature.

Guess I will have to wait till next year.  This is my first season and I am cutting the wood as fast as I can to keep my wood pile so it is pretty green.  I hope to get a year ahead of myself this summer so it will have some time to season.
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: Scott7m on March 06, 2012, 10:00:14 AM
muffin,
   When it's down that low, throw dry wood in and it will recover very quickly. It's never a good idea to use green wood. I have a few of friends with the 6048 and they have the same issues with wetter wood. You can burn it, but you'll need to add wood often to maintain a good coal bed and keep the excessive smoke to a minimum.

johnnybcold,
   His boiler is an old school conventional(non-gasser) work horse compared to yours. He can only monitor the water temperature.


If your cutting today and burning that fast no wonder your having issues.  When you want to put a fire out you spray water on it, the green wood is full of water

Guess I will have to wait till next year.  This is my first season and I am cutting the wood as fast as I can to keep my wood pile so it is pretty green.  I hope to get a year ahead of myself this summer so it will have some time to season.
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: RSI on March 06, 2012, 10:35:00 PM
muffin,
   When it's down that low, throw dry wood in and it will recover very quickly. It's never a good idea to use green wood. I have a few of friends with the 6048 and they have the same issues with wetter wood. You can burn it, but you'll need to add wood often to maintain a good coal bed and keep the excessive smoke to a minimum.

johnnybcold,
   His boiler is an old school conventional(non-gasser) work horse compared to yours. He can only monitor the water temperature.

Guess I will have to wait till next year.  This is my first season and I am cutting the wood as fast as I can to keep my wood pile so it is pretty green.  I hope to get a year ahead of myself this summer so it will have some time to season.
Are you cutting live trees?
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: muffin on March 07, 2012, 09:24:08 AM
I do not have a forest to cut from, so I get my wood delivered in pole lengths.  They are fairly green; some more than others.
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: MattyNH on March 07, 2012, 03:07:33 PM
Got natural draft? If so..Your wood its too wet...Fire isn't hot enough to reheat the OWB water..Try getting dry seasoned wood/ pallets or  anything..from somewhere..mix it with the wet wood..Should give you a nice bed a coals..Burning wet wood with these crazy temps have you have a creosote problem?
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: mw10737 on March 08, 2012, 08:06:39 PM
Guys,  I pretty much been cutting trees out of fench rows and burning them.  But the empyre dont seem to mind, havent had much of any issues burning wet wood compared to seasoned wood.  Its amazing that the heat you can get out of what we all call"junk wood"  i have burned dry wood this winter, but i would say 90% of the time its been wet.. Just saying with my enmpyre it dont take much recovery time at all.  But this is a non gasser unit.  that may be the diffirence.
Title: Re: recovery time
Post by: morsejh on March 15, 2012, 07:34:49 PM
I'm running an E-classic and have noticed the same effect. 

Once, I was bad like you and let it burn down too far and the fire went out when I reloaded and I had to yank all that wood out.  I got it going again, then threw all that wood back in.  However, the wood was still quite warm.  That time the recovery time wasn't so slow, and I learned that throwing a bunch of large very cold objects into the burner makes it take longer to get hot again.  Better to go 1/4 load and come back.