This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

31

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: heating an outdoor water trough

« on: August 28, 2012, 10:15:23 PM »

what about the lines going to the water trough, wouldn't they end up freezing?

32

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / heating an outdoor water trough

« on: August 28, 2012, 10:08:45 PM »

Does anyone use their owb to keep a live stock water trough from freezing, if so what kind of set up do you have.  I hate having to pay the electrical costs of running a 1500 watt heater 8 to 10 hours a day and sometimes longer during the winter months.

33

HeatMaster / Re: Heatmaster EPA Phase 1 or 2??

« on: August 13, 2012, 09:53:55 PM »

I bought the Heatmaster G400 which is also EPA2 certified

34

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Still looking for idea's

« on: April 12, 2012, 10:02:34 PM »

MattyNH

Through out the winter months, I have a 1500 watt heater setup on a timer to run for 1 hour, then off for 2, that has it running for 8 hours every 24 hours.  Right now I pay 9.8 cents per kilowatt hour, so to make it easy, round it up to 10.  That puts the price for a 24 hour period at $1.20, so with me having to run the heater for 5 months straight, the price is now $180.  There is also about 1 month before winter and after that I have to plug the heater in overnight, so again to make things easy, lets round if off to an even $200 per winter.  To me that seems like an nice oppurtunity to save alot money over the years just to keep ice off a 150 gallon water bucket.

As for cost of doing this, I agree that the investment in getting this done would have to pay for itself within a couple years at most.

But if you have an idea about keeping the water running, I would appreciate you sharing it.

birchbark

35

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Still looking for idea's

« on: April 10, 2012, 09:33:23 PM »

I posted awhile back about heating our horse water during the winter with my OWB, but didn't get many idea's.  My boiler is about 8 feet at most from the 150 gallon water bucket.  Up till now I have been keeping the frost off of it with a 1500 watt heater, but I know theres got to be a better (cheaper) way by using the boiler.  In the winter I will need to control the temp to keep the ice off of it, but still not warm it up so much that it will harm the horses.  I thought about installing an aquastat and solnoid to run water through a side arm, but the issue I have with that is the water line freezing between heating cycles.  I suppose that I could insulate the heck out of the line, but does anyone have other ideas?

birchbark

36

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Electric generation?

« on: March 22, 2012, 08:56:33 PM »

MattNH,  I think you mean 220 volts not amps

37

Electronics / Re: Wiring from House to OWB

« on: March 05, 2012, 09:55:49 PM »

If you run a 3 conductor, you could make a few changes on you OWB lighting circuit and tie it into a switch inside your, then you will be able to turn the light on before you go out in the dark.  As a rule of thumb, you would normally upsize you wire for every 100 feet.  If you think you may want to add additional lights or possible a receptacle, install the wiring for it now, a couple of years later you don't want to be kicking yourself for not doing it.

38

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Possible water leak?

« on: February 02, 2012, 08:56:55 PM »

I have had a couple of leaks in my homemade OWB.  I can always tell when it is leaking into the firebox, I just can't seem to get the temp upto 180, about 140 or so.  I can never see where it is leaking until I let it burn out, then I see a nice steady stream of water.  After that, I just drain it down below the leak and weld up the crack, fill it back up, make sure no more water, then light it up again.  The one day it was leaking, I cleaned it out and wasn't able to weld it that day, over night it went down to 20 degrees celcius below 0 and the next day, fixing the leak, the water was still at around 20 (70 f).  Good thing I have a gas furnace for back up.

birchbark

39

Electronics / Re: Help me build a timer...please!

« on: February 02, 2012, 08:39:11 PM »

You could use an Omron solid state timer, the H3CR series relays have a ton of functions, it's an analog style relay.  They also make really nice digital relays.  You can program them to do just what you are talking about.  You should be able to order one of these from Digi-Key, or just about any electronic supplier, ( I believe Digi-Key lists the price ).  The programming function is just with the dials and or buttons on the relay.  I use them alot at work and it is just amazing what they can do.

birchbark

40

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / anyone heat their clothes dryer?

« on: February 02, 2012, 08:11:37 PM »

I have heard that there is a setup that can be used to heat your clothes dryer.  Do any of you do that now, and if so how is everything hooked up?

41

Plumbing / horse water heater

« on: January 31, 2012, 09:58:14 PM »

Anyone got an idea on a way to heat up my horse water.  Right now I have an electric heater in it and it just kills me when I see my bill, especialy since my boiler is about 6 feet away from the water trough.  I acually have the electric heater plugged into a receptacle that is installed in the back of my boiler.  I don't want the water hot, I just want to keep the ice off of it, it would need to have some kind of temp control to keep it from warming up too much.  Any suggestions?

birchbark

42

HeatMaster / G400 on order

« on: January 31, 2012, 09:47:38 PM »

Tired of welding up leaks on mine,  I was hoping to finish off this winter without having to replace it, but enough is enough.  I ordered the G400, if should be here in about 3 to 4 weeks, so I guess I will have to weld up mine at least once more, but as soon as it gets here, it's going in.  This summer I have plans of setting up my house on zone controls to have it more evenly heated, especially in the basement.   Right now I have base board rads, and an exchanger in the duct work, so I am going to add a couple more baseboards and have around 8 zones from what I have designed so far.

Can't wait,
birchbark

43

Portage & Main / parts needed

« on: January 30, 2012, 08:51:38 PM »

Can anyone provide me a detailed parts breakdown on the optimizer gasser.  I would prefer it on the 350, but I would think they are all kindy similar.
Thanks,
Steve

44

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: opinions wanted

« on: January 21, 2012, 10:16:24 AM »

hey Scott, with you being a HM dealer, can you tell me what kind of SS the g400 is made of, what is the thickness of the firebox and water jacket, and have you heard of any issues with them? Thanks for the info

birchbark

45

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / opinions wanted

« on: January 21, 2012, 01:09:08 AM »

I am in the market for a new owb, I currently have a home made one that is pushing 10 years old and needs the occational leak welded up.  I have it narrowed down to either the Heat Master G400 or the Profab Empyre Pro 400.  Both are gasification units, which is required in this area (EPA phase II) both are very similar in specs, price wise again very close.  The two differences that may matter are the HM is made of stainless, the Empyre is mild steel, and the HM has 260 gallons, Empyre has 115.  Any thoughts would be great.

Thanks