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[mikejkd]

What do you guys do when you go on vacation? I have it hooked to a wtw hx so my thinking is to let the expensive(3.06) fuel oil keep it from freezing while im gone. My other thought is to put antifreeze in it and shut it down(currently have just water in it).

[juddspaintballs]

Antifreeze would be my choice. 

[m21221]

How long are you going to be on vacation?  A week or less I would fill the stove to capacity, turn the aqua stat down, turn your house thermostat down and set your backup to keep the house at 50.  The house heat will keep the water in the boiler from freezing.  You are going to have to keep the heat on on the house anyway to keep the domestic water from freezing.

[mikejkd]

Its only a long weekend but im afraid with the stat down to low on the furnace the wood will go out. I guess its not to big of a deal except for the fact I am going to be heating 200 gallons of water outside with oil. Anyone ever do this before?

[1grnlwn]

Well it should only heat the water when the furnace is running.

[willieG]

i have goofed before and i am sure some one else has done this before also...loaded the OWB at night and shut the blower off to do it, forgot to turn the blower back on. went out in the morning olnly to find the blower shut off, no wood burnt, stove down to abut 75 degrees, turned the blower on and away she went. so i don't think it would cost much if you were heating the house with yoru other furnace and only keeping your OWB at 70. for sure i think y ou would get  24 hours at least out of the heat in the boiler itself if you were not using the owb to heat the house.

[m21221]

My stove will only go down to 140.  At that temp your fire wont go out.  By the time your wood goes out (runs out) you will be on your way home.  Again, you will want to keep your house a minimum temperature anyway and the cost the oil to heat your water circulating through for a few hours at best will be insignificant.  Antifreeze will work, I just think it's unnecessary given the situation.  My .02, there is always many ways to skin a cat.

[willieG]

about vaction..i spoke with a fellow who takes weekend vacations (snowmobiling) a few times a winter. He uses a header system  on his set-up but he installed a loop with  valves right at the header.  he can circulate the water right back to the OWB without going through any "appliances"  this way the only heat he loses is from the circulating pipes under the ground and from the furnace itself and what radiates off his uninsulated header. he says it is so small that his furnace still has wood in it after 72 hours

i may have to do this to my system next summer, you never know when you might just decide to "slip away" for a night or two

[m21221]

Good idea...I've effectively done that for my summer hot water needs by installing valves that allow me to shut off the flow to the heat exchanger above the blower.  If you reduce your back-up/emergency heat thermostat to 55 degrees it's about the same as the ground temp.  With no hot water demand you are neither heating or cooling the loop.

[1grnlwn]

I do lawn maint in summer, plow in the winter, and have an OWB.  I don't take Vacations!

[tulenutn2o]

I can't afford a vacation! Maybe with all my $$$ saved on LP I can give it all back by going on vacation...........

[rick n kristi]

Don’t have a trusted friend or neighbor who could tend it for you? We just got back from 4 days away. Had one of our tenants feed the boiler once a day? Set house temp down to 50. Took two fillings in 4 days.

[yoderheating]

 A number of years ago I tried the same thing with my brother in law filling the stove for me while we were gone. Then he decided he needed to visit some young lady instead and when I arrived home the stove was out and the house was cold (it was in the single digits outside). My pump runs 24/7 and I guess that was enough to keep anything on the furnace from freezing. I fired it back up and within a few hours we had a warm house again.
 The moral of the story is this, leaving the pump run 24/7 will most likely keep from damaging the furnace unless it gets well below 0.

[maine owb]

I have a 30% glycol mix in my woodboiler and a strap on refrigeration aquastat that maintains the water at a set temp(50)degrees, another aquastat turns my circulator off when the wood boiler drops below a set point(135) in my case. This way I don't wast nearly as much oil to keep my boiler from freezing and I don't need to buy as much glycol either. But if you went with a 50% glycol mix you would probably be fine unless its less than -20 below 0 and I would worry.

[lakotazz]

Here's what I do. I have a $15 portable hotplate. I plug it in and put it inside the firebox - even with the cord the door closes fine. I put the hotplate on low and close the chimney. I've set this up for two weeks before - I'm in northern MN so we had a few -25 nights during that time. When I come home the temp of the water in the boiler jacket is usually ~40-50 degrees. I also have electric heating strips on the exposed piping in the garage - they turn on if the temp gets below 35 degrees.