What's up today (bullchiting) thread.

It's an indoor boiler, about 10 years old. He used it for about 5 years with wood, then he was burning coal in it for a while, switched back to wood then got sick of it altogether. Not sure if it's a gasification type. I'm going to check it out tonight. If it's something that's going to consume an obscene amount of wood each year I'm thinking it's not worth it. I'll have to ask my buddy how much he was going through. His house is a bit smaller though, single level whereas I own a cape. I hate to admit it but I don't really know what I'm getting into here

 

That's about the size of it,

 

yup. Not good....

Hope not

 

If he was burning coal in it then it is just an old school "campfire in a box-surrounded by a water tank" smoke dragon...usually hungry beasts, exactly why many people get tired of dealing with them. The best way to run one is to have bulk heat storage...500-1000 gallon superinsulated tank in your basement that the circ pump(s) draw from when there is a call for heat. A well designed system will allow you to fire once per day to recharge the storage tank temp...that way the boiler can be run wide open until it burns out...the only way they even halfway burn clean...

 

Yikes! I'm not too keen on adding another tank, a big one at that. Space is the pressing factor down there. I don't want to be a slave to the boiler either. The way things are now I can have a fire, or not. Whatever I burn upstairs in the stove just takes a load off the oil furnace. I go through about 3 cords a year and don't really want to double that (or more).

 

yessah!! Good to have "inventory" to refill racks that empty.

 

6 cords would be about what the average modern gassifier boiler would burn, unless you have storage...might get it to 4 then...depending on what your heat load is obviously

 

Maybe this isn't the golden solution I was hoping for As much as I enjoy the entire firewood experience, I can't really justify processing and storing that kind of volume. Too much to do around the house involving regular life. I don't know, part of me thinks that any amount of wood I can burn in it would help, but is it really worth it? I work 2nd shift so I could feed the boiler from about 8am to 2pm, then again at midnight. But it'll be too much if the demand is 6+ cords a season.

 

Not good....

 

After cleaning the chimney today I pulled out the insert in the basement to clean the box. there was a bunch of crap on the backside of the flue. I’ve never tried to contort myself enough to get at it, but today went ocd on it. I got a long metal spoon and started digging. I figure I cleared out 40yrs of coal and looked like it too. Probably 8-10 ash pails from the clean out. Wood going into the basement tomorrow for the first fire. Supposed to get down to 41 wth.

 

Got back from vacation last night. Hurricane Sally was no joke....don't care to ride out another one.

Got the PTO clutch replaced on the mower this afternoon.

Back to work and working on the bathroom tomorrow.

 

You called it. I guess my buddy (and his wife) were going through 8 cords a season! That sounds like something that would turn me off to wood burning altogether. I had the story wrong; it was a mid 1980s model.

 

Double yuck

 

Eric Schamell , our cottage has an old Birchwood brand non gasification boiler that can burn coal as well as wood. It's tied into the high efficiency propane boiler heating system. It uses a bit of wood when we get the wood boiler going, but we only use that when it gets pretty cold out. The gas boiler works very efficiently.

 

I was heating over 4000 sf on 8 cord without storage. That includes a 36x40 garage posted 16 feet with radiant. Huge heat load. Storage cut that almost in half.

 

Helped a buddy out today. His father in law recently passed and needed me to get the 2 yr old simplicity lawn tractor to his house. I got a couple of cool things out of the garage as part of the deal too. An old hatchet, a newish 2.5g gas tank that I'll use for saw gas, a corded hedge trimmer, a sweeta$$ 5' long metal Dunlop tire sign, a trickle charger, a bigger selectable battery charger, some framing nails, some small hand tools, some Bayer chemicals for gardening, and a couple other random items.

 

Eric Schamell Our gasification boiler burns about 4 cords a year with 1000 gal storage unit. It supplies heat and domestic hot water all year. We live in a climate that hovers from 30 F (winter) to about 68 F (summer). Winter is windy. Our house has two levels and totals about 2800 sq ft. The storage unit is key to the efficiency of the boiler.

 

Yes, I was going to link to the page where campinspecter tells of the progression of boilers you guys had, and how much the wood usage dropped with each upgrade...back in the day it was crazy high...like 20 some cords?!

 

Yeah, our first boiler. We nicknamed it The Pig. It was a barrel with a water jacket and a auto draft for the fire. that would be a good link for Eric Schamell to see.