In loving memory of Kenis D. Keathley 6/4/81 - 3/27/22 Loving father, husband, brother, friend and firewood hoarder Rest in peace, Dexterday

New OWB Install Planning

Discussion in 'OWB's and Gasification Boilers' started by lukem, Nov 14, 2017.

  1. lukem

    lukem

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    I was thinking more along the lines of raspberry pi....but a bbq setup could work too.
     
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  2. GrJfer

    GrJfer

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    That's what I use. If nothing more than piece of mind that I didn't leave a door open.
     
  3. lukem

    lukem

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    I decided to take your advice and go with a BBQ setup for monitoring. Someday I may get fancier with it, but I have too much to do right now as it is, and a $60 out-of-the-box solution is pretty appealing. It's a dual probe so I think I'm just going to monitor supply and return temps to the house. When I add the shop down the road I may get a little more elaborate.
     
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  4. lukem

    lukem

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    Got my water sample results back from the lab and I'm short on treatment so I need to add another 1/2 gallon to the system. Going to pick some up from the dealer this evening.

    I got a wild hair today and decided to fire up the boiler to make sure I didn't have any unforseen issues before going to the dealer.

    System went from 90* to 180* degrees in about 3 hours on 3 medium sized chunks of wood and a little kindling. No smoke leaks around the doors.

    I knew I had overfilled it (on accident) so it overflowed a little bit out of the top as the water expanded.

    Gasification was hit and miss, but the boiler was relatively cool, I had 0 coal bed, and I probably could have done a better job arranging the wood in the firebox. I don't see any reason why this thing won't be almost completely smokeless when I'm running it harder over a good coal bed this winter.

    I imagine 200 gallons of 180 degree water should cover my hot water needs for a day, maybe two. We'll see.

    Get it topped up with water treatment tonight and collect a new sample after 48 hours of circulation and that should complete the install and commissioning of the system. Time to figure out how I want to put a roof over it and the concrete pad.
     
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  5. nsmaple

    nsmaple

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    Wild hair?
     
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  6. lukem

    lukem

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    Hankering
     
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  7. kenwilmwise

    kenwilmwise

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    The best installation is thought over more than 5 times the length of actual installation. Most expensive one, is one that thought they knew what they were doing......lol yes, lots of reading, viewing videos, is the best way to learn. I always felt I did much better watching at least five projects before starting mine. At least four mistakes can usually be avoided that way. Besides my favorite past time, is watching others work.

    Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
     
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  8. lukem

    lukem

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    I can now say this project is 100% done. Been working out the little gremlins the past couple weeks.

    BBQ thermometer is working nicely.

    DHW is endless and I can make enough for a day on 3 splits of wood or wood or less.

    All baseboard heaters now working (see thread in DIY room).

    Learned that I need a good bed of coals for a clean burn.

    Shut the boiler down until we get some real cold.

    Overall, wish I had done this years ago.
     
  9. amateur cutter

    amateur cutter

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    Mine's fired up for the season now, good bed of coals seems to be essential in keeping smoke to a minimum. At 45F OAT the radiant heat off my exchangers is enough to maintain a very steady 70 in the shop. House blower kicks on once in awhile due to being set at 72. Been 45 with an East wind & rain today, & blowers haven't run! I set an 18" fan on one exchanger over my service door & kicked it on to circulate air. Temps rose to 73 pretty fast. May be able to heat with the two small quiet fans unless/until it gets into the teens. I'm very pleased so far. Glad yours is working well too.
     
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  10. lukem

    lukem

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    Stretched the legs on the boiler a little bit today. Only ran it a little and it cooked us out of the house. That HE for the baseboards cranks. My rough math tells me I can deliver 185K BTU/hr into the house based on the temperature changes I saw. That should be way more than enough. I don't think the boiler could ever sustain that rate anyway. I knew the 80 plate exchanger was overkill, but $100 extra seemed like cheap insurance.

    Gasification is much better now that I have a good coal bed established.
     
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  11. lukem

    lukem

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    Small issue with the boiler today. Every time I'd look over and see it idling their was smoke coming from the chimney....usually there is zero. When it would cycle it was burning pretty dirty. I was otherwise occupied and didn't have time to dig into why. When I had some time later this evening I noticed that the water temp had fallen below the lower limit but the damper position on the controller was only 54%. The damper was stuck due to some light creosote build up.

    During my research of this stove I had read that this has happened before. I sprayed with a little PB Blaster to free it up and on the recommendation of some other owner or installer whose name I cannot recall...gave it a small dose of ATF. I don't see that part of the stove ever reaching the flash point of ATF (400F) so it should work great.

    After that it cycled with no, and I mean zero, visible smoke...and zero smoke when idling.

    OCD research pays off again.
     
  12. amateur cutter

    amateur cutter

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    Brake fluid eats creosote really well too, fyi. Glad you got that worked out.
     
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  13. brenndatomu

    brenndatomu

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    Yeah, works good on paint too...
     
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  14. lukem

    lukem

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    Went out of town earlier in the week and came back to a boiler that was 80 and a house that was 65. Got the house up to 73 and boiler to 180 in about 2 hours on very little wood....maybe 8 decent sized splits.

    Unless we have some biblical cold weather, I should be able to heat this shack easily....probably on one load per day.
     
  15. lukem

    lukem

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    I've been putting in 4 medium sized splits of wood...about enough to make a 8"x16" round...in the boiler every morning. That's been enough to make DHW and cover our heating needs. We haven't needed much heat, but we use a lot of hot water around here (family of 9). I'm pretty pleased with house efficient this thing burns.
     
  16. brenndatomu

    brenndatomu

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    Yeah you can't beat that with a stick!
     
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  17. lukem

    lukem

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    Well, the boiler went out on me last night. Actually, just the fire went out. Had to go out this morning and hit it with a plumbing torch for 30 seconds and I was back in business.

    One of the nice features of this boiler is that 90 minutes after its last cycle, it will open the damper and run the draft fan for 3 minutes and shut back down. It will continue to do this every 60 minutes until the next cycle in order to keep the fire going.
     
  18. lukem

    lukem

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    Boiler lost its spark again. Hedge apparently make bad should season boiler chow.
     
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  19. brenndatomu

    brenndatomu

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    Surprising...with the way Hedge coals up
     
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  20. lukem

    lukem

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    Yeah....I thought so too. Didn't have this problem with oak and hickory though.
     
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