Colder here. What's your temp? What ya burnin?

Beautiful pics!

 

Heading to around 30* tonight, have a load of Mulberry in for the overnight.

 

I love Mulberry. I find that it burns very similar to Douglass Fir.

 

19/74 hard maple

 

About 6 degrees here. The bubblin goo is burning here. I had a thermostatic valve, that keeps the water returning to boiler at least 140 degrees, go bad about a week ago. I had to order new replacement for it. They said 1-2 weeks until they get it and then ship it to me. One week has gone by. Oh well. What are ya gonna do?

 

Be happy you have back up heat

 

23 here with Red Maple doing what needs to be done.

 

30 and 70 with high 40's planned for this afternoon and tomorrow. 21 years ago we had 46.7 inches of snow in December (worked out well with my new sled!). I logged 4700 miles on that Polaris that season. Yeee haaa.

This year 1 inch of snow and I bought a Prius

 

22* when I woke up and I heard furnace kick on.
Set to come on at 60*. Upstairs was still warm, Got stove up and running with some oak. When I left for work, temp on thermostat was 75.

 

I had 23 and 72 @ 7a. Wind chill factor had it in high teens. Woke to another 4" bed of coals so I cranked the drafts wide open and turned the fan on manual while I got ready to leave. Then put 3 big splits on and pinched off the air, fan back to auto. That should set up the fam with a nice warm house for the day.

 

Oh I am. And technically, that is PRIMARY heat.

 

I guess it's not worth "breaking" or opening up the system to put in a temporary valve that you could "feather " in the return water?
So basically you're dumping too much cold water back in and that's giving you the goo? I've only had this with combustion air flow problems-I think
Good luck Gas, merry Christmas and hopefully a speedy delivery.

 

40* and sunny out right now. The stove is loafing right now with a partial load of Doug Fir. Weather is reported to go as low as 10* within the next week. I will believe it when I see it. This does mean that we will probably be getting air from the Frasier River valley up north. Hope there is enough air movement to keep us from having burn bans because of stagnant air. We will probably be putting a dent in the wood pile!

 

Is there really such a thing as the "chimney police"?
What's the consequences?

 

Here in the PS region we have the Puget Sound Clean Air Bureau That supposedly monitors for stagnant air or high pollutants in the air. They used to be a big deal and were always shutting down all outside or wood stove burning every time you turned around. You could get a $1000 fine for making smoke, except startup, during a 1st stage ban and more if you burned during a total ban. They actually sent teams out to record your smoke and issue fines. You would have to prove you had a certified stove or the fine would stick. The city of Tacoma gave their employees a $25 bonus for reporting a smoking chimney! It was a part of a Greener movement here in WA St. a ways back that petered out. They were sued and lost when they wouldn't provide the scientific data to back up the bans and other irregularities. They have backed way off. They actually do some good now to educate burners and the general population about particulate pollution. They also helped during the summer when we had all the forest fire pollution but some insisted on having fire rings going and pellet smoker cooking. The air was truly unhealthy! The sad part is that in the winter you can get periods of stagnate air in the Puget Sound Basin, when the temps plummet. This is when you really want to burn but occasionally can't because of a burn ban! Come the time they ban all wood stoves here I will pull up stakes and move to Idaho/Montana!

 

Thank you and same to you and yours! So the valve would not let water come back to boiler. Only hot could get back apparently. So I have shut off valves everywhere. Had to shut down, let cool down, and then isolate the Wood Gun with the valves closed. Then drain. Open up valve cover on side and take the guts out of it. A spring, metal housing, and the thermostat part. Ordered a new one. Hopefully the right one comes in. The local heating and plumbing supply couldn’t get it. Apparently the valve is obsolete now. I had to order the part off the internet.

If it isn’t the right part I guess I have two choices.
1. Have my HVAC guys cut the old one out and install a new one. But everything is so close together it could get to be costly.
2. Leave the guts out of the valve and refill everything and then try using the two gate valves on the water lines to do the same job. (Almost?) By setting them at 45 degrees and hope that would mix the water. But colder water is going to drop easier than that hot water is. So would the pumps push it through the 45 valves fairy even? I don’t know.

 

I was not having any chimney or goo problems with The Wood Gun. The problem is the oil(bubbling goo is burning). The cool water was not getting back. So heat could not bring big tank up to temperature. So oil boiler turns on when that tank isn’t hot enough. Controlled by simple aqua stat. I just don’t want to take a chance to let the cold water come back to a hot boiler. Possible hurting the hull and causing a crack/leak. I don’t know how much of a chance there is of that happening with the S.S. hull I have. But a leak would put it out of commission.

 

I'm no plumber, but if you have the space to spread out your components ie; mixing valves, circ pumps, heat exchanger etc and be able to isolate them (by additional valves) it will make one day in the future a bit easier especially replacing/substituting components that are not available.

 

Just got home 26 outside 66 inside time to throw some ash in and heat this house up