Furnace has arrived!

So 12 splits in and the HP kicked on in 6 hrs...hmmm, yeah I think something needs tweaked yet.
I assume the Tstat was calling for heat and so the blower was running on high...I wonder what would happen if you turn the Tstat off and just let the blower run on low...sounds counter intuitive I know, but I've seen this work quit well on many occasions...my house being one of them, warmer air at a lower CFM heats better than cooler high CFM does...try it, see what happens.
Lowering the draft will help too...with that 30' chimney I guarantee you it is running higher than the baro adjustment suggests...I only have a 27' chimney with two 90s, and even it sucks like a supercharged Hoover!

 

I would say you should get yourself a Dwyer.

 

Another thing that isn't helping is the moisture of the wood I am burning. It's dryer than a popcorn fart.

I stored it inside in preparation for the install. On fresh splits the walnut and oak is reading from 10-16%

Not sure if I know how to make the blower motor just run on low...

 

Yeah I have the "too dry" wood issue too, Daryl told me that as soon as he heard I had 3 year + CSS wood pile...I been throwing in a few splits from wood that I just CSS this past summer...it seems to help calm down "the incinerator". I hope they don't kick me off FHC for saying "too dry"
The other thing that helped was using larger splits. I was fortunate enough to have some stuff here that was split really large originally intended for my Yukon furnace...cut 'em down to 16" long and they work pretty good in the Kuuma.
As I understand it the blower only runs on low unless the Tstat calls for heat, then that bumps the blower up to high. So if the Tstat is turned off then it would have to stay on low...I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's the way it works.

 

I will have to test the system with the thermstat off and the blower on low. We will see what type of draft we are getting too.

It gobbled up a fairly large load in six hours and the temperature fell 5 degrees overnight. I kicked on the furnance fan and within a minute we gained 3 degrees. I need to make sure we are not losing heat into the furnance housing.

 

Yeah, that's odd. The registers aren't still on the summer setting are they?
I wonder what would happen if you turned the HP blower on low manually and left it run...that's how the VF200 is supposed to be set up since it is designed to be an add-on furnace. The small blower of the 200 discharges to the plenum of the primary furnace, then the primary blower sends it to the house. I have not had to run my primary blower but my duct system is not nearly as long as yours either.
You might want to give Daryl or Dale a call today, see what they suggest...and it may be a good idea to have your HVAC guy talk to them too...if he has any questions.

 

Got it dialed in a bit more. Seems the draft and 10-16% moisture wood were the major culprits.

Had a nice overnight burn that held temperature for a good 8 hours. It had plenty of heat left when I needed to reload before work.

I moved the dampener to -.02. I cycled the HP fan a few times to help circulate but did not leave it on continuously.

 

Did you get a manometer reading on the chimney or just decide to try it at the -0.02" setting?
Either way, sounds like you are on the right track. Keep after it, you'll get things dialed in and purring right along in no time.
Do you have high ceilings? If so you may want to try running your ceiling fans on low in "winter" mode too...
So you tried burning some wetter wood, or mixed some in with the load?

 

I didn't get a reading with a manometer yet. My HVAC guy had loaned his to his son who was on another service call.

I just mixed in some ash reading 22% to the mix. Had a nice burn during the day too. Left for work at 7 a.m.and my wife put four splits in at 1:00. House is still 69 and I will load it up again before we hit the sack.

We have the ceiling fans running in winter mode. We have 9 foot ceilings.

 

I would just get a manometer of my own. A Dwyer is cheap. Then you will always be able to check draft. And for the furnace guys, you can also use it to check & set & balance your duct pressures.

A good probe type flue temp guage is also good to have - but maybe you already have one.

 

Now, I don't know what size splits you are talking, but if that was a full firebox that is not the results you are looking for. Like bren/maple mentioned, you really need to get your draft in check. This is the number one driving force of your furnace. I have a 30'+ chimney with only two 45's and I had to not only move the stock weight all the way out on my BD, I had to add weight to it.

BTW, bren, a guy at work mentioned this forum so I had to check it out. I should have known I'd run into you on here.

 

I have it dialed in more now. The dampener was set at -.06 then. My splits are slightly on the smaller size roughly 3-6 inches in diameter and 16 inches in length. Going forward I will be cutting at 20 inches and splitting chunkier.

What sort of burn times are you getting out of your VP100? I was hoping to be able to stoke it up and head to work and come back to a warm house 10 hours later. I have plenty of coals for an easy relight but the house has lost temperature. I am sure with some minor tweaks I can get the results I am looking for

 

Yeah I actually meant to PM you the other night to mention this thread, thought you might have some good input here...somehow it slipped my mind...guess I forgot to take my CRS pills!

 

I am getting real good burn times, although it's not something I'm too concerned about as I've never had issues. I can easily get 10 hours out of it, but this also includes the coaling time. I base burn times on the time in between loadings. One can't/shouldn't load on a bunch of coals. There are a lot of setup specific tweaks you can do to get more BTU's out of the coaling. I still think your draft is too high. I would want to put a manometer on it and get it set where it should be for starters.

If you get the Dwyer, you can not only get your draft in check but you can use it to measure you duct pressures to make sure those are OK. Like most of us who have a Dwyer, I would keep it permanently connected so you always know what your draft is at a glance.

I'm on my 4th winter with my VF100 and I'm STILL tweaking things! LOL I think I'm getting things pretty much dialed in though. The two main things which I did which has greatly helped heat our drafty house is injecting reclaimed radiant heat off of the face of the furnace into the cold air and then also adding a variable speed controller. This varies blower speed based on plenum temps. So the hotter the plenum temps are the higher the blower goes and visa versa. Doing this also allowed me to slow down my blower in order to increase the temp rise between return and supply air. The slower you can get the air moving through the furnace air jacket the more heat it will pickup. This also greatly helps at the end of the burn, as it keeps the blower running slowly to strip as many BTU's off instead of the blower spening more time off than on when it's cycling.

 

Sounds like you have it down to a science. I would love to see pictures of your setup sometime.

A Dwyer will be ordered this weekend.

 

Doesn't look anything too fancy, it's definitely a function over form setup. Nevermind the cardboard return air.... I use an open staircase for my cold air and did that to temporarily raise the intake of the cold air to the basement ceiling in order to pull in warmer air instead of the cold basement floor air. It worked so good I left it as is and then contacted a few people about making a permanent tin one. Well, nobody got back to me with a price after they were here to give me a quote so I said, "screw it". Red Green would be proud!

The variable speed controller is mounted on the side of the plenum. This is something else I plan on cleaning up, as I have three RIB relays I will be using to control the blower in certain situations/safety precautions.





Tempering tank setup from when I was first installing the furnace. Do you have the optional water coil?

 

Tempering tank setup from when I was first installing the furnace. Do you have the optional water coil?

View attachment 152735 [/QUOTE]
Looks great to me. Redirecting the air off the face of the furnance is an excellent idea!

What temperature do you have the blower set to come on at? I seem to get plenty of coals near the end of the burn but have a hard time getting ample heat.

I do not have the water coil at this time.

 

I have my snap switch moved from the factory location to up higher in the plenum. Daryl knows the factory location is not the best, but in order to be UL listed it has to come pre-wired, so he had no choice seeing a plenum does not come with it. Having said that, I have my main snap switch on top of my plenum and it's set at 120°. At this setting it turns on when plenum temps reach ~150° - 160°. Due to the variable speed controller, the blower runs non-stop when it's cold out. I also have another snap switch installed which is set really high to act as a safety switch to control a relay to the low speed winding on the motor in case the variable speed controller dies.

How big is your house? Is it well sealed/insulated? Did Daryl give you the two optional baffles which go inside the heat exchanger?

 

I think this would be a good option here, considering that 30' straight up class A chimney...dang thing would probably suck up stray cats if they got too close...

 

How big is your house? Is it well sealed/insulated? Did Daryl give you the two optional baffles which go inside the heat exchanger?[/QUOTE]
Our house is around 2300 square feet with a full basement. I was completed in April of 2016 and was sealed and insulated well...but not sprayfoamed.

I do have the baffles installed in the heat exchanger.