The load 5 cubic feet . Half way through a batch burn (90 minutes), has raised a 1045 imperial gallon tank 24 degrees !
Out of curiosity, do you remember water temperature before and after the burn ? I'm assuming you are burning that much to cover a 24 hour heating period. I know you guys have been in a deep freeze up there. I'm glad it missed us, once a year is good enough for me.
Storage (1045 imp Gallons) was 145 degrees and was raised 45 degrees to 190 degrees. Storage will easily last 24 hours closer to 36 hours. It has taken me almost 2 years to learn how much wood to use for a batch burn and not idle the boiler!
Nice setup...a lil jealous if I'm honest So that's 160k BTU's actually put into the water? Have you ever considered weighing the load? Weight x 8600, then deduct (18-20%?) for moisture content, and boiler efficiency (mid-upper 80's?) should equal BTU's put into the tank...at least as long as you know the wood is dry, and I'm sure yours is...
Yes that is BTU's into the Storage ! When the storage tank was put into the boiler room it was set up for a boiler the size of a dishwasher with the bigger dimension-ed boiler , an electric wood splitter ,and a big shop vac there is no room for the scale , but I have weighed the wood several to see what efficiency of the boiler was , 3% t0 94% ! The firewood is 13% to 14% moisture content.
I agree, definitely the cats meow. And no getting woken up at 445 in the morning because the boiler has gone cold for my some mysterious reason. campinspecter is there a limit on storage size for a IWB ?
I don’t even know what a Vedolux is. I never came across it in my research of boilers. Definitely sounds more efficient than my new Heatmaster. Must be a different design ?
Apples to oranges comparison really. A Vedolux is a batch burn type boiler, you have to start a new fire everyday with a batch type IWB. G10000 is tops on the EPA DB for efficiency. When it comes to a OWB you can't do much better. I'm thoroughly impressed with mine from a efficiency stand point.
Indoor model only...there are a number of European models like that...outdoor boilers are more of a North American thing
I have 1045 imperial gallons stored. When the tank is up to temperature at 194 degrees F, it represents 1,500,000 BTUs with a heat loss of 3,000 BTUs per hour or roughly .24%, so I'm guessing 2,000 would be about as big as you would want to go - a number that Garn has chosen. I like to fire the Vedolux when storage is down to 145 degrees F, then one full charge 0f wood (5 cubic feet) gets storage back up to 188 - 194 degrees with no idling. It takes about 5 minutes to light the boiler. I fired the Vedolux at 10:00 am Tuesday, no fire Wednesday, and will fire again Thursday about the same time, so that's 2 days of heat and domestic hot water on 5 cubic feet of wood. We are having some really mild weather so the house is only drawing around 10,000 BTUs per hour.
For my edification In your particular setup, simple math tells me that if you had 2k gallons of storage you would need roughly 10 cubic feet of wood to get the 2k gallons of storage up to your target temperature from 145° F. Based off of your picture it doesn't look like your boiler holds that much wood. In a hypothetical situation would you load on top of hot coals, or do you have to start another fire from scratch ?
This boiler only holds 5 cubic feet. When it gets down to a good coal bed, more wood can be added. I add wood when the top of the coals are even with the bottom of the loading door. It will take a hour to burn these coals and raise the tank 15 degrees or roughly 150,000 BTUs. The Vedolux holds 3.0 cubic feet. The boiler that I have - the Vedolux 450 holds 5 cubic feet and the Vedolux 650 holds 7.5 cubic feet.
It has been around about 8 years. The primary and secondary air are controlled by a oxygen sensor in the flue that is tied to a computer. The boiler manufacturer's name is Varmebaronen , Vedolux is the name of the particular boiler that I have ,
