Vedolux Lambda 450

I did not give a description of what each picture was about so I thought I would re-post.
The upper part of the firebox seen through the loading door. The bent rod you see in the picture is the brush and rod for cleaning the flame tubes.

The lower part of the fire box. In the bottom you see a cast iron grate on top of refractory base of the firebox. The smoke from the fire is drawn through the hot coals of the fire through a narrow slot in the refractory where super heated secondary air is drawn into this passage; burning the smoke at around 2000 degrees f. The cast iron grate is an improvement over earlier boilers as this was a common wear point.

This is what's called the reactionary chamber where complete burning of tars and resins takes place. Some day I will try and get a picture of the elusive blue flame! The narrow slot you see in the refractory is the bottom of the nozzle which leads up into the firebox.

These are the computer controlled air drafts. There is a temperature sensor and a oxygen censor in the flue leaving the boiler. The computer analyzes the oxygen and temperature of the flue gases and adjusted the amounts of primary and secondary air supplied to the fire. If there is no smoke or no temperature, the computer shuts the boiler down. The upper control is the primary air to the fire in the firebox. The lower is the secondary air that is injected into the nozzle in the passage between the fire box and reactionary chamber.

This is the draft inducer fan which is controlled by the computer. It pulls air through the two drafts and is also controlled by the computer.

The flame tubes with turbulators., The turbulators slow down the passage of the hot gases before they go up the chimney. Also, this makes for easy cleaning of these tubes which is a real process on some boilers.

 

This is a cutout view of the boiler .

 

I've never seen turbs exactly like those with the individual wires like that...it looks like they are twisted into a helix though?
The helix design also makes the flue gasses spin, which centrifugally makes them stay in contact with the tube walls, making for better heat exchange. Without them, path of least resistance is right down the center.
Looks like a well designed wood fired hydronic heater!

 

After almost 40 years of Jetstream being really easy to clean that was the clincher!

 

What a cool design. Seems so simple.

With the exhaust sucker fan, do these things even need a chimney with height?

 

Can't say with certainty on this model, but those fans are usually draft inducers....not draft replacers.

 

The chimney is not all that tall - only about 16 feet but it does draw good. The Jetstreams had both draft inducer and a pressurized firebox so draft definitely was not an issue. The new boiler is not hooked up yet. I am waiting for a flue adapter that is on back order.

 

Before we moved the new boiler into the boiler room, campinspecter had to remove the old one. After he removed the heat exchanger off the base, we found that the base was falling apart.


The based was cracked in a few places.


If this was our only option, campinspecter would have taken the time to repair it and put it back into operation. Instead he took a sledge hammer and crowbar to it and broke it up and hauled up to our trailer. Next stop for it was the dump.


The heat exchanger was in good shape but pretty useless without the base so it made the journey up to the trailer as well.


It is a long uphill climb for it but as you can see, we aren't going to be pushing it up the hill.


On its way up the hill. I get to run the winch and campinspecter did the steering.


On the trailer


the work horse combination. Trailer attached to woodsplitter. Woodsplitter attached to truck.


It just needed cargo straps and away it went to the dump. They used a forklift to take it off. We kept the dolly it was sitting on. That dolly has come so useful.

 

Next job was to make the space where the boiler was going to sit a little wider. We had put in metal studs, rockwool insulation and covered the wall with steel siding to insulate the boiler room. Now we took out an area of the stud wall so the new boiler could sit closer to the concrete wall and give us more room between the boiler and the storage tank.



The chimney access had to be moved up as well as the new boiler is taller than the old Jetstreams.




campinspecter created a ramp for getting the new boiler in the room. He also sank an eye bolt for the winch we were going to use. The winch belonged to my grandfather and was a bit temperamental.


Here it comes. I was able to winch it to the ramp but not up the ramp. Not enough arm strength so I got to steer. Scary!


Safely in the boiler room. I didn't steer it off the ramp.


A bit of a struggle but we got it to within 12" of its final spot. We are waiting for chimney parts to get here so the final alignments can be made.

 

While we are waiting for parts, campinspecter had a few odd jobs to do. One was to repour the door sill that was taken out to get the boilers moved. Our dogs never go in the boiler especially by themselves. Guess what Shadow did. There is something about fresh cement that fascinates everyone





We have about 20 cords of wood that is two inches too long for the new boiler. campinspecter made a jig to shorten the firewood. I have a video but it posts sideways. I will try to work on that.

 

Oh my...I feel your pain...that is exactly why I switched from a Kuuma VF200 to the larger VF100 (yeah, the model numbers seem backwards) because I had ~20 cords cut at 21-22" and the VF200 takes 16-18"...after one whole winter of cutting 4-6" off all my wood, I was done with it!

 

It won't be too bad if the new boiler can burn the little pieces without puffing. I am going to try burning them on startup.

 

My current Expansion tank is in the story above my boiler room; about 6 feet above the top of my storage tank. There is about 16 feet of 1/2 inch copper pipe between the storage and expansion tank and 12 feet of that run is almost level and has been there for the last 38 years with no apparent corrosion problems. The new boiler wants the expansion tank 98 inches above the top of the storage to prevent oxygenation. My question is this - does the 12 feet of almost level pipe reduce the need for more elevation between the expansion and storage?

 

Hmm...dunno about that one...might be a question better posed to the boiler guys on the other site...

 

Those Swede's make a very nice boiler, sad to say very superior to anything I've seen here made in the states. I don't need one of these but I want one. One point of interest, my Attack lambda boilers use the same exact control board right down to the same button layout and display screens. I actually used the Vedolux manual to access the settings because it was better written. Great job on the install so far!

 

I've had lots of holdups waiting for things, like a chimney adapter that's back ordered and not going to be available till sometime in March. So I had one custom made out of stainless!

 

This has been quite the process to get the chimney in place before campinspecter can do any plumbing. Long story short, we replaced the original chimney with a new one From 7" to 6" which is the proper size for the boiler.
Standing tall outside all nice and shiny.


Woodshed lengths are all covered in but here is a pic of the boiler room. Double wall pipe down to the adapter.


Standing on my tiptoes to get this picture.


Now starts the process of plumbing. campinspecter is trying out layouts to see how it goes before putting it together finally. He is waiting for a distribution box to be made.

 

Thanks for the updates.

 

Plumbing is done and it doesn't leak. Yeah! campinspecter forgot to smile when I took his picture. The equipment he was using to cut and thread the pipe was my father's. I don't know if Dad bought it new or used but it has been around for a long time.





Makes it hard when you are trying to keep things level.









Next step will be the wiring for the sensors and pumps.

 

It's hard to smile after a long day cutting threads by hand, but Woodwidow wanted the picture so I went along with it! But I did have fun with this plumbing project !!!