This is my first winter with an OWB. Recently installed a Heatmor 200. Heating 2500 sq ft house, hot water and 1400 sq ft garage. So far experience has been great. Got our first taste of winter this week. Last night tempatures were around 15 degrees and winds were around 20 mph with gust around 35. So the windchill was at 0 and below. Got home to check on the wood burner and the water temp was down to 140 (have max set at 180 and min at 160) but most of the fire was gone. so reloaded it and gave it 3 hours and went out and checked and it had pulled it back up to 160 water temp. This morning the blower had finally shut off. Question is could I be in trouble come the dead of winter when it get really cold or is this performance normal? Air temp out of the ducts with the water down to 140 was still 111 in the house. so i do not think I am losing much temp going in the house. Just wondering if this is normal because I am used to it cycling on and off more than what it did last night.
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- Thread starter Bluefan
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bluestem
ArboristSite Operative
Was the firebox full of wood? My CB 6048 has been keeping up with the 4 below temps the last 2 nights. Only been filling the front have of the firebox.
I filled it in the morning at 6AM and then when I got home at 4:30PM it was almost all the way down. I then filled it all the way up and then went back out at 8:00 and added a few pieces to fill it up the rest of the way.
varna
ArboristSite Member
Hello and welcome,
Great site isn't it? Anyway, 1st year here with my Wood Doctor HE5000 gassifier. I'm still in the learning curve with mine too. I have noticed the same with mine, when the water gets down below 130, it seems to be hard to recover. My fan will run forever it seems. It hasn't been real cold here until just recently, the wood I'm using is not "totally" dry and I fill twice a day plus a couple of logs when I get home from work to hold over till my 10 pm top off. Like I said, I am still "tinkering" with learning my OWB. One thing I have learned, if my water gets below 130 or so (always my fault for playing around with it
) and I want a faster water temp recovery, I shut off my circulator pumps (one to house one to garage) and in about 2 hours the temp is right back up. Actualy, that is in my manual to do. The only downfall to for me is no DHW when the pumps are off, I just choose my timing to do this wisely with 3 women in the house
Great site isn't it? Anyway, 1st year here with my Wood Doctor HE5000 gassifier. I'm still in the learning curve with mine too. I have noticed the same with mine, when the water gets down below 130, it seems to be hard to recover. My fan will run forever it seems. It hasn't been real cold here until just recently, the wood I'm using is not "totally" dry and I fill twice a day plus a couple of logs when I get home from work to hold over till my 10 pm top off. Like I said, I am still "tinkering" with learning my OWB. One thing I have learned, if my water gets below 130 or so (always my fault for playing around with it
) and I want a faster water temp recovery, I shut off my circulator pumps (one to house one to garage) and in about 2 hours the temp is right back up. Actualy, that is in my manual to do. The only downfall to for me is no DHW when the pumps are off, I just choose my timing to do this wisely with 3 women in the housebeerman6
Addicted to ArboristSite
Welcome to AS.
There are a lot of variables to this,what kinda wood,what do you consider "full" was the house looking for heat,is the OWB exposed to wind etc...
There are a lot of variables to this,what kinda wood,what do you consider "full" was the house looking for heat,is the OWB exposed to wind etc...
Unknown type of wood, sorry really bad at wood types but it was all cut and split last winter, full= as much wood as i can fit in it, house was not looking for heat, it stayed 74 the whole time (this is where I have the thermostat set) and the OWB is exposed to the wind.
beerman6
Addicted to ArboristSite
lol,I dont know wood types myself,it's either heavy or light.
This year I got 3 sections of shadow box(?) fence and surrounded the OWB with it,knocked the wind down quite a bit.
How much water does it hold?
This year I got 3 sections of shadow box(?) fence and surrounded the OWB with it,knocked the wind down quite a bit.
How much water does it hold?
Type of wood is a huge deal on burn time. Once it's up to temp in the evening try loading it with the densest wood you have for the night and see if it gives you adequate burn time. No reason it shouldn't be able to keep temp up if it installed well and good wood.
itn
ArboristSite Operative
what's the btu rating for that stove?
itn
ArboristSite Operative
my rating is 500,000. i have almost 400 gals. of water. if i was to guess, i'd say your beyond the limit of your owb. i heat my garage, water and house. i can see a noticeable wood usage diff. by turning the garage down to 45 deg. then i just kick it up if i'm workin out there.
i run my water temp at 170. when it gets around 0 i move it to 185. makes a big diff. on the house temp. recovery time. your brand is diff that mine so i'm just throwin ideas.
i run my water temp at 170. when it gets around 0 i move it to 185. makes a big diff. on the house temp. recovery time. your brand is diff that mine so i'm just throwin ideas.
I am guessing by the responses that this is not normal. I have a hard time believing that I am byond the capacity of the wood burner due to it still carring the house, garage and water. Although it put a strain on it i wonder if it is not more because the wood was pretty much gone in the evening due to not filling it all the way full in the AM?
itn
ArboristSite Operative
i was just throwin out ideas. mine was supposed to go 2 days without needing wood, i fill it morn and nite when its 0 outside.
mine was supposed to go 2 days without needing wood, i fill it morn and nite when its 0 outside.Very appreciative of the ideas, like I said just trying to figure out if there is normal or not. Hoping that not over the BTU of furnace because that would suck. Sorry if you took my response the wrong way. Thanks ITN
fletcher0780
ArboristSite Operative
building up a good bed of coals makes a huge difference. I noticed if I pack mine full for a couple days, then just load normally it has no problem keeping up. If I don't have a good coal bed, it can run out of wood real quick.
No coals are good. Keep the coal level up. Clean ashes out only when have to. First couple of times I cleaned mine, I took most of the ashes/coals. The wood consumption went up for a couple of days till the coal level was back up
Yep it's a learning thing, second season here and noticably better this year than I was last year Coals are good, but not so many that you can't get enough wood in...gotta just get a feel for it. Sounds like normal usage to me...guys on here have been saying just feed it as much wood as you need to get to the next feeding which I think does keep the wood consumption down, they do eat whatever you feed them...mis calculated myself yesterday, came home from work just like the original poster to burnt down coals and low water temp...it was in the teens and blowing like crazy last night, took all night to get the temp up as my house and huge shop were calling for heat all night while it was cold...no bid deal, just throw more wood in, it will catch up. I don't think you maxed out your output,just ran out of wood during the day Could have had a load of pine in or something...
Coals are good, but not so many that you can't get enough wood in...gotta just get a feel for it. Sounds like normal usage to me...guys on here have been saying just feed it as much wood as you need to get to the next feeding which I think does keep the wood consumption down, they do eat whatever you feed them...mis calculated myself yesterday, came home from work just like the original poster to burnt down coals and low water temp...it was in the teens and blowing like crazy last night, took all night to get the temp up as my house and huge shop were calling for heat all night while it was cold...no bid deal, just throw more wood in, it will catch up. I don't think you maxed out your output,just ran out of wood during the day Could have had a load of pine in or something...
