owb
Dang leon, I was going to quote you but it would take a page to do it. An OWB with a forced air draft has no need for fire brick. I bought an Earth wood boiler and opted for the model without an ash grate thinking how much better my old indoor wood stove heated when there was a good bed of coals to stack my wood on. However, when there is a forced air draft the fan just needs to get the fire blazing fast and get the water back up to the aquastat's desired temperature. I just don't think fire bricks or any type of heat sink would change the time between the draft fan's duty cycle. With an OWB, or mine at least, the name of the game is to heat the water faster than my home's air handler can take the heat back off of it. My chimney comes about halfway into the firebox. Doesn't draft good but it keeps the heat from blowing out the chimney. Also I'm not sure if an OWB would work as efficiently without a forced air draft. Seems like on a cold night the water would be circulating faster than an OWB with a conventional draft could heat it.Then the problem would begin to compound itself as cold water began circulating and being pumped back into a cold tank with a screw draft cracked open and a fire semi smoldering.
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#1 cut down tree #2 cut tree into smaller pieces #3 split those pieces into even smaller pieces (if you choose) #4 let dry (if necessary) #5 haul to area near wood burning appliance. #6 BURN and enjoy. These are the steps to burning wood simplified. There is a certain degree of work involved regardless of how you do these steps. As with any type of wood heat, if you consider your labor as cost, you would be better off burning fossil fuels. If you are concidering the damn laws of physics in your decision on which way your going to burn the stuff your over thinking it in my opinion. Things to really consider...safety,availibility of wood,how much time do you want to invest,your enjoyment,bugs,bark, dirt,and sawdust in your basement,your enjoyment. In my opinion an owb eliminates all the crappy stuff about wood burning. If your that daggum worried about the ultra micro efficiency then go somewhere warmer and over think a way to keep your house cool.
otstir:
Hello 2rod511,
Thank you for the compliment.
Hello baroil92,
wanting to keep things civil here I will explain to you that living on
a fixed income forces one to examine ones expenditures for fuel and
many other things. It cost more to live here in the northeast and
pensioners do not fair well in many cases.
It has nothing to to do with ultra micro efficiency, placing it in
accounting terms it is the Internal Rate of Return on ones investment.
It would cost me a lot of money and I would have to go into further debt
to move to a warmer climate and find housing.
Both modern and old housing in the deep south is also very expensive
to purchase and cool.
Also living in a warmer climate causes one to spend more on cooling
ones home for many more months of the year and it is more expensive
to accomplish this with electricity than with geothermal heating and cooling.
The idea is to save money and avoid spending it in the future when you do
not have to.
I replaced an Avco Lycoming fuel oil fired boiler in 1988 with a Buderus Logana 024
cast iron burner on the advice a plumber because it was leaking ACCORDING TO
THIS PLUMBER and it it was not really leaking anywhere other than at the bleeder vent
which I found out later but the Buderos burns less fuel and has a larger water
capacity than the AVCO Lycoming Boiler did and the AVCO Lycoming boiler
was 33 years old when it was replaced. The fire box on thr AVCO Lycoming was
simple in construction where the burners flame was fired into a steel tube welded
in the dry floor of the boiler and the heat and flame was directed upwards into the
cast iron water chamber.
I was also taken advantage of by the local oil delivery company when they told me my
my FIRST REILLO oil burner was worn out and they could no longer obtain parts for it
WHICH WAS A LIE, which I found out later after having three of them replaced for over $2000.00
over a time period of 22 plus years. I will no longer be a customer of this organization
when the next heating season comes.
SO please dont say that I am micro managing things with regard to heating my 100 plus
year old poorly insulated school house that was coverted into a home in 1953 by the
previous owner.
Back here we are unable to get log loads easily simply because the wood that is not turned into
lumber by sawmills is chipped into hog fuel or ground into sawdust and compressed
into wood pellets for export or it can be purchased for 219-299 dollars per ton if you own a
pellet stove or pellet boiler.
Anthracite coal is also something I burn to keep my home warm also and it has much
more useable heat energy than soft coal or hardwood fuels and kerosene and is smokeless
when it burns properly.
If your not willing to admit that you are losing heat every time the OWB you own shuts down
begins smoking and loses its potential heat energy from the smoke particulates to incomplete
combustion we can go there and discuss it in great detail to prove it to you if you wish.
I hope I have clarified things for you in this regard.
