**owb**whats To Do When Away For A Week?

[jmcguiretree]

What is eveyone doing when you are going away for a week and have nobody to put wood in outside boiler? Mine has 450 gallons of water and I do not want to heat it off my oil boiler. Would you run the circulating pumps to keep from freezing or would you just and anti-freeze and turn off?

 

[beerman6]

I'd stay home?

 

[HD-tech-NH]

how are you connected to your oil fired boiler?

 

[jmcguiretree]

Thrua a heat exchanger

 

[Moss Man]

At first glance I was going to question not having anyone to throw wood in it, but we run into similar problems here with not having people available to help with things while we are away.

No way to isolate the system from the indoor boiler?

 

[jmcguiretree]

Yes , I could turn off both circ pumps but then water could freeze without anti-freeze.

 

[Moss Man]

Yes , I could turn off both circ pumps but then water could freeze without anti-freeze.

I guess I missed the part about not having anti-freeze in the system.

Plum outta ideas then.

 

[bill's firewood]

why couldnt you shut off heat exchanger in plenum and pack boiler full of wood, continue circulating through hot water tank. Without heat load it should buy you 3 or 4 days bofore temp really drops and as long as it keeps circulating it shouldnt freeze. heat your house with the oil furnace for the week.When i go away ive got boiler covered by neighbor so ive never dealt with this yet.Just a suggestion. Just reread thread and realized you have boiler not forced air.I guess im not much help.

 

[HD-tech-NH]

I have check valves to isolate my oil fired boiler from the OWB circuit. Shut the valves off and let the owb circulate. Moving water wont freeze.

 

[yooperman]

I've used 2(in case one burned out) heat lights inside the boiler. Put a 5gal bucket over the chimney. Keep the circ. pump running and you shouldn't have any trouble.

 

[ant]

good Topic!

 

[woodfarmer]

you'd better have someone check the house a couple times while your away, if the power goes you're really f****d

 

[Jon E]

Good point. No matter what precautions you take, if the power goes out you have a whole new set of problems. I'd ask someone, a neighbor or a friend, to check on the OWB a couple times while you're gone. A phone call from wherever you are as a reminder, too.

However, a full boiler and the set temp as low as possible should easily keep a system from freezing for a week or more, though. I can load mine right up full and get two full days out of it before there's just no more fire or coals to heat the water, but it's still at 135-140 degrees. Then you begin backfeeding heat from the water in your inside hot water tank until that temperature drops to the temperature of your cold water coming into the hot water storage tank from your main water supply (well or municipal). That could take another couple of days or more. If you keep the house heated with the oil burner, your cold water temperature will never drop below freezing, thus the OWB water temperature can never drop below freezing. Might be 45-50 degrees when you get back, but it will stay that way indefinitely as long as the house stays at that temperature.

Not that I have this problem - my OWB has a propane burner built right in it, which is my backup heat source when the fire goes out.

 

[John D]

If your that worried about it,just drain it,and refill w new chemicals when you get back. It isnt worth worrying about,leaving home for a week,and will cost you under $30 for the chemicals.I have enough things to worry about when going away.

 

[bassman]

you can do the following

1 set the boiler temp to lowest setting mine is 120 and then bypass all exchangers and you will get about 5 to 5 days with a good hardwood.

2 drain it

3 hire a few local people to fill it

4 spend a grand on antifreeze

5 my local seller says that running water and your home furnace running heat into the water exchanger will keep it from freezing.

 

[HD-tech-NH]

you'd better have someone check the house a couple times while your away, if the power goes you're really f****d

Funny you mention that. I have been thinking of setting up a solar panel to run my circulation pump on the boiler and one zone in the house in case of just such a catastrophe.

 

[oneoldbanjo]

When I go away for an extended period my neighbors will watch my boiler, they have one and I do the same for them.

However I don't always ask them to.....and I use the following methods.

1) Just before I leave I crank up the thermostat in the house and garage and get them warm. I heat the house up to 74 or so and the garage up to about 60. The house is forced air and very well insulated and the garage is radiant heat from the floor slab and it will hold heat for a long time.
2) I turn the garage heating system off so it doesn't call for heat and circulate water through the floor - but leave the circulation pump at the boiler on and it just bypasses the radiant floor system. I turn the OWB thermostat in the house down to 50 degrees.....and I turn the thermostat for the heat pump to 55 degrees, and I turn the elecricity for the water heater off so the water heater doesn't try to use the sidearm exchanger to keep the OWB water temperature hot.
3) I load the OWB with as much wood as I can fit in. I use 36" long pieces of 8"-10" wood as straight as possible so I can fit the wood in tightly. When I have as much big wood as I can fit in I start packing small pieces into the voids and on top....I pack it as tightly as I can. I let it burn a bit until it reaches the upper set point and the blower shuts off.....then I wait a few minutes for the flame to settle down and I pack in some more wood if possible.

Using this method the OWB draft blower will only come on to keep the OWB water between the set points - but no heat wil actually be used to keep the house or garage warm. The house will eventually drop to 55 degrees and then the heat pump will keep it warm (if you count 55 as being warm). If I am gone long enough that the OWB fire and coals go out.....the water flowing from the OWB through the heat exchanger in the house heat pump will get enough heat to keep the OWB from dropping below freezing. So far I have never been gone long enough to need this method. During Thanksgiving this year (and last year) I stoked up the OWB as described on Thursday morning and when I returned on Sunday evening I still had about 1/3rd of the wood left.

I am sure that if you lowered the set points you could make the fire last longer.....the set points on my Woodmaster are confusing to set and I just leave them at 170 OFF and 150 ON for the blower. You might be able to keep the fire going with the forced air blower turned off completely....I have never tried this and I don't know if the wood in the OWB would keep burning with the blower turned off?

The temperatures here in Northern Kentucky are not nearly as cold as they are up north......so you may not get as long of burn times as I do down here. I do think however that the house heating system can supply enough heat to your OWB to keep it from freezing if you leave the circulating pump on 24/7.

 

[Scootermsp]

Network

I have 3 other people from town that I sort of know that have Central Boiler OWBs also. We are not friends but we all have each others cell phone numbers and can and will call for a check or wood fill of OWB. It works out great and it's better to have an OWB owner check it than just a random neighbor, we know what to look for and how things work. Find some OWB owners in your neck of the woods and introduce yourself, chances are they have been or will be in your position sooner or later and call you to keep the "DOG" fed.

 

[HD-tech-NH]

I have 3 other people from town that I sort of know that have Central Boiler OWBs also. We are not friends but we all have each others cell phone numbers and can and will call for a check or wood fill of OWB. It works out great and it's better to have an OWB owner check it than just a random neighbor, we know what to look for and how things work. Find some OWB owners in your neck of the woods and introduce yourself, chances are they have been or will be in your position sooner or later and call you to keep the "DOG" fed.

Ever think of moving north! Really your title says it all! Network... you never know you may be able to help each other out in other ways as well..

 

[jeeptj19992001]

What is eveyone doing when you are going away for a week and have nobody to put wood in outside boiler? Mine has 450 gallons of water and I do not want to heat it off my oil boiler. Would you run the circulating pumps to keep from freezing or would you just and anti-freeze and turn off?

where in cny?