well.... boiler is staying . for now!!

[hbbyloggr]

Stonykill,

Our wood stove that was in the house for years had a butterfly damper in the pipe to limit the draft. Our OWB does not have that feature in the smoke stack. It's direct out. That's where I figured there was room for change to keep the smoke and heat in the burn chamber longer. We have two sections of 8" metalbestos pipe for the stack. A regular sheet steel 8" to 6" reducer slides nicely into the top of the stack. If it starts loading up with creosote it's easily slid out and tapped to shake out the collected deposit.
The Empyre 450 we have is the older model with the air tubes located on the bottom sides of the firebox. We had some troubles with them for the first couple of years being to thin and burned out once a year. We have a thicker set now and have made it through 1.5 yrs.
Your OWB sounds like it is doing you well. Any plans to upgrade or are you going to hang on to it for awhile?

PS. It's nice to be able to talk about these units on this site without being "burned at the stake".

 

[stonykill]

Stonykill,

Our wood stove that was in the house for years had a butterfly damper in the pipe to limit the draft. Our OWB does not have that feature in the smoke stack. It's direct out. That's where I figured there was room for change to keep the smoke and heat in the burn chamber longer. We have two sections of 8" metalbestos pipe for the stack. A regular sheet steel 8" to 6" reducer slides nicely into the top of the stack. If it starts loading up with creosote it's easily slid out and tapped to shake out the collected deposit.
The Empyre 450 we have is the older model with the air tubes located on the bottom sides of the firebox. We had some troubles with them for the first couple of years being to thin and burned out once a year. We have a thicker set now and have made it through 1.5 yrs.
Your OWB sounds like it is doing you well. Any plans to upgrade or are you going to hang on to it for awhile?

PS. It's nice to be able to talk about these units on this site without being "burned at the stake".

mine seems to be one of the better, more thought out designs. I did a ton of research before dropping the $$$$ into it. I actually don't plan on upgrading it, as it seems like the engineers did their job. I plan on using an owb until I can no longer load it, I'm only 39.... something, so I will have one for a long time I hope. My wood burning life , realistically my entire life has never been easier. Its so much better to load one stove twice a day at most than to load 2 stoves every few hours, plus pay for oil for my shop. Seems I did the right research before buying one, and I have to say I love it. I am going to add a small 12 x 20 kiln into the mix, passive solar, with the boiler hooked up to it for nights, etc. That won't always be used though, mainly in the summer. In the winter I dry my lumber in my basement, gets down to 7 to 8 % pretty quick down there.

 

[ghitch75]

my boiler is forced air and i have my stack necked down to 4"...gained about 6 hours of burn time per load from the stock 8" flue and almost no smoke.... holds the gasses in firebox for a more complete burn....as far as creosote burns to hot to plug up

 

[stonykill]

my boiler is forced air and i have my stack necked down to 4"...gained about 6 hours of burn time per load from the stock 8" flue and almost no smoke.... holds the gasses in firebox for a more complete burn....as far as creosote burns to hot to plug up

where are you getting the reducer from 8 to 6 or 4? I can only find thin metal ones. Admittedly I just started looking, but I am curious about this. I have a 3 foot section of 6 inch metalbestos already that I got for free, so this might be worth a try.

 

[ghitch75]

i just use a 24 gauge 8"to 6" and 6" to 4" reducer you can get them at any HVAC supply house...both will last about a year then they rust apart...need to make some out for 3/16th steel just haven't done it yet.

 

[hbbyloggr]

Yeh, there was quite a difference in the burn time when the 8" to 6" reducer was added. But then I also changed over to the old round wood at the same time , so maybe its a combination of both that nearly doubled the burn time. I'll go down to the shop and see if there is anything to reduce it to 4" and see how that goes. I'll let you know.
Maybe even a butterfly damper to tweek it better. Might find it's better than going another 7500 bucks or more for the new generation burners.

 

[hbbyloggr]

Stoneykill,

I didn't catch what you were running for a OWB. How many Btu's is it supposed to deliver?

I installed a butterfly damper in the pipe earlier and will see if it makes an improvement in the smoke and burn time.

Right now it's snowing with 6-8 inches on the way. Put on the snowplow and will have to get ready to plow driveways sometime early in the morning. Heavy wet stuff, so I might as well test the generator as well.

 

[stonykill]

Stoneykill,

I didn't catch what you were running for a OWB. How many Btu's is it supposed to deliver?

I installed a butterfly damper in the pipe earlier and will see if it makes an improvement in the smoke and burn time.

Right now it's snowing with 6-8 inches on the way. Put on the snowplow and will have to get ready to plow driveways sometime early in the morning. Heavy wet stuff, so I might as well test the generator as well.

I'm running a free heat machine. Its a 5000 btu unit. I am using about 1/2 the capacity right now.

We have been lucky so far today with the snow, it just rained here all day. it was supposed to snow all day. It looks like 1 to 3 for tonight, thats it. The freakin snow just all melted:deadhorse: . Just gassed up my generator, just in case the weather guessers are all wrong, as they usually are.

 

[hbbyloggr]

Got yourself a saw mill too? You mentioned having a kiln.
We have a portable band mill to take care of our lumber needs plus a little custom sawing. The Kiln is used mostly for our firewood and specialties.

Just finished a test run for the generator. We are good to go. We've got about 3-4 " right now with the storm winding up later tonight. Might have some power outages from the looks of the weight on the pine limbs.

Where abouts you located in up state NY. I knew the Albany to Lake George Area pretty well as a kid growing up in the Berkshires.

I'll look up your boiler later.

good luck tonight !

 

[stonykill]

Got yourself a saw mill too? You mentioned having a kiln.
We have a portable band mill to take care of our lumber needs plus a little custom sawing. The Kiln is used mostly for our firewood and specialties.

Just finished a test run for the generator. We are good to go. We've got about 3-4 " right now with the storm winding up later tonight. Might have some power outages from the looks of the weight on the pine limbs.

Where abouts you located in up state NY. I knew the Albany to Lake George Area pretty well as a kid growing up in the Berkshires.

I'll look up your boiler later.



good luck tonight !

I have several csm's. Works for me, plus I like running my chainsaws. I am putting up the kiln in the next month or so. Just a small one, all I need.

I am 5 miles from the mass border at the edge of the berkshires. 15 miles or so from Stockbridge if that helps, about the same distance from pittsfeild mass. 35 or 40 miles from Albany. I have a few relatives left in lowell mass. That near you?

I'm hoping the weather guessers are all wet, and it will stay as rain.

good luck with your snow, and I hope it all melts right away! Unless you're making money plowing, then it can melt right after you get done plowing!

 

[hbbyloggr]

I have several csm's. Works for me, plus I like running my chainsaws. I am putting up the kiln in the next month or so. Just a small one, all I need.

I am 5 miles from the mass border at the edge of the berkshires. 15 miles or so from Stockbridge if that helps, about the same distance from pittsfeild mass. 35 or 40 miles from Albany. I have a few relatives left in lowell mass. That near you?

I'm hoping the weather guessers are all wet, and it will stay as rain.

good luck with your snow, and I hope it all melts right away! Unless you're making money plowing, then it can melt right after you get done plowing!

Holy crap ! Small world. My folks live in So Egremont, Baldwin Hill area to be exact.. I probably go by your place when I visit them. I used to go to the Lebanon Valley Speedway a lot when I lived there. Still love the area. If there was anything else to do but farm ( which is what we did) when I got into my teens I'de still be there. Oh well!
To avoid going through Stockbridge and GB I cut over through Pittsfield over to NY and cut back in near Alford. Rt 20/ Rt 22/Rt 71? Got a brother that lives in that area also. I'll let you know the next time I'm down that way.
I don't get into the Lowell area at all. We are about 20 miles west of Manchester, NH. Lyndeborough/ New Boston area.

I retired from logging about six years ago and started peddlin' firewood to keep busy. It got out of hand some , because we do about a thousand cord a year now.
Good to meet you, Stonykill !

 

[stonykill]

Holy crap ! Small world. My folks live in So Egremont, Baldwin Hill area to be exact.. I probably go by your place when I visit them. I used to go to the Lebanon Valley Speedway a lot when I lived there. Still love the area. If there was anything else to do but farm ( which is what we did) when I got into my teens I'de still be there. Oh well!
To avoid going through Stockbridge and GB I cut over through Pittsfield over to NY and cut back in near Alford. Rt 20/ Rt 22/Rt 71? Got a brother that lives in that area also. I'll let you know the next time I'm down that way.
I don't get into the Lowell area at all. We are about 20 miles west of Manchester, NH. Lyndeborough/ New Boston area.

I retired from logging about six years ago and started peddlin' firewood to keep busy. It got out of hand some , because we do about a thousand cord a year now.
Good to meet you, Stonykill !

You come within a few miles of my house. The only traffic light that you see on rte 22. If you took a right at the light (295) and went 4 miles, Im on the left.

No farming here anymore, well VERY little anyway. All the NY citiots buy up the farms at stupid prices, knock down 90% of the outbuildings, grow grass that they pay the locals to mow, and call it a farm:hmm3grin2orange: .

I can hear the speedway at night or sunday mornings from my house, not loud but can hear it.

Let me know when your in the area, I'm almost always home, work from here. Good meetin ya, it is a small world.

 

[hbbyloggr]

Yes, that's right. I forgot we take that 295 cut off to Rt 20.
Ive got some relatives in Richmond, too.

Yep, I'll give you a shout when I'm in the area. ( I'm sitting here still shaking my head.

Your right on about no farms left and all the slickers buying things up. I used to have about 600 acres to hunt on between 4 farms in our neighborhood. Don't imagine you can walk down the road with a rifle anymore, like i used to.
My old man decided to retire at 80yrs and sold 30 acres to some rich NYC doctor. He and Mom can take it a little bit easier now. All the new folks moving in have changed the zoning so pieces of back land can't be accessed.

Still, it's one of the nicest pieces of country in the whole USA.

I'll PM you tomorrow to get your # and directions, etc.

I put the damper on the furnace this afternoon and will see how it changes things . The proof should show at 4:00 pm, when I usually fill it for the next 24 hr burn. I think it may be worth getting another reducer instead to cut it to 4 inches.

Chat with you tomorrow.

Bill

 

[hbbyloggr]

Here's the update on the OWB stack butterfly dampener experiment.

Going from the original 8" stack I reduced it to 6" with a butter fly damper installed in the 6" pipe. I restricted the flow by a little less than half with the damper.
Normally,with the 8-6" reduction, I doubled the burn time to 24 hrs, filling the furnace at 4:00 every day. With the damper installed yesterday there were still two logs left out of seven in the full charcoal stage. I would guess that there would be another 3-4 hrs of available wood energy left before needing to be filled. That's when everyone gets home and the demand increases. I suspect the time increased to 28-30 hrs on one load of wood. Not bad.

I'm going to try some other ideas to see how it goes. I did notice that the normal creosote build-up on the " cooler" door surface is starting to clean up, as are the walls. The smoke is also clearing up sooner ,too. Hmmmm. Too good to be true?

 

[stonykill]

this is all very interesting. For the few dollars invested, I think I'll give this a try, see what happens.

 

[hbbyloggr]

this is all very interesting. For the few dollars invested, I think I'll give this a try, see what happens.

Stonykill, Check your PM.

Hbbyloggr

 

[hbbyloggr]

this is all very interesting. For the few dollars invested, I think I'll give this a try, see what happens.

I looked over the web site for your Free Heat Machine. It looks as though they are already doing what Ghitch and I are working towards. That is slightly adding a little back pressure to promote a more complete burn. So far I am impressed with the results.