Burnin' Wood ( and other fuels...)

[kweaver]

Kraig - Are you offering him a little blue pill ?

 

[kmcconaughey]

Nope, just posting photos because Kendell hasn't!

 

[rwilke]

Kraig McC.,
Nice stash of firewood; however, to me it looks like you're past ready for a "permanent firewood roof".
Sink a few posts and nail a few crossmembers inbetween and tack down a few pieces of sheet steel to cover it all.

I was lucky enough to gather up some used steel sheeting from a barn/shed that a fella wanted tore down.
I'm not too worried about the old nail holes in the sheeting, as it'll still WAY better than wrestling around with a tarp or pieces of ol' plywood of some sort.

Just a suggestion,,,,,,,,
Ryan W

 

[aschumacher]

Hey Kentuck see if Charlie can move all the wood stove stuff over to a different thread as Kendall suggested. Be interesting to see what goes on with various types of stoves.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Ryan, that stack was from a few heating seasons ago. FWIW, I buy firewood by the semi load. Last load was a load of slabwood, which I hate, but the guy I buy it from has too much of it (He owns a saw mill) so I got it for a good price. I did build a prototype firewood shelter last year and I had hoped to build another "improved" version this summer but never had the time. I'll post a photo of it tomorrow, no photos of it here at home, go figure. I might have to snap a photo of it in the morning as I'm not sure I took a photo of it after I finished it, well, it still isn't finished... Being a prototype, I have a few changes planned for it.

 

[kide]

OK KentucK - you asked for pics, here goes..... but first some background..
We've heated our 1240 square foot (main floor) house with wood full time since we had it built in '79, first with a small furnace and then with a Johnson 9900 since '85. We've also always had a stove in the living room for spring and fall, but our house is really well insulated and the drawback to the upstairs stove is ,well, it's upstairs - too much heat upstairs, none in the basement (computer room, laundry, workshop..) so we've mostly heated with the 9900 through the years. We don't have a woodlot, so wood collection, as my next door neighbor rubs me on it, is my "hobby"... (like laundry is my wife's "hobby"). Through the years we've cut locally, gotten slabwood (ugh) and semi-loads (lotta work, but you don't have to go lookin' for it).

After 28 years of woodburning at this house, my wife sez "it's getting a little dusty - what else can we do??". As a coincidence, my son-in-law of 5 years had started a sideline of building outside wood burning hot water furnaces (NOT BOILERS). He's AWS certified, has 30 plus years in one of the steel fabrication shops here in Mid-Michigan and after having one built, decided he could build a better one. He doesn't build a completed unit (liability), but supplies a "kit" that you complete. The first couple of pics show the type of unit that he is building.. He supplies three different sizes, the one I just got is a smaller one ( Tank outer is 4ft diam by 4ft long, inner is 3ft diam by 44in long). Ours is the first one he's had spray foamed, all the others have been wrapped with fiberglass bats and then chicken wire to hold them in place (part of the homeowners job). He's built about 40 of them, got them heating houses up to 5000 square feet along with barns, garages, etc. He can't keep up with the orders and since he's a hunter/fisherman////, he's always bustin' butt.

Plumbing is pretty straight forward, dip tubes in the tank to promote full circulation, a small circulation pump pushing to the house, a copper/aluminum heat exchanger in the plenum of the furnace in the house (makes our oil furnace into an air handler, at least it's getting used now). I used 1" PEX, the hardest thing was finding the 1" fittings... Wiring is straight forward - there's a 'stat on the tank to sense water temperature, it turns a draft fan on the front door on when more fire is needed. Water temp is set somewheres around 180 degrees..There is no control from the house to the furnace. In the house, you wire a second thermostat to just turn on the furnace blower when heat is needed. OK, here's the pics:

This is the first one we got (we resold and got a smaller one)

This gives a pretty good idea of what I started with.

Along with wiring, plumbing, deck, I had to side it, too

The big day, moving it from the shop to the deck without dropping it..

My trusting neighbor guiding it into place (and he's the equipment operator, seems like he'd know better than to let me run the tractor!!)

End view of the heat exchanger in the plenum of the oil burner (above the A/C A coil..)

Ready to Rock n' Roll !!

Side view

Back view w/door open

Path of buried Pex - 120 feet( buried last year)

Closeup of plumbing - stubs are for filling and draining the loop

Inside the firebox - note domed back end (firebox is a small anhydrous ammonia tank - 1/2 inch wall thickness)

Dimensions are 5 foot square with 5 foot high wall

I let the fire die out today and shut off the pump (60 plus degrees here) and in 12 hours the water temp didn't drop more than about 4 degrees in the tank. Also - Kraig - the background should look familiar - I won't have room there to drive any more wells with the 129 ...

 

[kide]

Ryan - new thread started - let's see who's heatin' with what !!!

 

[kweaver]

Oh the good ol daze

circa 4/28/99

 

[kmcconaughey]

Kendell, nice setup! BTW, earlier today I *almost* posted that photo (that KENtucky just posted) of you driving the well point with your 129 as a comparison to the location of your new wood burner....

Ummm, is that the Pillsbury Dough Boy (looking moldy) tied up in the shrubs with a tricycle??????

 

[kweaver]

Kendell - Where'd ya get the exchanger and what did ya use for the pump ? Did you mount a pop off somewhere incase she gets a little to hot ? And have you got a squirrel cage and a hungry squirrel for when the juicetricty goes out ?

 

[digger]

I think I got most of them moved to here.

 

[kweaver]

Charlie ----- What ya gonna heat your building with ? You know the one I'm 'fering to.

 

[digger]

Something along those lines but much bigger.
Course that one you posted a link to doesn't look to bad either.
I'm gonna have to heat around 5400 Sq. Ft. with 20' sidewalls!

 

[kide]

Kraig:
Left over Godzilla from Halloween..

Kentuck:
Local supplier for the heat exchanger, but I've seen the exact same unit in the online catalogs from Woodmaster. Circulation pump is from WW Grainger. The "whatsit" that I showed last night is to control draft and shut off air to the fire. Note - this is not a boiler and is not pressurized, but the overtemp problem is still there, in the same way that you could let an inside woodburner be overloaded and runaway (BTDT ???). The main thing you can do is control combustion air. Got the squirrel ready to go.. Actually, at the present time, we've got four ways of heating the house....

 

[kweaver]

Kendell's gotta have somewhere to burn all that retirement money

I gotta figure out something to get away from propane but I don't want anymore wood burners in the house ... besides I tore down the chimney ... remember

 

[kide]

KentucK:
Money?? I'm already scanning the ditches for cans.....I'm actually talking about alternate sources of heat for the new furnace - I'm gonna start signing up for anything that'll generate junk mail.

I ordered a push solenoid from Mcmaster-Carr yesterday for the draft fan whatsit - when the stat calls for draft air, it'll open the draft flap. I like this 'cause it should be a safe fail - closed, (speaking of runaway fires).

I'll be pulling the 9900 out (notice I didn't say the "old Johnson" or the "big Johnson") in the near future - maybe you could set that in the back yard and run some of that flex ducting they use under mobile homes to it from the house.. just a thought

At this point, I'm still using propane for the workshop - about $400.00 a winter now .I had wood heat in there years ago, but didn't feel safe with all the paint, gas,and other stuff in there with a small box stove. Once we get a season under the new setup, I'll be putting a heat exchanger in there - using a second pump, heat exchanger and about 30 feet of Pex - it should pay for itself the first winter.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Here's my wood burner.

It's a Clayton 1600G wood furnace.

Brochure stuff:

FEATURES:

• Construction: Heavy-gauge, two-piece firebox made from cold rolled steel for many years of service and high performance.
• Firebrick-lined for long life and combustion efficiency.
• Extra heavy-duty, cast-iron grates/liners.
• Exterior, front-mounted shaker handles.
• Multi-speed distribution blower - 1100CFM, 1250CFM, 1400CFM.
• Front-mounted smoke curtain.
• Removable ash pan.
• Standard, forced-air draft kit with remote thermostat.
• Secondary heat exchanger with firebrick baffle for longer life.

SPECIFICATIONS:

• Firebox Dimensions: 48” H x 24” W x 501/2” L
• Shipping Weight: 525 lbs.
• Log Length: 28”
• Fuel Collar Size: 6”
• Max Output (BTU’s/hr.): 135,000
• Heat Capacity: 3,000 square feet
• Heat Outlet Size: 13” x 18”

 

[kmcconaughey]

Ryan, here's my prototype firewood storage shelter. I plan to replace the tarp back with plywood. The front is accessed by unhooking the bungee straps and folding the tarp back. I might use a cable strung through the eyelets in the tarp so it can be slid to the side like a shower curtain.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Here's what a semi load of slabwood looks like. I had this delivered in May of 2006. There's a little less then 1/2 of it left to be cut up. It's more work cutting this up then it is to cut logs and split them! I much prefer semi loads of 8' logs.

Cut and stacked:

 

[kide]

Kraig:
You had to ask about him, apparently it stirred 'em up. I snapped these pics just before he destroyed the furnace. He's on a rampage now and headed for Tokyo. Can someone alert the Japanese Coastal Defense ??????