Burnin' Wood ( and other fuels...)

[jchamberlin]

Rod: Yes, they both like to see you sweat.

My first wife used to provoke me incessantly, I finally asked her why she did it, and she replied, "I want to see if you love me." So if I wasn't hopping mad, painfully hurt, or otherwise wounded, she wasn't sure if I loved her . . . ???

I'll never understand women, but I'm learning to cope with them. Like they say, "Can't live with'em and you can't live without'em." I just hope they feel the same way.

 

[rodsmith]

JEREMIAH,
APPARENTLY mine doesn't feel that way!!!
When my first wife and I were married we had a JOHNSON wood furnace in the basement. We both loved the heet. There were a few times even in the dead of winter we slept with windows open though. I did spend a lot of time cutting wood with a old HOMELITE saw.Bought a used STIHL 031.
That made things quicker.But still hated splitting it.Wish I could go back to those days with a few do overs in my pocket!
ROD

 

[kide]

Rodney:
I've still got a Johnson 9900 hooked up in the basement (also a nice box stove in the living room).... Last winter I just didn't feel like using the 9900, with my new "situation"..

 

[jbaker]

started working on my winter supply and here is what I have done so far

I also fired my boiler up to use my new pool heater I made, it is hooked up in a temporary configuration but it does work

It is a tube inside a tube heat exchanger

 

[kweaver]

Jeff - Take a read

 

[jbaker]

Ken, I had a coworker that did that idea by laying black plastic corragated drain hose with a hi-head sump pump on his garage roof.
It worked ok on sunny days but the high winds here in northern IL tore it off and made a mess.

My heater is 5 foot long with a 1 inch pipe thru the center of a 2 inch pipe schedule 80
The outdoor wood boiler water flows thru the center 1 inch pipe and the pool water flows around it in the 2 inch pipe

This works well enough to maintain 85 to 88 at the bottom of 7 feet on a 50 to 60 degree night with a cheap soler blanket on it.

Next year I plan to have a three way valve controlled by the pool temp right now its by some manual ball valves.

 

[kweaver]

If you're going to burn it you've got to SPLIT it.

 

[jharvey]

Kool! He should do that over a truck and then he'd be ready to roll!

 

[jbaker]

Charlie did you ever do the water heater hook-up?
From an earlier page qoute by Kendal Ide- (hope that Hansel made it out of the oven...)--

Here is a short clip on my morning routine, my boiler is a big money saver!

My daughter likes playing with the camera

http://youtu.be/Jfi6zjFdOyA

http://youtu.be/ycc7IxqhmOs

 

[glippert]

Nice job on the tutorials, Jeff!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Jeff, thanks for the videos. You and your daughter did a great job.

When my old 70's vintage Monarch forced air wood furnace wore out I seriously considered getting a Central Boiler but my wife said "No!" She preferred the indoor wood furnace, so we went with a Clayton. I love it but still wonder if I wouldn't have liked the Central Boiler better.

BTW, has your daughter been getting any good trail camera photos? I've been hoping to see some big Illinois deer or other wildlife.

Though I suppose it might be a bit on the cold side to be out setting it up. I know I don't use my cams this time of year. Has she set it up to get any candid goat photos, or is she afraid of the goats eating and/or head butting it?

Might want to set it up for over head shots in the goat pen to keep it safe. 30+ years ago when I had a pet goat I couldn't believe how much trouble he could get into. What a trouble causing critter he was.

 

[proessler]

Jeff, Thanks, I don't burn wood I enjoyed your video.

 

[wshytle]

Nice videos Jeff! Your daughter did a super job with the camera.

What is that chemical you put into the stove to control the ph? Would it work in an indoor stove? I have to actually get up on the roof about every two weeks and run a brush down my chimney. I have several chimney fires every year but I also know when it's happening now and how to deal with them. I'd love to find something that would help control creosote. Those CSL logs did nothing for me plus they are expensive. I have been burning a hotter fire this year and that has helped. All of my wood is seasoned at least one year and it's all oak. The reason for my creosote problem has been temp change in the chimney. I have regular 6" stove pipe from the stove to the ceiling and insulated pipe from there on out through the roof. The buildup occurs at the top of the 6" pipe right at the ceiling. If I burn it real hot it will still build up but it takes a lot longer to do so. And that's why I am asking about that chemical.

Thanks!

 

[jbaker]

The stuff the company sells is called Ash-Trol.

 

[kide]

Wayne:
My basement setup included about 8 lineal feet (about 4 up and 4 over) of 16 gauge stainless pipe. I always started each day with getting the pipe up to at least 800 degrees (using a probe type stack thermometer) for at least 15 minutes. During tht time, I'd tap the pipe to loosen any flakes of creosote. I cleaned the pipe once a year.. same with the chimney (internal, center of the house on purpose to gain the heat and lower creosote issues).. Good luck with chemicals, I've never seen any positive info on that method...

 

[kmcconaughey]

My 6" uninsulated chimney goes up about 2.5' and over about 3.5' then it's all insulated once it's outside of the house proper but it's in an uninsulated framed chase. The wood furnace is in my basement, the chimney runs over 30' up to the top. The clean-out is outside in the bottom of the framed chase. I clean it out once a year and get about 2" of soot and ash in the bottom of a steel 5 gallon bucket. I'd call it creosote but it looks like soot to me, as it's black and dry and a very fine powder not at all sticky or crusty. With my old wood furnace and old chimney I would get what I would call creosote... I try to keep my chimney at about 400°F, measured about 1' above the furnace outlet, just below the damper. I season my wood for at least a year. I leave it uncovered for at least 6 months or so and cover it in the fall just before the typical, for my location, rainy season in the fall. <FONT SIZE="-2">IMO, FWIW, YMMV, My $0.02, Yada, Yada, Yada...</FONT>

 

[jbaker]

Kraig, out of curiosity are you able to climb up that chase? not that you would need to,,

 

[kmcconaughey]

Jeff, no room to fit into the chase. Hopefully I'll never need a reason to want to climb it. It does have room to store my chimney brushes and rods. It super easy to clean the chimney with this setup. I have eight 4' fiberglass rods that thread together. I leave them threaded together in sets of two and those 8' lengths fit nicely in the chase. You can see them leaning on the right side of the chimney. The "sump" below the support shelf is easily removed with a 1/4 turn. I then place a steel 5 gallon bucket below the chimney and run the brush up the chimney. The soot and ash falls into the bucket. I try to pick a nice calm morning to clean it because the soot is so fine it easily floats in the air. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes. Most of that time is spent connecting the threaded cleaning rods together and then taking them apart. I also have a brush with a permanently attached 3' twisted wire rod that is more flexible t hat I use to clean the short horizontal section that comes from the stove. That section is mostly ash. I should probably clean the chimney this weekend. and take some photos.

 

[kmcconaughey]

It was too windy last Saturday to clean my chimney but it was relatively calm this morning so I decided to clean it and take some photos. Time from first photo to the last was 15 minutes not including the one of the temperature gauge on the inside portion of the chimney.

Access door.

Lower chimney, note brushes on the left and red fiberglass rods on the right side. There are 8 rods. I leave them assembled in two rod sets.

Sump removed, bucket in place.

Chimney sump set aside on deck step after dumping the small amount of ash and soot that settles into it into the steel bucket.

Brush and rods assembled. 8 rods, each is 44" long for a total length of approx 29 feet plus another 10" or so for the brush itself. I previously thought the rods were 48" long which would have made the assembled length almost 33' with the brush, thus my thinking that the chimney was over 30'...

Rod and brush run fully to the top of chimney. I pull it back out then run it all the way back up a second time then remove it, disassemble it and store it back in the chimney chase.

Shot of the chimney exterior.

Steel 5 gallon bucket with ash and soot. That's approximately 3 or 4 inches of very fine, dry, powdery ash and soot. After I clean the chimney I use the short brush, seen leaning on the left side in second and third photos above, to clean the horizontal section of the chimney coming from the wood furnace.

Photo of the inside section of chimney. Note temperature gauge.

 

[jchamberlin]

Kraig,

I have a thermostat just like that on my stack, rigged up the same way! If your scale is like mine, it looks like you're cooking along at 300 deg F or so. From the looks of the ash in the bucket it doesn't look like you're running much of a chance of building up creosote.

I only have creosote problems when I burn pine which has trouble running over 200 deg F. My chimney is on the side of the house like yours is, but it is exposed to the elements. Our temps don't run as low in the winter in North Carolina as you do in Wisconsin, so it may not be as much of an issue.

I think you're doing an excellent job of keeping a very clean chimney. Thanks for the tutorial and explanation.