A question for Out door wood stove users

[williamG]

trying to add a photo of  stove

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h308/billie_boy7/dadsstuff0012.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h308/billie_boy7/dadsstuff006.jpg

[TheEquineFencer]

I was sitting here reading through the post about HEAT. I saw this and figured I'd tell you about a buddy of mine. He has a Taylor wood water heater, his was pumping water 24/7 to a hot water coil in the return duct to heat his house. He changed it so when the Thermostat called for heat, it turned his water pump on and a timer on. When the timer timed out then his blower fan came on. He figured out how long it took to get hot water to his heating coil and get it up to temp and set the timer for 5-10 seconds longer. He cut his wood useage by 1/3-1/2 depending on the weather.

[northern farmer]

i have grabbed some of the same wood and used it when we go camping as they require kiln dried wood at the state parks, (Old Mill)

[getvrtcl]

Heh, the worst thing about these things is when you don't load it right, like I did last night.<p>
When the fire goes out, the water temp drops too low to heat the house.  I woke up this morning to the house sitting at 59 degrees F.  Not fun.  Especially when I have to go outside and load and light the furnace from scratch when it's 20 below out and there's a 20mph wind!!  Oh, and it let it get so cold in the crawl space that my water main froze.  To say it SUCKED would be a major understatement.  Luckily it didn't burst.<p>
It also takes a little while for the fire to heat up 150+ gallons of water, so it's not a fast fix for a cold house.<p>
Another down side to them is if you go on vacation.  There certainly isn't the possibility of leaving one of these things unattended in the middle of winter for more than about 24 hours at a time.<p>
It's now 10AM and we're STILL waiting on retrieving any heat out of it.  But the upside is that our heating bill went from $500-$700 a month on electric baseboards to whatever extra gas I use bringing home a load of firewood on my way home from work.  I stop by the local ODC and grab their scraps.  They make pallets for Arctic Cat Industries, so they make the hefty pallets.  I generally get a pickup truck load every couple days of 8X8X12 inch chunks of Aspen or Alder from them.  It burns hot and long, so I can stuff the firebox in the morning and all I have to do is stir it up in the evening.  Then rinse and repeat the next morning.<p>
So I figure the extra $30-$45 in gas and a little hardship on my part being out in the cold twice a day is worth the (up to) $650 savings.  But that's me.  I'm a cheapskate when it comes to money, but I'm pretty generous when it comes to what I have to do to save a buck or two.

I have been selling and installing OWB for about 15 years.  Your problem seems to stem from improper installation.  If you installed the system correctly your primary heater would of seen that there was NO heat coming from the OWB and automatically fired your primary heating system.  Your home would of been warm until you woke and fired the OWB again.

[Photon]

If anyone is considering heating their home  with wood then i would be looking wood gasification boilers or even an aga/stanley.
-windhager
-atmos
-viessmann
just to name a few, viessmann have really good data sheets on controls that can be applied to other systems.

Im not that familiar with wood doctor (not from north america) but it seems a there is a lot of on/off control and the boiler is operating different to the house.
Your houses has ducted heating or radiators? either way its worth considering a varible speed drive on your fan/ 3 port valve or lowers suppy temperature. it looks like your load (house) could be made more constant (less on/off). The house calls for heat, the wood burner is trying to burn lots of wood quickly to heat back up and then its idle till the next call for heat. i reckon if you make the call for heat proportional control it may help.

R

[getvrtcl]

Look into Natures Comfort GT-220/500 for gasifiers.  Have been using them for 2 years and are very well made.  Uses 1/2 the wood my old Woodmaster5500 did with shorter burn times.

Old F, I have manually (ball valve) shut off flow to heat exchanger in basement furnace plenum and seen about a 30% reduction in wood burnt overnight. I have another circuit in the opposite end of our old brick 3800 sq. foot house with a rad and fan on stat in laundry room and 2 8' baseboard rads on zone valve in kids apartment. These circulate 24/7 .If I was brave I may also fit a demand control on pump circuit but at minus 30C would be concerned about short length of minimally insulated pipe going into ground from body of furnace.

   Previous house had gas heat via water filled rads and if there was no demand everything shut down. Was a very efficient and reliable system. Still is over thirty years later.

  Take a Google at Greenwood Technologies. Personally I think there are better but they are still good. Also Google AHS and Combustion Engineering , look for discussion board or its equivalent and pull up queries by Sproutman and ProE Designer for some more ideas.

 I burn about a truck load a week. My immediate neighbour, with a bigger model, was burning TWO loads a week. Try hooking an immersion heater for your dumpload into the hot line to give it a boost when available.

 Have tried big logs (longer burn) and small logs (faster fire)

For anyone contemplating this option only look at gassification types and preferably downdraft. Ask about OVERALL efficiency as well as emission levels at various loadings, they vary significantly.

Good Luck with the mods.

[ghurd]

Look into ...

You realize you are replying to a thread more than 4 years old?
G-

[TheEquineFencer]

I did not read this entire post, but I'll ad a few cents worth if it helps. I use a Taylor wood heater. A buddy does the same. His was running the pump 24/7 and was eating a bunch of wood. His heat exchanger in his gas pack went out so he added the woodheater with the heating coil in the duct work. First he ran the pump 24/7, then wired it to run only when the heat was needed. His problem then was getting 4-5 minutes of cold air until the hot water got back to the coil. I added a timing relay. It called for heat, the pump came on, after the time delay it let the blower fan come on. We timed how long it took to get hot water back to the coil then added 5 seconds to the time delay. Wala, hot air when the fan came on. He cut his wood usage by 1/3. His heater is 300ft away running 3/4 Pex with cheap stick foam insulation slid inside a drain pipe with "Great Stuff" spray insulation buried in the ground 1ft.