Hello,
with all the talk of wood boiler building I'd like to improve the performance of my perfectly fine working HS Tarm wood-oil boiler. I have a vintage 1982 model 502 multifuel boiler. It has a wood chamber at one end and an oil chamber at the other. The wood fired side is rated at 110,000 btu. I don't use the oil side at all anymore because it consumes too much oil. Here is what I want to do. Since it has 2 chambers it has 2 sets of heat exchange tubes. I want to remove the oil burner and build a draft fan to pull the heat from the wood chamber up the first set of tubes into the common exhaust chamber and down the second set of tubes into the oil fired chamber and out through a draft fan which is in place of the old oil burner. I believe this will improve the efficiency and boost the btu output. I am heating a 3000 sq. ft old house with it now and my goal is to make it all the way through the nite with it. Also I can't stand to see that stack thermometor reading of 600 degree's going up the chimny. I know I could install a big storage tank with my present system and it may work better but I would have to reload the boiler several times in a row to heat a large batch of water. Improving the efficiency would cut down on wood consumption. I burn about 10 cords per season. Fortunatly I know a few tree guys and get all of my wood free and sometimes delivered to my door mostly cut up already. As a part of my modification I think I may have to add some refractory to the lower rear exit of the fire box to prevent it from burning through to the other chamber. Am I crazy? I would'nt want to ruin a perfectly good boiler just to try to get more out of it.
Mike
