Lighting up

My Harman is hot tonight!

Only I'm using .... using .... errr ... "alternative" fuel ...

Gotta love that creosote! .... And the loading up every hour bit. Lots of work for very little payoff. Basically I've burned a sheet and a half of OSB in 4 hours! At least we're warm!

Check out that JET BLACK GOOEY coating on my just cleaned up coils! Glass too ... and chimney ....

Gotta love wood! One good coal fire will clean this crap right up nice.

She's got 160#s of Pea in her idling between 150°-200°, draft is at .02" and the living room is 73°, son's room is 70°, kitchen is 71°, daughter's room is 69° and my bedroom is 68°.

I am concerned about the draft. I'm not sure if the 2' I added to it this summer is working. But then again it's still a bit warm out and I've fired up earlier than I wanted to. I'll just have to turn the stove up a bit during the day.

Smitty,

I had a wood fire last night and had to wipe the black off the glass tonight before lighting the coal fire.

Yeah things will change quite a bit draft-wise with another 20° - 30° drop in temps.

My chimney is pulling CRAZY draft since I cleaned it this April. What a difference!

Then I go and burn wood in it ...

SMITTY wrote:Yeah things will change quite a bit draft-wise with another 20° - 30° drop in temps.

My chimney is pulling CRAZY draft since I cleaned it this April. What a difference!

Then I go and burn wood in it ...

What's funny is my chimney has never seen fire. It had the liner in it the entire time I used it. This is the first season the brick, mortar, and tile are feeling heat.

Wow, 160 pounds of pea coal...!!!

At least you have a hopper IOF, I have to get creative and put coal in the back of my firebox using a "chute" that I fill with 20lbs of pea and pour into the back. I use a section of ss chimney pipe with a 45 degree bend and dump the coal. Not my best idea, but it works.

Yeah, having the Hopper and a large fire pot is good. Unless you have to shut down with a full load. Like I have to do now.

Woke up to a draft of .01" this morning. It was supposed to be 39° but it is 47°. I turned the stove up and told my wife to turn the stove up during the day to keep the draft up. She'll have to open windows throughout the day. I need to put the draft inducer back on somehow. Which sucks because the motor is going to be 6" from the stove so I need to come up with a heat shield. My chimney sucks. I think it's because of the two maple trees that are on my property. They are on the same side as my chimney and they are massive, the branches hang low. I wanted to have them cut down but I got a price of $4k for each. Too many hazards. Power, my house, septic system, my neighbor's house and his septic system.

I guess I won't shake it down. I'll let it ash over and choke itself out.

I'm On Fire wrote:Yeah, having the Hopper and a large fire pot is good. Unless you have to shut down with a full load. Like I have to do now.

Woke up to a draft of .01" this morning. It was supposed to be 39° but it is 47°. I turned the stove up and told my wife to turn the stove up during the day to keep the draft up. She'll have to open windows throughout the day. I need to put the draft inducer back on somehow. Which sucks because the motor is going to be 6" from the stove so I need to come up with a heat shield. My chimney sucks. I think it's because of the two maple trees that are on my property. They are on the same side as my chimney and they are massive, the branches hang low. I wanted to have them cut down but I got a price of $4k for each. Too many hazards. Power, my house, septic system, my neighbor's house and his septic system.

I guess I won't shake it down. I'll let it ash over and choke itself out.

Towards the end of the season last year I expiremented with letting some air in over the fire to help the draft. I thought it was quite successful with maintaining a draft when it was over 40 degrees outside. With air coming in over the fire, it wasn't really helping combustion but instead was being heated and going up the chimney to keep a good draft. With the right combination of under and over the fire draft, I was able to achieve very low burn rates and at the same time keep the draft from falling to dangerous levels where CO could leak out of the furnace.

Lightning,

I had the loading door open last night before I went to bed. I closed it when I went to bed. I instructed my wife to keep an eye on it today and turned it up before I went to work. She opened the loading door a smidge too. Last I heard draft was at .04" that was at 8am. I just texted her to see what it is now since the temps outside went up.

I have given some thought to installing a Photohelic gauge/switch tied into an alarm or auto-dialer that would alert me if the draft fell below a set reading. I'm sure others have done this and it would be interesting to hear feed-back on this before making an investment in time and money?

On a hand fed I don't think it'd work too well as it'd need human interaction to initiate a shut down. On a boiler or stoker it's better suited to work because it's all or for the most part automated.

EarthWindandFire wrote:I have given some thought to installing a Photohelic gauge/switch tied into an alarm or auto-dialer that would alert me if the draft fell below a set reading. I'm sure others have done this and it would be interesting to hear feed-back on this before making an investment in time and money?

I'm considering a live wireless web cam that I can access over the internet with my cell phone's browser. In the frame I would have my manometer and temp gauges so I could see what was happening at any given time during the day. The wifey got sick of me asking for pipe temps and mano readings at a few times during the day

I'm On Fire wrote:Lightning,

I had the loading door open last night before I went to bed. I closed it when I went to bed. I instructed my wife to keep an eye on it today and turned it up before I went to work. She opened the loading door a smidge too. Last I heard draft was at .04" that was at 8am. I just texted her to see what it is now since the temps outside went up.

OH, great sounds like a little over the fire air is helping then

Yeah, I came home and it is at .03".

I've been considering a Wi-Fi camera too. I literally ask my wife several times a day. 'You're such a pain in the ass.' she tells me.

Just curious IOF, um Isn't there any way to let a little air over the fire other than cracking the load door a smidge? No spin valve or anything like that?

Nope. No over fire vents. I wish there were and I've thought about adding them but I've never done it. I'm back to my original plan of letting it ash over and go out. I'm not gonna play with it anymore I'll let it go out and reinstall the draft inducer.