Warm Weather Burning in a Hand Fed

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 12:29 am

Hey Bruce, yes it does humidity and temp inside and out. It's accurate as far as I know, the outdoor probe is wireless. I have it strapped on the north side of a pine tree about 50 feet away from the house.


 
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Formulabruce
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Post by Formulabruce » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 1:28 am

Lightning wrote:Hey Bruce, yes it does humidity and temp inside and out. It's accurate as far as I know, the outdoor probe is wireless. I have it strapped on the north side of a pine tree about 50 feet away from the house.
Thanks!, Im going to see if I can find one, I had been looking for one with the humidity as well as temp, thanks :)

 
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Post by ddahlgren » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 12:49 pm

Lightning wrote:
Snotzalot wrote:Interesting thread to read. I have an Old Mill hand fed stove. So what you are saying when you dial down the primary air to slow it down on a warm day, you open up the secondary air (the knobs on the load doors) to keep the draft up the stack?
Yer sir, that is correct. The primary air mainly controls the overall heat output of the furnace. During a low slow burn I open the secondary air up which flows in over the fuel bed and gets heated. The extra heated air mass from the secondary air keeps my draft healthy. Without the extra secondary air during a warm weather burn, my draft fails and coal exhaust vents into the basement which as you know is potentially dangerous.
So they add heated air in a larger volume and even if not as hot as without secondary there is a lot more of it to keep the draft going?
Do you have a draft regulator like the Field on with a flapper or just a MPD?
This is making me want to go out to the shop and fire up the lathe to carve out a couple of secondary air gismos and break out the electric drill. Just wondering if I turn down the stove to dead off for a bit the open feed door for a little bit if cool enough to start the bolt in with welding gloves one. I can send it home with a socket wrench universals etc.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 1:30 pm

ddahlgren wrote:So they add heated air in a larger volume and even if not as hot as without secondary there is a lot more of it to keep the draft going?
Yes, that is correct. When I first started burning coal I couldn't keep draft in my cold outside block chimney on warm days with a low/slow burn. I'd have to run it hot which is just a waste of coal and makes the house uncomfortable. There just wasn't enough flue gas volume. During its ascend to the chimney top, the low volume of warm flue gas would cool off and bring the draft to a grinding halt. I had many draft failures that resulted in low amounts of CO in the house. My detectors read around 70 PPM at one point.

I can't take all the credit for the discovery of the secondary air trick. I read it somewhere on here, it was tucked away in an elusive post. I was desperate for a solution so I tried it, and against my skeptical mindset about it, it worked like a dream come true. Since then, I no longer use my flue mounted draft inducer on warm days to keep my draft moving and I no longer fear the dreaded draft failure. I also don't waste coal and make the house too warm :lol:
ddahlgren wrote:Do you have a draft regulator like the Field on with a flapper or just a MPD?
I have both a baro and MPD but I keep the MPD wide open and let the baro do its thing. I found the baro to be a supreme limiter/regulator over the MPD since it automatically adjusts to keep a specific limit on the draft.
ddahlgren wrote:This is making me want to go out to the shop and fire up the lathe to carve out a couple of secondary air gismos and break out the electric drill. Just wondering if I turn down the stove to dead off for a bit the open feed door for a little bit if cool enough to start the bolt in with welding gloves one. I can send it home with a socket wrench universals etc.
You can get the same effect by cracking the load door open a frog hair (or you can also design a secondary air inlet, which is what I did).. This will let a little air in over the fire to get warm and go up the chimney. Just make sure the MPD (if you have one) is open also. Otherwise, it just contradicts the extra volume you are attempting to get up the chimney.

A manometer is a great tool also to watch your draft pressure respond to outside conditions and burn rate, both heavily influence drafting. A mano is a very necessary instrument to help aid in making decisions on primary and secondary air adjustments.

 
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Post by ddahlgren » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 3:21 pm

Have the mano since day 1. Decided to do some house stuff but have to work in the shop tomorrow running some parts and going to make the secondary air discs on the lathe while CNC running and me loading parts. In the morning will shake and slice but no load so the stove burns out for the install and the least amount of work cleaning and doing the restart to test them.

 
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Post by lowfog01 » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 4:02 pm

Formulabruce wrote:
Lightning wrote:Hey Bruce, yes it does humidity and temp inside and out. It's accurate as far as I know, the outdoor probe is wireless. I have it strapped on the north side of a pine tree about 50 feet away from the house.
Thanks!, Im going to see if I can find one, I had been looking for one with the humidity as well as temp, thanks :)
I have a slightly different model. It does everything but the dishes. Try http://lacrossetechnology.com/9037/. I think DK picked it up at Walmart. Lisa
Last edited by lowfog01 on Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 4:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
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Post by biggerpatterson » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 4:03 pm

weather station.png
.PNG | 1.3MB | weather station.png
Bought this weather station at Lowes a couple weeks ago. Put it above the roof of the garage to get a better wind direction and speed. For $100 it seems pretty accurate and tells me everything I want to know. Next project, install the manometer and see what differences in temp , wind ,humidity and baro pressure do to the draft.


 
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Post by lsayre » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 4:36 pm

Are these the sort of weather stations that will broadcast to the Weather Underground website?

 
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Post by biggerpatterson » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 4:51 pm

I don't believe they broadcast very far. I'd have to look at the manual but I think mine has a range of a couple hundred feet. FCC regulations limit transmitter power for these devices.

 
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Post by lsayre » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 5:05 pm

biggerpatterson wrote:I don't believe they broadcast very far. I'd have to look at the manual but I think mine has a range of a couple hundred feet. FCC regulations limit transmitter power for these devices.
I should have stated that they broadcast to your local computer whereby software that sends it over the Internet to Weather Underground.

 
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Post by Lightning » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 5:06 pm

I would tend to think that Weather underground contributors have to use professional grade equipment that is tied to the internet.

 
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Post by warminmn » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 5:39 pm

I have a slightly different model. It does everything but the dishes. Try http://lacrossetechnology.com/9037/. I think DK picked it up at Walmart. Lisa[/quote]

Ive been using this companies products for maybe 5 or 6 years and they seem good. 3 different models. I use one to keep track of my well house temp which is the oldest one and it transmits to another unit in my home for viewing. I have one in my house in a different corner for outside temps. And one at my Dads for him to monitor his well house temp and that one will transmit 300 feet, a little less thru a few walls.

The one in my well house has a unit with a probe. The unit itself worked when it was sitting in -20 degrees temps, still transmitted. I love them as I have had problems with freezing before. I don't know if they have units for computers.

 
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Post by ddahlgren » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 6:00 pm

Lightning wrote:I would tend to think that Weather underground contributors have to use professional grade equipment that is tied to the internet.
They don't a very close friend has a station setup using some middle of the road equipment send to an old desktop running XP connected to the net.

 
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Post by biggerpatterson » Sat. Dec. 27, 2014 6:10 pm

After a quick search , I believe if I purchased the Accubridge system for my weather station( $90 ) it could connect my station to the Weather Underground and I would be part of the system. Looks like the cheapest system that will connect is under $200. Of course they go up in price from there.

 
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Post by Lightning » Sun. Dec. 27, 2015 11:46 am

Woke up this morning to the sound of my low pipe temperature alarm going off. I quickly grabbed my smart phone and brought up the IP cam in the basement and to my expectations the draft reading was on the wrong side of zero.

Ran downstairs thru the sulfur laden air and saw that my furnace wasn't prepared to deal with the outside temperature lift. I reestablished draft by putting her in direct draft mode and opening the ash door. Once I saw the draft lift to -.03 I closed the ash door, cut primary air to a sliver and gave her all the secondary air that I could. No problems since.

This up and down trend with outside temp is really testing my savvy on running this furnace this year. I have to pay close attention to what's coming over the next 12 hours to maintain draft and keep the house comfortable. I didn't check on that detail last night.

How are you guys doing with drafting in this turbulent weather?


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