Haven't had a wood stove, but had a fireplace once that drafted through vents behind and under the fire box and up through the floor. It was dramatically more efficient and effective than non-drafted ones I've had since. Current fireplaces, at least in this area, are for looks anyway. Fire them up and the heater will come on in a few minutes due to all the cold air being sucked through windows and doors because the fire place is cookin'.
Got one sitting in the shop right now collecting dust. It's replacement is the yellow thing sitting on the black feedbox. Screw all that wood splitting..
Turn it into a gasifier and not only will it heat your house, it will also provide electricity too. IMO, that would be the ultimate in hot rodding your wood stove.
Got one sitting in the shop right now collecting dust. It's replacement is the yellow thing sitting on the black feedbox. Screw all that wood splitting..
OK, gonna have ask you to save that wood stove along with all that other stuff I'm supposed to come get. I'm gonna have to get a bigger trailer............................
That's what is so interesting with the wood stoves. Even the old fireplaces. There are so inefficient.
Check YouTube. These guys have some great ideas for burning less wood and getting more heat.
Kind of like turbocharging a little engine. You can go from a nothing to a real performer.
Just like a gasoline engine, most of the power is going out the exhaust. If you can capture the heat energy better you can heat with less wood, and that means less work.
That Magic Heat Reclaimer is suppose to get about 30% of the heat that is lost up the chimney back into your home.
Got one sitting in the shop right now collecting dust. It's replacement is the yellow thing sitting on the black feedbox. Screw all that wood splitting..
I used the bigger version to heat a large warehouse space. Thing is a champ. Diesel is cheap. Probably not cheaper than I get my word, but that's the expense is worth it.
I used the bigger version to heat a large warehouse space. Thing is a champ. Diesel is cheap. Probably not cheaper than I get my word, but that's the expense is worth it.
Agreed on the effectiveness of getting heat but, damn they are noisy.
Technically I don't have a wood stove but I do have a wood burning insert. I have a Drolet Escape 1400 insert to be exact. I didn't add the insert, it was in the house when I purchased home.
To be honest I am neophyte at using it. My setup has a stainess steel liner inside the lined chimney, so other than the face of the insert itself I don't have the option to hot rod it. It is setup in my basement fireplace which does have a bottom vent to pull air into the firebox directly from outside; there is an integrated blower into the insert to get good heat dispersion. My only "mod" to the fireplace was bypassing a thermo-resistor swhich which was bad so I control when the fan turns on instead of having the fan turn on only after it reaches a certain temperature. Since that switch was bad the fan never turns on this the need to bypass it.
it is a small insert but if I load the firebox when it has been running and partially close the flu I can let it run for ~10 hours and still have embers enough to keep the fire going the next morning. While there isn't much I can "mod" since it is a modern insert I suspect it is fairly efficent.
For me the insert is a nice toy/suppliment that I will use when it get really cold to cut down on power consumption. I think spec wise the insert heat 600-1200 sqft and I ahve 2600 sqft. It relaly acts as my third line of defnese. Primary heat is goethemal, then electric resistance heat.
My one son has taken advantage of my ability to design and build controls. So for about 10 years now I have build digital controls for his wood furnaces. The last one was last year. I put on a temperature control for the boiler temp. It is very easy to adjust the boiler temp and the differential too. We brought his differential down to 5 degrees and it make it overshoot less so he burns less wood. He also adjusts the boiler temp according to outside temperature and that works well too. So for a couple of hundred dollars for the control, relay and panel box he says he is saving about 30% of his wood costs. Not too bad.
If I could talk him into it, I would add in a PLC to look at outside temperature so it would automatically adjust the boiler temp for him too.
Originally posted by MadMark: The last one was last year. I put on a temperature control for the boiler temp. It is very easy to adjust the boiler temp and the differential too. We brought his differential down to 5 degrees and it make it overshoot less so he burns less wood. He also adjusts the boiler temp according to outside temperature and that works well too. So for a couple of hundred dollars for the control, relay and panel box he says he is saving about 30% of his wood costs. Not too bad.
If I could talk him into it, I would add in a PLC to look at outside temperature so it would automatically adjust the boiler temp for him too.
I assume this is out an outdoor boiler setup? Physically what do you control to adjust the bolier temperature? Do you control the intake air, the flue or ??? I assume the wood is still manually fed into teh boiler. It sounds like a interesting control system, especially if it could be overlaid on existing application for a commercial use.
I assume this is out an outdoor boiler setup? Physically what do you control to adjust the bolier temperature? Do you control the intake air, the flue or ??? I assume the wood is still manually fed into teh boiler. It sounds like a interesting control system, especially if it could be overlaid on existing application for a commercial use.
This is setup for outdoor, but my son's is in his rec room in the garage. What this controls is turning the air injection or draft blower on and off.
The original set up was by a temperature switch with a predifined differential. The problem is that for lower outside temperature using a 25 degree differential makes the fire overshoot. So if you have the boiler temp sent for 145*, by the time the blower shuts off you end around 180 degrees. With a smaller differential, it shuts off with a few degrees of overshoot. This could easily be set up with a small touch screen PLC and a few temperature probes. I like using Horner PLC's because they are cheap and work well. And you could get one for about $400 to do this job. But, most people don't see a reason to spend that kind of money. Using the Automation Direct Temperature controllers is a lot cheaper, but you don't have the ability to look at outside temps so it will not adjust boiler temps automatically. But, you are loading the boiler every 6 to 8 hours anyway.
If you have a fireplace, and haven't already spent for a wood stove, I like unvented gas logs. They'll run you out of the room after a while. Especially useful if you have a ceiling fan to push the heat back down into the room. I did specify unvented. Much more efficient.
If you're concerned about CO, we have a CO detector plugged in right beside the fireplace. It's never so much as budged. Well... it freaked out when I ran my car in the basement/garage for a couple of minutes, but that's another story. And a good test of the CO detector.
[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 01-12-2018).]
