Solid Fuel System

Damper Control For A Wood Stove/Boiler

admin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 07:39:31 +0000

I put this together for a friend to help regulate the firebox and water temperature in the heating loop into his home. There is a similar setup controlling the draft door on the stove and this will further help throttle the water temperature. Both systems utilize Red Lion process meters mounted in stainless steel boxes on the front end, and actuators running through a 4-20 ma loop to do the heavy lifting at the other end.

The stainless is rather hard to work with, but it’s worth the effort if you want something to last longer than we do.

Review: The Harman SF-160

admin — Wed, 25 May 2011 01:50:08 +0000

A friend recommended this stove to me five years ago and I made the plunge (investment), I have to say it was one of the best moves I’ve ever made. Granted it was a chore to get it all done in house myself, but well worth the time and effort. We haven’t used the gas boiler (still in the loop) for five years now.
The sweet part about this stove is that it’s a duel fuel unit and will burn coal also. Nice trick if you had some right?

Click on the images for full size:

This is the some of the plumbing mods we made to patch it into the existing water loop.

Last fall we picked up on a half ton of pea sized bituminous coal from a house being renovated in the vicinity and started using it to give the wood a little extra kick. It worked out so well we started looking into anthracite suppliers and managed to get our hands on a ton of it in 50lb bags from Reading Coal. It was the perfect solution on the really cold nights last winter.

We’ve got 28 50lb bags of the Reading Coal on hand to supplement our wood stocks for the 2011-2012 winter months. I installed a new liner in the chimney so we should be good to go this time around also. If the power fails I can use the battery backup/inverters to power the circulating pump and controls as long as necessary.

Spare Time Projects

admin — Sun, 22 May 2011 17:35:13 +0000

Just kidding, spare time doesn’t exist in the real world. Dman did however find time to help me with this project and it worked out pretty well in the long run. We chose a CertainTeed Landmark Premium shingle to cover it with and took time to build “crickets” on the uphill side of the chimneys. The masonry was cut with a fine line to accept the flashing and everything is water tight for years to come.

Mission Accomplished………….
Nice job Dman