Rebuild My EFM 520

It should be fine. The only place I would be careful is around the fire-viewing door. The door frame can get pretty warm if the boiler is running hard. A small space there should do the trick. You can fill the gaps around the door and the pipes with some loose fiberglass insulation.

I would also insulate the boiler piping, but that won't make nearly as much difference as the boiler itself. Maybe wait and see how cold the shed gets?

How is everything running?

Rob R. wrote:It should be fine. The only place I would be careful is around the fire-viewing door. The door frame can get pretty warm if the boiler is running hard. A small space there should do the trick. You can fill the gaps around the door and the pipes with some loose fiberglass insulation.

I would also insulate the boiler piping, but that won't make nearly as much difference as the boiler itself. Maybe wait and see how cold the shed gets?

How is everything running?

Rob,

Thanks for that info, I will watch around the door and pipes. It seems to been running a lot better with everything now on a loop. I do seem to be using more coal then I thought I would. I seem to be getting about a bushel of ash every 1-1/2 days.

I am not sure how much you were expecting to burn, but heating a house, a garage, and a shed is going to take some btus.

Don't get too worried about the coal consumption until you get everything insulated.

Rob R. wrote:I am not sure how much you were expecting to burn, but heating a house, a garage, and a shed is going to take some btus.

Don't get too worried about the coal consumption until you get everything insulated.

I only have 1 wall insulated and I don't have the rafters insulated yet plus I have a ridge vent on the roof and I know all my heat is going up and out the roof. I plan on doing some insulation shopping today. Hoping to get everything insulated this week and I am sure doing that will make a big difference.

Rob R. wrote:Don't get too worried about the coal consumption until you get everything insulated.

Ditto, youve got the mother of all radiators trying to change mother nature's idea that its time for winter I would think you could see that shed on Infrared camera from space....

Waldo,

That got me laughing. I am sure my shed probably glows real nice on infrared.

Well I made the trip to Lowes and picked up some 1" RMAX Thermosheath-3. I am sure this will make a difference and not send all me heat out into space.

Nice job!

That is a nice looking boiler. I like the added lift points and the extended coil mount.

Rob R. wrote:Nice job!

That is a nice looking boiler. I like the added lift points and the extended coil mount.

Rob,

Thanks, I know guys use a pipe fitting to use as a lift point but that just made me nervous. With my luck it would have broke so I had some lift points laying around and decided to use them instead. As far as the coil goes all the bolts where about rusted away when I bought the boiler and all of them broke off so adding the extended coil mount just made good sense.

I'll be curious to see how much difference just adding the boiler insulation makes. Now I need to finish getting the building insulated.

Dave

Nice job Dave! I checked the FLIR camera feed from the space station and the bright glow from your location is now a faint glow.

waldo lemieux wrote:Nice job Dave! I checked the FLIR camera feed from the space station and the bright glow from your location is now a faint glow.

Thanks, Let me see if I can get the shed into stealth mode this week. LOL

Must be why all the local birds are flying south too

Scottscoaled wrote:Must be why all the local birds are flying south too

Now that you mention it I was wondering why all the birds were hanging around here.

Would adding the insulation change the way my fire burns? I checked this morning and my water temp was down to around 115°. I did notice my basement floor was calling for heat which I am guessing would pull the water temp down. I am just surprised it pulled it down that far. I was set at 3-1/2 teeth and 4 air. I bumped it up to 4 teeth and 4-1/2 air.

My aquastat stettings are:
Hight Limit 190°
High Diff 10°
Low Limit 175°
Low Diff 15°

dave28 wrote:Would adding the insulation change the way my fire burns?

Nope.

That radiant slab will really suck some heat. There are a few things you can do to reduce the "shock" on the EFM.

1. Turn down the temperature of the water going through the floor via the mixing valve. 100F is probably plenty.
2. Adjust the bypass valve(s) on the EFM to reduce the amount of cold water being returned to the boiler.
3. Increase the feed rate on the stoker. 3 teeth is too low to do much of anything. 4 is the minimum for most applications, and 5 will noticeably reduce the recovery time.

I would start by adjusting the mixing valve, and increasing the feed rate. You already have it piped primary secondary, so returning really cold water to the boiler should not be a problem. I suspect the floor just sucked all the heat out of the boiler and the feed rate was too low for it to recover in a reasonable amount of time.