Axeman 130 Heats Wood Boiler

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Mon. Sep. 27, 2021 7:27 am

Nice. I was thinking you still had a single run of 1" PEX to work with.

How long are the loops for the zones? I am trying to get a handle on what circulator you may need for this.


 
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StokerDon
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Mon. Sep. 27, 2021 6:17 pm

The headers and the run too and from them will be 1.25" black iron pipe.

All zones are 1" PEX. House HX zone = about 30', Radiant zone = about 25', outbuilding zone = about 25'. The DHW HX will be right next to the headers. Measurements are all one way.

-Don

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Thu. Sep. 30, 2021 1:33 pm

StokerDon wrote:
Mon. Sep. 27, 2021 6:17 pm
The headers and the run too and from them will be 1.25" black iron pipe.

All zones are 1" PEX. House HX zone = about 30', Radiant zone = about 25', outbuilding zone = about 25'. The DHW HX will be right next to the headers. Measurements are all one way.

-Don
Nice! You won't be restricted by pipe size. What are you using for a circulator?

 
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StokerDon
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Fri. Oct. 01, 2021 8:10 am

Rob R. wrote:
Thu. Sep. 30, 2021 1:33 pm
Nice! You won't be restricted by pipe size. What are you using for a circulator?
We will be using one of the existing pumps from the wood boiler. If I remember correctly, they are Taco 009's. Its probably too much pump so we will probably switch it out at some point. Let us know what you come up with Rob.

-Don

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Fri. Oct. 01, 2021 9:00 am

Don, a Taco 009 is normally used when you have a very restrictive circuit that does not need a lot of flow (009 tops out at 10 gpm). An example would be a long run of PEX tubing going to and from a wood boiler. It would be a poor choice for a system like you are putting together due to the very "steep" pump curve. I think you could probably sell those 009's with the wood boiler and get something that uses less power, and responds better to changes in the flow rate required....like a Taco 007.

 
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StokerDon
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Sat. Oct. 02, 2021 8:04 am

That makes perfect sense. I guess the wood boiler sellers/installers tell people to use the 009's just because that's the type of pump they use on everything, not because they considered the pipe run and pump curve. :what:

Three 009's on the top.
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That might be an 007 on the bottom. If not I have a few laying around that we could use.
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Probably better to buy a new one though. Looks like there about 100 bucks.

-Don

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sat. Oct. 02, 2021 10:11 am

StokerDon wrote:
Sat. Oct. 02, 2021 8:04 am
That makes perfect sense. I guess the wood boiler sellers/installers tell people to use the 009's just because that's the type of pump they use on everything, not because they considered the pipe run and pump curve. :what:
Most wood boilers are located a pretty good distance from the home. If you have a couple hundred feet of 1" pex to circulate through, the 009 is a good choice.

A used 007 that works good should be fine, but I would not use one that was previously used in an open system like an OWB if you could avoid it.


 
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StokerDon
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Sat. Oct. 30, 2021 7:54 pm

Today we were over at the Axeman Heats WoodBoiler Project.

Outside is looking good!
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The job of the day is to mock up and make final measurements on the 1.25" pipe over to the manifolds and the near boiler plumbing.
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Starting at the Axeman, we go up overhead.
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Over to the right.
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Then down to the manifolds.
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The next project will be to take the pipes to get cut to length and threaded. After that it will be time to bang the pipes together. Then we can wire it and fire it!

A couple weeks ago Ben Reece showed up and delivered about 7 ton of Pea coal.
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I'd say we could fit at least 2 more ton in there. :what:

-Don

 
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StokerDon
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Fri. Nov. 19, 2021 9:05 pm

The owner got back from hunting on Monday and made a bunch of progress.

Stove pipe is on and mechanical parts are on.
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Near boiler plumbing is done and the overhead pipes are all run over to the headers.
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The expansion tank is mounted up out of the way on a shelf.
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Headers are all mounted.
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This evening we started connecting the PEX that comes up out of the floor to the headers. And some of the zone valve wiring.
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The plan for tomorrow is to finish the PEX, fill it with water, fix any leaks, then we wire it and fire it! :D
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-Don

 
ziggy87
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Post by ziggy87 » Sat. Nov. 20, 2021 1:34 am

Looks nice Don! Keep up the good work!

 
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StokerDon
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Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Nov. 21, 2021 11:40 am

PLUMBED, WIRED AND FIRED!!!

Well, mostly plumbed and wired. Yesterday we got enough done to fire it up and push heat. The DHW zone still needs to be plumbed and today we will wire up the zone valves.
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The black box on the wall is where the 24v transformer and zone wiring will go.
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Supply header and zone valves. The headers have 5 branches, we are using 3 for heating zones. One will be the DHW zone and the last one is a spare.
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Junction box on the left is where the coal boiler main power comes in. Black box on the right is where we will run all the boiler controls.
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After many hours of plumbing, wiring, fixing a couple problematic leaks and forcing out all the air, it was time to FIRE IT!
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It ran for a good hour and a half strait with all three zones open. The radiant concrete slab will probably take a day or so to get up to the set point.
Supply.
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Return.
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Stack.
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Boiler.
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FIRE!
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This auger has the bearing sleeve and coal bin end piece that was made by member "welder1186".
axeman 130 auger tube repair
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This repair is working very well and should extend the life of this auger for many years.
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OK, I better get back over there. It's time to finish it up!

-Don

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sun. Nov. 21, 2021 3:52 pm

Nice!! Thanks for the great update :)

 
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StokerDon
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Location: PA, Southern York County!
Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Nov. 21, 2021 8:41 pm

Well, zone wiring didn't go as planned.

The house heat exchanger zone is not working. It was to complicated for me to figure out today but we got it partly running. The heat exchanger is above the house AC unit, no furnace. When the wood boiler was installed an HVAC tech installed a Honeywell relay and ran 3, 18 AWG wires out to the wood boiler, White, Green and Red.

At first I used the White and Green wires in conjunction with a 24 VAC transformer. I was able to get the zone valve to open for a heat call but the fan would not come on. Then I played around with the red wire, got the fan to come on but when the fan came on, the zone valve shut.

To get around it for tonight, we disconnected the zone valve wires and forced the zone valve open. Now the fan will turn on when there is a heat call and the heat exchanger will always be hot.

Any ideas?

-Don

 
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Post by ziggy87 » Sun. Nov. 21, 2021 9:07 pm

So generally R- red 24v hot, W- White heat and G-green fan. I would try putting the white and green wires together. That should energize the fan and the heat at the same time. This should work as long as the initial installer wired it how it normally is in the industry.

 
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StokerDon
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Posts: 7486
Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
Location: PA, Southern York County!
Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Mon. Nov. 22, 2021 8:57 am

ziggy87 wrote:
Sun. Nov. 21, 2021 9:07 pm
So generally R- red 24v hot, W- White heat and G-green fan. I would try putting the white and green wires together. That should energize the fan and the heat at the same time. This should work as long as the initial installer wired it how it normally is in the industry.
Thanks Ziggy!

It may, or may not be standard wiring but now I have something to go by. I'll check to see if any of these wires are 24v hot.
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-Don


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