Summer Ideas

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Trumpeterb
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Post by Trumpeterb » Sat. May. 14, 2022 11:20 am

I had another outfire this morning, and I think it is because the weather has been warm, and therefore there has been no call for heat or reason for the fan to kick on, and the fire went out. I do not have a continuously circulating loop now, so unless there is a call for heat, I fear this will continue all summer. I wonder what thoughts were on either just keeping the boiler shut down all summer, removing the stove pipe, and placing some sort of heat source inside the firebox to keep it warm, or perhaps keeping it hot but plugging my overheat loop into some sort of timer so that it kicks on for 10 minutes once every 2 or 3 hours just to remove some of the heat from the water and hopefully kicking the boiler on once in a while. This is the first time I have had the boiler plumbed this way, without a continuous loop, and therefore the first summer I have experienced this. Thoughts?

 
lzaharis
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Post by lzaharis » Sat. May. 14, 2022 12:57 pm

For simplicities sake, removing the stove pipe and plugging the boiler flue and chimney thimble works.
It lets you clean the pipe and flue breech and spray it with Fluid Film too. I have to replace my stove pipe as its leaking at the joints after 7 years.

Adding several damp rid buckets to the ash pit will help as well as spraying the fire box with a good coating of Fluid Film.
Instead of that using a heat source like a work light with drop resistant bulbs works well as long as you check to make sure the bulb is not burned out several times a month.

 
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StokerDon
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Post by StokerDon » Sat. May. 14, 2022 1:26 pm

I have had problems with outfires in warm weather when the pump doesn't run much. If I run the pump constantly, I have far less problems but use a little more coal.

If you have an open fitting on your supply and return header, you could just run a piece of PEX between the two. Then you could just run the pump continuously. When I do this in my setup, the boiler runs once an hour or so. That seems to keep it happy.

-Don

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sun. May. 15, 2022 12:52 pm

I can't recall if you are also using the boiler for domestic hot water or how much DHW you use. It would depend on how many household members you have. If you have a high DHW usage demand, your best bet would be to keep it running, especially if electric is the alternative. Keeping the boiler online has it's benefits also by keeping corrosion away.

You may be able to find a way to "bleed some heat", just enough to keep the fire alive. One such idea might be to circulate thru a small length of baseboard near the boiler where the heat wouldn't bother the living space too much. I'm currently exploring this idea as well since I want to run my Axe over summer.


 
Trumpeterb
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Post by Trumpeterb » Sun. May. 15, 2022 1:03 pm

Lightning wrote:
Sun. May. 15, 2022 12:52 pm
I can't recall if you are also using the boiler for domestic hot water or how much DHW you use. It would depend on how many household members you have. If you have a high DHW usage demand, your best bet would be to keep it running, especially if electric is the alternative. Keeping the boiler online has it's benefits also by keeping corrosion away.

You may be able to find a way to "bleed some heat", just enough to keep the fire alive. One such idea might be to circulate thru a small length of baseboard near the boiler where the heat wouldn't bother the living space too much. I'm currently exploring this idea as well since I want to run my Axe over summer.
I do not have a DHW setup at this point, so that is not an option; however, I do have it piped into a swimming pool heater. I will be opening the pool soon, and that heater will pull a ton of heat out of the boiler…it essentially runs non-stop and never shuts off when I am heating the pool. I could possibly keep the heater loop running continuously and divert the pool water from the heat exchanger and send it straight into the pool once heated. That would then allow the pool heat exchanger to serve essentially the same function as a small baseboard. Might work anyway.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sun. May. 15, 2022 3:15 pm

Using it to heat DHW will help a lot and help you save money in the meantime. For example, in my case it saves around $75 a month worth of electric. If I count 5 months as non heating months, that saves $375. Subtract a few bucks for running the circ and the combustion blower. Call it $300 in net savings. That will cover the coal used and prevent it from rotting in my swampy basement over the summer. I also have plans of plumbing the outdoor hot tub into it. Which is more gravy on top of that.

I use solar for my pool. It works well enough.

 
Trumpeterb
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Post by Trumpeterb » Mon. May. 16, 2022 5:17 pm

Ok, boiler is re-lit and hot again. I plugged the pump and fan of my overheat loop into a smart plug, and I programmed it to kick on for 10 minutes every 3 hours. I hope that this pulls enough heat out of the boiler to start the burn at least a couple of times each day. I am sure I will eventually need to adjust either the amount of time the loop is on, the frequency it kicks on, or both, but I am hopeful this will solve my problem.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Mon. May. 16, 2022 5:48 pm

Cool, what are you using for a dump zone loop? How many BTUs would you think it can deliver?


 
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nepacoal
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Post by nepacoal » Mon. May. 16, 2022 5:53 pm

Why not just use a timer? It'll dump by itself if it gets too warm...

 
Trumpeterb
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Post by Trumpeterb » Mon. May. 16, 2022 6:03 pm

nepacoal wrote:
Mon. May. 16, 2022 5:53 pm
Why not just use a timer? It'll dump by itself if it gets too warm...
I am using the smart plug as a timer.

 
Trumpeterb
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Post by Trumpeterb » Mon. May. 16, 2022 6:05 pm

Lightning wrote:
Mon. May. 16, 2022 5:48 pm
Cool, what are you using for a dump zone loop? How many BTUs would you think it can deliver?
I don’t really have one now…I guess that might be a problem…maybe not. I turned the aqua stat down to 150, so if it overshoots, it should still be within bounds….hopefully. I am keeping a very close eye on it for the first few days to see how it works.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Mon. May. 16, 2022 7:44 pm

Trumpeterb wrote:
Mon. May. 16, 2022 6:05 pm
I don’t really have one now…
I assumed that your "overheat loop" was the dump zone. My bad.

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