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Re: Wood-fired Steam Heating
=================================================================Yes Jamie, I am talking about steam, not hot water! I am not interested in radiant heat, I need to put steam radiators in the greenhouse as well as the house and without steam traps if it's a one-pipe system.
As drawn, at least as I interpret the drawing it won't.
Why do you need a pump if I want steam to build up in the buffer tank? That tank is my battery, thermal deep cycle battery so that the boiler doesn't have to run around the clock wearing itself out. The idea is to generate enough steam to sustain the system. Yes the big tank would also hold hot water, but that water would be the condensate that returns from the main, not from the boiler. What is the point of pumping hot water into buffer tank if I need it to flash into steam? I cannot have my main run directly from a boiler riser, these boilers aren't designed for that, these are hot water boilers for radiant heat, but I do need to generate steam, and I need your help make it happen guys.
ChrisJ, the fast traveling dry steam has enough space in a 2-3" diam pipe to whistle around and yes it travels at 60 miles an hour at 0 psi, the higher the pressure, the slower it goes and the condensate gravitates towards the tank so long as vents are present and no micro bubbles are impeding every turn of the steam seeking the lowest pressure point.
leonz, I am not interested in coal, this is a firewood thread, a steam heating problem in need of a solution. I either modify an existing wood-fired system to flash into steam or I fabricate an actual steam boiler from scratch and hope I don't cause an explosion later.
I am going to save you some time and work if you have no real interest in a coal fired steam boiler that can do what you want with low pressure steam with little work.
================================================================
If you want a wood fired gasification steam boiler for a one pipe system you should look
at the Alternate heating systems E250 wood boiler.
The E250 is an induced draft boiler that can be used to make low pressure steam, it is not a flash steam boiler, it has been tested to 250,000 BTU per hour for low pressure steam making and can heat 9,000 square feet.
It has a 2 pass gas burning system with a refractory brick lined combustion chamber.
The firebox is 48 inches long so you could load it with pulp wood lengths of firewood.
www.alternateheatingsystems.com/product/commercial-wood-boilers/
leonz
1
Re: A Bastian Morley Boiler
Burner Jets arrived this evening, all 90 of them. If one is going to order from Anderson & Forrester, you must provide them the orifice hole size. If you don’t specify the orifice hole size you will get a blank and have to drill the orifice yourself. The orifice size on the jets that will be replaced on this project was a #70 hole, .028”. Install next week. Should keep this boiler in operation for several more years and save the customer big money by not having to replace the boiler.
SgtMaj
2
What is this?
I'm new to steam heat. I have uneven heating. So I started looking into it. I couldn't find any vents or traps in the whole system. This thing is the only thing I found. Besides pipes and valves. Looks like its seen better days.Thanks 
KayB
1
Re: Munchkin updated
On the by and by I work alone so there’s no other chiefs or help ,it’s a solo experence all work performed solo by myself while listen to Jerry reed gotta love America
Peace and good luck clammy
Peace and good luck clammy
clammy
1
Completed Restoration of original American Radiator Rococo units
Our 1770s home has 19 cast iron radiators, all of which are the Rococo model made by American Radiator Co. They were performing very well but were covered with many layers of lead paint that was flaking off, creating an imminent health hazard. On top of that, most of the fine detail was lost under all the paint.
We wanted to restore them but don't have the equipment to do them here and did we want to pollute our home or property with lead paint flakes and dust. We considered chemical stripping and painting but ruled both out due to concerns about odors and off-gassing. We retained a local company to have the radiators sand blasted and powder coated.
Color is a subjective decision, and we wanted them to be an architectural feature but not loud or gaudy. Plus we wanted a color that we thought we could be happy with for the next several decades with no regard to design trends. When selecting colors, we looked at about 60 different variants of metallic pewter and silver. The color we chose was Starnight Silver PMB 5752 by Prismatic Powders. We ended up using 60 lbs. of it, which is pretty staggering in terms of scope.
We are delighted with the results. Aesthetically, they are incredible. There is no more lead flakes, and there are zero odors or off-gassing. I checked their heating performance before and after with my heat gun and it is identical. There are no leaks either.
We wouldn't change a thing about the process, materials or results.
Here are some photos which I thought you all might enjoy.
BEFORE:
DURING:
AFTER:
We wanted to restore them but don't have the equipment to do them here and did we want to pollute our home or property with lead paint flakes and dust. We considered chemical stripping and painting but ruled both out due to concerns about odors and off-gassing. We retained a local company to have the radiators sand blasted and powder coated.
Color is a subjective decision, and we wanted them to be an architectural feature but not loud or gaudy. Plus we wanted a color that we thought we could be happy with for the next several decades with no regard to design trends. When selecting colors, we looked at about 60 different variants of metallic pewter and silver. The color we chose was Starnight Silver PMB 5752 by Prismatic Powders. We ended up using 60 lbs. of it, which is pretty staggering in terms of scope.
We are delighted with the results. Aesthetically, they are incredible. There is no more lead flakes, and there are zero odors or off-gassing. I checked their heating performance before and after with my heat gun and it is identical. There are no leaks either.
We wouldn't change a thing about the process, materials or results.
Here are some photos which I thought you all might enjoy.
BEFORE:
DURING:
AFTER:
Re: Munchkin updated
And here’s some afters . I try
Peace and good luck clammy and in case your wondering it was all permitted and inspected as it should be .
Peace and good luck clammy and in case your wondering it was all permitted and inspected as it should be .
clammy
6
Re: Propane Explosion Destroys Building- Bird-in-Hand, PA
40% of electricity generated in 2022 was with NG, so fossil fuels are more and more the fuel for generating electricity.This is true since the anti-fossil fuel lobby is very coordinated but the truth of it all is that even with the handful of oil, natural gas or propane fuels experiencing catastrophic failures, electric fires and loss of life and property is a significantly greater concern. Just look how many homes have fires due to electric heaters or appliance being misused, batteries failing while a toy or vehicle is charging inside the premise. I still believe fossil fuels are the best for reliability and safety compared to the new religion alternatives.Yeah, propane will do that now and then. So will natural gas. Oil won't.You can preach oil safety all you want but in the end such explosions hurt all fossil fuels.
This will be used as another excuse to ban fossil fuels for safety reasons, including oil and more pushing for all electric.
Even though such problems are very rare compared to electrical fires, those are ignored for some reason. Gas stoves seeping minute amounts of fuel so small no one could ever tell is an issue and all over the news but an electrical fire burning the joint down is fine.
Although in my home state of Utah, 3 Uranium mines are reopening and one in Arizona. Utah a has the highest amount of Uranium. So possibly we see more small scale nuke plants being permitted and built.
57 nuclear plants under construction worldwide, two in Georgia one at 99% completion.
hot_rod
1
Re: Wood-fired Steam Heating
I'm not saying that heating with wood -- whether steam or water or air or direct -- isn't a viable solution. For some people. I did it myself for a number of years in Vermont. What I am saying, as I say so often, is that it is one option which can, and should, be considered when evaluating how to accomplish the goal, which is adequate and feasible comfort -- and that there are considerations involved which limit its applicability.
On the other hand (where is my soapbox? Ah... there it is), unless you have a large woodlot and know, understand, and practice sustainable forestry, it is NOT a sustainable jolly green option. Somewhere around 1 cord per acre is about what is feasible for sustained yield in the more northern climates -- including Canada.
On the other hand (where is my soapbox? Ah... there it is), unless you have a large woodlot and know, understand, and practice sustainable forestry, it is NOT a sustainable jolly green option. Somewhere around 1 cord per acre is about what is feasible for sustained yield in the more northern climates -- including Canada.
Re: Will Tigerloop help our situation?
In my experience there are too many technicians that have never learned to make a proper flare on the end of a copper tube. There are plenty of YouTube videos that show the incorrect way to make a copper flare. A partially rolled over burr on the interior of a tube made by the cutting tool will cause the tubing to fail to make an airtight seal. Gravity does the rest.
The siphon created by the overhead line has the heavier than air liquid fuel at the high point. The lighter that oil atmosphere leaks into the flare fitting and allows the oil to drop back into the fuel tank. The longer the off cycle, the more air is found in the overhead line. When the oil burner starts, that air may cause noisy operation until the air is purged. If enough air accumulates then there is a possibility that the fuel pressure will not be enough to force the fuel past the nozzle port. That is because the air will compress when it reaches the pressure regulator at the nozze port of the fuel pump. This results in a lockout by the primary control safety.
To fix this you need to get a technician with an expensive flaring tool that knows how to use it to make all the flare connections over, properly. In a perfect world, that would be easy to do. mist technicians that work on oil burners have the inexpensive flaring tool and don't know how to properly prep the end of the tube for an air tight seal. In that case the tiger loop gets them out of that jam of incompetence.
The other fix to to have the fuel line lower than the bottom of the tank, so any leak will present as a wet spot that is much easier to locate and repair. Incompetence will be a wet leak in that case.
The siphon created by the overhead line has the heavier than air liquid fuel at the high point. The lighter that oil atmosphere leaks into the flare fitting and allows the oil to drop back into the fuel tank. The longer the off cycle, the more air is found in the overhead line. When the oil burner starts, that air may cause noisy operation until the air is purged. If enough air accumulates then there is a possibility that the fuel pressure will not be enough to force the fuel past the nozzle port. That is because the air will compress when it reaches the pressure regulator at the nozze port of the fuel pump. This results in a lockout by the primary control safety.
To fix this you need to get a technician with an expensive flaring tool that knows how to use it to make all the flare connections over, properly. In a perfect world, that would be easy to do. mist technicians that work on oil burners have the inexpensive flaring tool and don't know how to properly prep the end of the tube for an air tight seal. In that case the tiger loop gets them out of that jam of incompetence.
The other fix to to have the fuel line lower than the bottom of the tank, so any leak will present as a wet spot that is much easier to locate and repair. Incompetence will be a wet leak in that case.
