iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

New CB Eclassic 2400 Questions/Best Practices

Started by Bob Lentz, January 23, 2012, 05:13:03 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Bob Lentz

Hi,

I'm new here so please forgive my ignorance when it comes to OWB.

I just fired up my EC2400. 

The facts:
2400 is installed at 9000 ft altitude.
It is tied into existing Triangle Tube Propane fired condensing boiler.
We are using a 70 plate w-w heat exchanger
OWB is located 30ft from heat exchanger
House his heated w/ in-floor radiant heat, pool is heated via separte heat exchanger on main boiler/owb loop.
No external thermostatic controls on the OWB, only the ones built into the fire control on the 2400.

Current fire control paramters are as follows:
Max Temp - 185 degrees
Temp Diff - 15 degrees
Puluse timing - every 3 minutes
Pulse duration - 120 seconds


I am testing different settings and trying to figure out what settings work best.

I have a few questions though:

1) Is it better to have a larger temp differential?
2) Is it better for longer duration and fewer pulses or shorter pulses more often to maintain fire?
3) What is the definition of "heat cycle"?

I have noticed that my 2400 rarely goes into high burn mode. Thoughts?
No problems keeping water temp 180 or better.

Any tips would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Bob

eClassic-2400
Triangle Tube Backup (Propane)
Heating 6500 sqft house and small pool

doctorb

Bob-  Welcome to the forum!

1.  A large temp differential is fine as long as you have dry fuel. If you wood (pine, spruce?) is not dry, it will take a longer time to raise the h2o temp.  A large differential may accentuate that problem because the stove is in idle mode longer (doesn't ref ire as often because the temp is allowed to drop further.  I have never played with the pulse settings, so I can't help you there.

2.  Another issue is that you have radiant floor heat.  While great way to heat your home, the temps running through those pipes is a mixed temp down to about 130 degrees, isn't it?  So you are returning a fair amount of "cool" water to your basement furnace that requires heating.  I would ask the question if it would not be better to set your OWb to lower temps, say 145-155.  Then you would not necessarily need to keep your OWB at 185.  Fuel for thought and conversation here on the FF

3. I think that you 2400 should be kicking into high burn.  What kind of combustion temps are you getting?
My father once said, "This is my son who wanted to grow up and become a doctor.  So far, he's only become a doctor."

Bob Lentz

Thanks for the reply.


We are considering changing the high fire temp on Triangle Tube to a lower setting, say the maximum we are getting from the w-w heat exchanger. I'm guessing that would be around 165-170. We will know for sure tomorrow as we are going to measure the temp on the output of the heat exchanger.

We heat our pool w/ this system and i'm a bit reluctant to lower the temp much below 170 as the pool is heated via heat exchanger too.

As for the return temp being "cool", that can't happen because the return goes through the OWB heat exchanger first to the return to the Triangle Tube is always "hot" if the OWB is working. We do have a mixing valve on the system to cool off the water for the floor heat while alowing higher temps for the pool heat.

I am burning high country pine, Doug Fir, Blue Spruce, lodge pole pine and a bit of larger aspen so it's mostly softer wood. I may have to mix in some hard wood that i purchase. We will see.

My combustion temps have been over 1K degrees when its on high fire. Problem is, it rarely does this.
Most of the time, the water temp is between 170-185 and the combustion chamber is between 280 and 325. It won't go into high fire until combustion chamber temp is over 750 if i read that right.

Looking forward to a long and heated :) debate on the settings for this beast!

Thanks again,

Bob

eClassic-2400
Triangle Tube Backup (Propane)
Heating 6500 sqft house and small pool

boilerman101

As an E 2400 operator, here are some of my views & questons? Do you have the Central Boiler required thermo valve installed? If so, lowering your upper set point would not be good, as return water temps below 170 degrees cut back on the water flow into your house. I also think a 15 degree differential is going the wrong direction, if you want the furnace to not go out, set it back to a 10 degree or maybe an 8 degree differential. Your air pulses also sound extreme, that is a lot of fan and solenoid power draw time too. My thinking is your constant air pulsing and 15 degree differential you have set, may cause a lot of wet creosote build up in the firebox, blocking air holes and could also create a lot of clumping ash along the air tube in the firebox blocking air flow down along side of it. This may be the reason for your low reaction chamber temps. The use of high moisture wood will also make if more difficult to achieve 1,000 degree plus reaction chamber temps as it does not gasify well. I'm well into my second season with my E2400 without any issues...Here are my settings: 185 degree set point, 10 degree differential (if wood not dry 8 degree differential), air pulsed for 50 seconds every 15 minutes. (again I have lowered down to every 12 minutes with high moisture wood) I hope my insights help.

Bob Lentz

Boilerman101- i think your assessment is correct. I will change my settings to match yours and see how it goes. I have noticed a creosote build up in the boiler. It's only been running this way for two days so i hope i have not created a cleaning problem.

How do you clean the creosote? Also, do you put lime in your fire box to nutralize the ashes?

Thank you!
eClassic-2400
Triangle Tube Backup (Propane)
Heating 6500 sqft house and small pool

doctorb

I think my opinions should be discounted, given boilerman's reply.  I, too, agree with him.  Creosote is best removed with a hot fire.  If built up, it will usually burn off.  If not, scrape it into the coal bed where it will combust.  No, I have never used lime.
My father once said, "This is my son who wanted to grow up and become a doctor.  So far, he's only become a doctor."

wayno12

Bob, I installed my EC 2400 in Nov. 2010.  Heated 3,500 sq foot house and 600 sq foot attached garage as well as DHW all winter of 2011, heated 30' above ground pool maintained at 88 degrees all spring, alot of summer, and well into fall of 2011, and am well into winter of 2012.  I live dead center in the lower penninsula of Michigan and my boiler settings match boilerman101 settings exactly.  My boiler operates perfectly bar the recent problem I have posted yesterday.  Big difference between you and I is that I am burning all well seasoned oak compared to your pine.  I did have ongoing problems getting to high burn last winter and finally resolved it by cutting back on the amount of wood I loaded in the boiler at one time.  As a rule of thumb, I figure I burn one 4" piece of wood per hour if outdoor temp is 20's - 30's.  If down around 0 deg F, I throw in some extra to compensate.  What I do is put in enough wood to last 12 to 14 hours, about 8 to 12 pieces depending on their size.  Essencially, I load it before I leave for work in the morning, and again when I get home.  My goal is to have a very nice bed of coals covering the entire bottom of the firebox several inches deep and to have 3 to 4 very charred chunks of wood that haven't burned yet.  By doing this, it allows me to use my poker CB included with the stove and work up my coal bed and make sure my opening to the lower combustion chamber is completely open.  If you are not getting high burn, I would have to almost guarantee you are not feeding your combustion chamber properly as this can only happen when the opening below the air charge tube is cleared.  Maintaining a good balance between a nice bed of coals and too little coals or too much is very very important.  If you don't have enough coal bed you will not get to high burn as the coals do not fall into and "feed" the combustion chamber.  If you overload the stove, based on outdoor temp, within a period of just a couple days, you will soon plug off the opening to the lower combustion chamber and again, no high burn.  The way I do it now, my stove operates flawlessly.  Keys to remember, try not to overload with wood repeatedly to where coals and ashes get so deep they stop "feeding" the combustion chamber, don't add so little wood you deplete all of your coals in the bed which in turn, stops "feeding" the lower combustion chamber.  I read alot of posts where guys are filling their fire box right to the top and it burns for 2 days.  I wish I could get away with this, but I tried it and it would not work for me.

Thank You Sponsors!