Home heating blues
Dec. 17th, 2009 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fitzwColdest night forecast so far (-1° F), and I just shut down the wood-fired boiler for heating the house.
Why? Because there were little wisps of smoke coming from the firebox, through the feed door.
Not around the door; that would have indicated a problem with the new gasket. Through the door. That means the integrity of the door itself is compromised.
The solid iron door.
I have to wait for the fire to die out, and make sure that the water jacket doesn't overheat in the meantime. It shouldn't, but smoke shouldn't be coming through the door, either.
Thankfully, we have a secondary boiler for heating the water, which is oil-fired. There's ¾ of a tank of oil, so we don't have to worry about losing heat during the night.
We'll be talking to my brother about this in the morning. Will probably have to call for service for the boiler, which will probably involve replacing the door.
ETA: My father thought that maybe the wisps of smoke weren't serious enough to warrant shutting down the boiler. However, there is an additional factor to this.
"Shutting down the boiler" involves turning off the blower that puts extra air into the firebox to encourage the fire, as well as closing the air intake below the firebox. When I went down to check the fire, I found that a circuit breaker had tripped on the boiler, automatically shutting off the blower. That happens when the water jacket gets too hot.
There were also visible drops of creosote on the top pieces of unburned wood in the firebox.
The combination of the water jacket getting too hot, the drops of creosote, and the wisps of smoke coming through the door make me want to get the boiler checked before letting it continue to run normally.
Why? Because there were little wisps of smoke coming from the firebox, through the feed door.
Not around the door; that would have indicated a problem with the new gasket. Through the door. That means the integrity of the door itself is compromised.
The solid iron door.
I have to wait for the fire to die out, and make sure that the water jacket doesn't overheat in the meantime. It shouldn't, but smoke shouldn't be coming through the door, either.
Thankfully, we have a secondary boiler for heating the water, which is oil-fired. There's ¾ of a tank of oil, so we don't have to worry about losing heat during the night.
We'll be talking to my brother about this in the morning. Will probably have to call for service for the boiler, which will probably involve replacing the door.
ETA: My father thought that maybe the wisps of smoke weren't serious enough to warrant shutting down the boiler. However, there is an additional factor to this.
"Shutting down the boiler" involves turning off the blower that puts extra air into the firebox to encourage the fire, as well as closing the air intake below the firebox. When I went down to check the fire, I found that a circuit breaker had tripped on the boiler, automatically shutting off the blower. That happens when the water jacket gets too hot.
There were also visible drops of creosote on the top pieces of unburned wood in the firebox.
The combination of the water jacket getting too hot, the drops of creosote, and the wisps of smoke coming through the door make me want to get the boiler checked before letting it continue to run normally.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 01:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 04:11 am (UTC)