How to properly heat a solid fuel boiler with wood tips on how to heat a boiler with wood
It would seem, what does it mean “correctly” to heat the boiler with firewood? What's so complicated, throw yourself firewood into the firebox until the coals have cooled down, and the whole process. It turns out that it's not so simple. How efficiently the boiler works does not primarily depend on its design.
First of all, the result of its work, as well as efficiency, depends on the quality of the fuel used. Not only the type of wood is important, but also whether it is dry or damp, the condition of the dampers and chokes.
The nuances of operating solid fuel boilers will be discussed in the article.
How does a solid fuel boiler work on wood
The boiler works as follows:
- As a result of the combustion of wood in a firebox, a certain amount of heat is released, which is different for different species.
- The heat goes to heat the water tank located above the firebox.
- Water circulates through the pipeline from the tank to the radiators and back through a closed circuit. Circulation can be either natural (with pipes located at a slight slope), or forced, by means of a circulation pump.
- The products of combustion are discharged through the chimney to the street. In order for the draft to be normal, the vertical part of the chimney is made three or more than three meters high.
- The intensity of combustion is regulated by the dampers of the furnace and chimney.
Important!
The heating unit is equipped with a safety system for emergency pressure relief in case of overheating. If this is not done, the boiler becomes dangerous in operation.
How to heat a solid fuel boiler with wood
Before starting to heat, it is necessary to competently make kindling, but if you ignore it, smoke may begin to seep into the dwelling. Different types of wood are better suited for different stages of the process, the size of firewood in this case also matters.
What firewood to choose
It is recommended to heat with well-dried wood, and it is worth dwelling on its varieties separately.
Birch - gives a lot of heat, burns for a long time, but in the process of combustion, a large amount of tar remains on the walls of the chimney from it.
Alder - gives one and a half times less heat than birch, but practically does not leave soot. Good for kindling as it is highly flammable.
Aspen also does not give soot, and emits little heat, it is also advisable to use it as kindling.
Pine burns hot, but contains a lot of resin and produces a large amount of soot. Spruce wood burns hotter than pine wood, while releasing less soot.
Poplar, releasing a lot of heat, burns out very quickly.
Apple and pear give a lot of heat, good coals, but knotty and poorly prickly.
Oak, ash and beech are dense and hard, hard to prick. During combustion, they emit a lot of heat, soot gives little. Rarely found on sale.
Taking into account the above properties, firewood is selected both for kindling and for directly heating the boiler.
The correct sequence of actions
The process begins with cleaning the ash pan and subsequent kindling. In time, this stage can take about an hour. The meaning of kindling is to warm up the firebox and chimney to create sufficient draft. The complexity and duration of the process is due to the shape of the chimney and the presence of horizontal sections in it.
Crumpled paper, bark, small chips are used as kindling. Then lay thin logs. After they are ignited, firewood is added little by little to half the load of the firebox.
The dampers of the blower and chimney are opened wide during the kindling process to ensure good air flow. It is also recommended to open the windows in the room to increase the flow of fresh air.
After the flame flares up well, the dampers are half covered.
After sufficient warming up, full bookmarks begin to be carried out, while the rate of their burnout is determined by the type of wood and the position of the dampers.
On a note!
To automate the adjustment process, thermostatic draft regulators and fans with controllers equipped with a temperature sensor are used. These devices make it possible to significantly simplify temperature control and increase the efficiency of the boiler.
Features of working with a wood-fired boiler
Unlike devices that run on liquid fuel or gas, wood-burning boilers do not give off heat evenly to the room, this is due to the peculiarity of the combustion process. In the middle of the process, much more heat is released than at the beginning and at the end. To more or less equalize the amount of heat given out, dampers on the blower and on the chimney give.
How to fire up a cauldron
In cycling, the most difficult thing is not to ride, but to start the movement and finish it. So it is in the operation of the boiler - it is most difficult to melt it. Do not expect that the kindling of the boiler will take you a little time: you will have to allocate about an hour for this procedure.
The firebox of a wood-burning boiler is a responsible occupation
The beginning of the furnace - cleaning the ash and preparing the boiler for work. After the ash pan and the combustion chamber are cleaned, you can proceed to kindling.
Warming up the boiler furnace and chimney
For your own comfort and proper start-up of the boiler, you need to warm up its furnace and chimney. If the heater is not equipped with a forced smoke exhaust system, in order for the fuel to start burning, it is necessary to create draft. The formation of thrust is based on the law of Archimedes: heated gases become lighter and tend to "float". For their movement and removal, fuel-burning heating appliances are equipped with a chimney.
Boiler diagram. Photo site www.viessmann.ru/
The design of the boiler is such that the path for smoke is difficult: on its path there is a heat exchanger and a convective surface of a complex shape, which reduces the speed of movement of combustion products. And the chimney pipe is usually located horizontally, which also makes it difficult to move smoke. Therefore, if the boiler is not warmed up, the combustion products look for the easiest way. And most often the smoke begins to seep into the room.
In some cases, the vertical part of the chimney is equipped with a chimney (a small firebox used to warm the chimney) with a door that can be opened to burn a small amount of combustible fuel (for example, paper) directly in the chimney itself. When using a firebox, the inside of the chimney channel warms up.
If this possibility is not provided, then kindling is laid in the furnace - crumpled paper, birch bark - something flammable. On top of the kindling - chips and splinter, then logs of small thickness. The combustion chamber must be filled with firewood no more than half of the calculated volume.
At the moment of kindling, it is necessary to open the chimney damper and the blower valve, ensuring the flow of air for combustion.
There are tips before starting the firebox to open a window in the boiler room, if any: do not forget that oxygen is needed for the physical and chemical combustion process.
How to heat a boiler with wood
It takes about 5 cubic meters of air to burn a kilogram of firewood. If air is supplied to the boiler furnace from the boiler room, then it is imperative to arrange forced ventilation - especially if there are no windows in the boiler room or they are sealed (with double-glazed windows).
After laying the logs, kindling is ignited. When a steady burning appears, the firebox door must be covered and the bookmark should be allowed to burn out.
Rated output
As soon as the combustion chamber and chimney have warmed up sufficiently, you can proceed to the main stage of the boiler operation. To do this, repeat the kindling process using well-burning materials.Now the main laying of firewood is already complete, in order, according to the instructions for the device, to fill the combustion chamber.
After the fuel has ignited, the boiler will reach its design power after a while. Now the combustion process will occur for some time on its own. How long depends on the volume of the combustion chamber and the principle of operation of the boiler. After the firewood bookmark burns out, you will need to make a new one.
A properly functioning boiler is a source of heat and comfort in a country house
Important! When kindling, do not use lighter fluids or flammable gasoline, diesel fuel, etc.
Tips for More Efficient Heating
If the boiler has recently worked before refueling, and the chimney has excellent draft and has not yet lost high temperature, it is enough to close the doors and, after turning on the control, fix the desired temperature. After a while, you can exclude the control unit and check if the previously added part of the coal caught fire. If yes, then it's time to fill up an additional portion of the material for combustion. In this case, it is not necessary to close the slots in the front of the grille.
Rice. 2 Automatic coal boiler
If the chimney is not preheated, after burning the paper, the bottom door of the ash pan must be opened
Further, without turning on the fan, it is important to give the device some time to warm up on natural draft. After the combustion intensifies, its thrust will increase significantly, having noticed this, you can close the door tightly and activate the control unit by turning it on
When the chimney has not been used for a very long time, or it is new, it should be well warmed up before kindling. To do this, it is enough to set fire to the paper in the revision of the chimney until the draft in the boiler increases.
What kind of coal is better to heat the boiler
The manufacturer initially carries out heat engineering calculations, and adapts the design of the combustion chamber and heat exchanger to a specific type of fuel. Therefore, in order to increase the efficiency of a domestic boiler, it is enough to use coal of the grade and fraction indicated in the operating instructions.
What brand of coal to heat
The composition of coal includes carbon and non-combustible impurities, which form ash and slag after combustion. The ratio between carbon and impurities depends on the selected fuel grade. Coal has (depending on the brand) a different degree of moisture, loose or solid structure, age of formation.
In order to effectively heat a coal boiler, it is necessary to understand well what characteristics distinguish one or another type of fuel:
- Lingit - this type of fuel has a loose structure and a large percentage of ash residue. Lingit is used in industrial power plants. For heating the house, this type of fuel is not suitable.
Coal - has a calorific value of 5500 kcal / kg. The percentage of carbon is not less than 75%. Ash content from 2 to 4%. Most household boilers of the classical type are heated with coal. For gas generator type equipment, not suitable due to humidity above 20%.
Brown coal - calorific value is in the range of only 3000 kcal / hour. When burned, a large amount of ash residue and coking substances are formed. Humidity is at 50%. Brown coal is not recommended for heating household boilers, due to the rapid clogging of the chimney and heat exchanger.
Anthracite - the moisture threshold is within 7%. It has high rates of specific heat, equal to 9000 kcal/hour. The share of ash carried away by gases from the coal boiler is not more than 7%. Anthracite, manufacturers of heating equipment, recommend heating gas-generating boilers. Coal is divided into several grades by size: fist, nut, seed.
Is it possible to heat with coal briquettes
Coal briquettes are made by pressing small fractions (dust). As a binding element, special organic or mineral compounds are used.The latter greatly increase the ash content of the fuel, but are cheaper. The most popular are coal briquettes, in which coal tar acts as a binder.
Heating with pressed coal has the following advantages:
- Ease of installation in the combustion chamber.
- Good flammability.
- High calorific value, identical to anthracite.
- Ease of storage and transportation - briquettes have the correct geometric shape, so they are easier to store and take up less space.
The only drawback of pressed coal is considered to be a high cost, which exceeds the price of lumpy raw materials by about a third. The advantage is the ability to heat the boiler on coal, without pollution by combustion products.
How to fire with coal dust
The safest and most efficient method of dust incineration is considered to be a method using a special burner device.
Can you burn charcoal
With all these advantages, charcoal has one serious drawback. The cost of a kilogram of purchased charcoal will cost almost 2 times more than coal. You can reduce the cost of raw materials somewhat by setting up its independent production. To obtain 1 ton of charcoal, you will need to burn about 10 m³ of wood.
Solid fuel boiler temperature control
The efficiency of the heating system depends on a uniform supply of temperature. And if in gas and liquid fuel boilers this issue is resolved by a continuous supply of fuel, then in solid fuel boilers this is not possible. And the solid fuel itself during combustion gives off temperature unevenly: at the beginning and end of burning, a portion of firewood is less, in the middle of the process - more.
A system for adjusting the intensity of fuel combustion, that is, the supply of air necessary for combustion, helps to partially solve this problem.
Thermostatic draft regulator
The boiler doors have seals, so the air under the grate enters through the lower damper. The opening of this blower damper is controlled by a thermostatic draft regulator.
Thermostatic draft regulator. Photo from cotlix.com
The required temperature is set on it, and the regulator itself is mechanically (by a chain) connected to the blower door. If the temperature is insufficient, the regulator slightly opens the blower door, if it is high, it closes it.
You need to understand that a solid fuel boiler is a very inert device, and the draft regulator controls the combustion process with a large error. Therefore, the entire heating system must be designed with this feature in mind.
Fan and controller
A smoother adjustment of the combustion process is possible with the help of a fan that pumps a predetermined amount of air into the furnace. The number of revolutions of the blades of the device is regulated by the controller, taking into account the readings of the temperature sensor, and the value of the temperature set by the user.
shiber
A damper is a damper on a chimney, otherwise called a throttle. The damper is installed after the boiler and blocks the chimney channel. Whether to install it or not depends on the hardware model. Some types of boilers are equipped with a damper as standard, in other cases, manufacturers may recommend installing an additional damper in the chimney.
The damper allows you to increase the efficiency of the heater, partially blocking the chimney and reducing the rate of removal of heated combustion products. How much to open or close the damper can only be determined empirically, because it depends on the air temperature in the street, humidity, atmospheric pressure, direction and strength of the wind.
Properly selected heating equipment, and most importantly - its effective use will bring warmth to the house, and the owners will only need to supplement it with home comfort.
How to use solid fuel installations correctly
Coal boiler operation
The principle of operation of a solid fuel boiler is known, the issue of choosing a type of coal has also been resolved. It remains to learn how to heat the stove correctly. There are several simple rules that everyone who chooses the described installations for organizing the heating of a country house should learn.
Remember! First, the stove must be prepared for kindling, then the fuel must be loaded into it correctly. During its combustion, the installation must be closely monitored, removing combustion products in time.
Let's dwell on all these points in more detail.
Preparing the stove for kindling
If the stove in a country house is used occasionally, before starting its operation, for safety reasons, it is necessary to exclude the presence of cracks inside the masonry.
Why are they dangerous? Through them, combustion products and carbon monoxide can penetrate into the room, which must be removed to the outside with the help of traction. If such a defect is found, it must be eliminated before kindling by covering the cracks with a mixture of clay and sand. Otherwise, when heated, the cracks may increase even more in size. And this will lead to dangerous situations.
Inspecting the oven from the outside, remove flammable objects away from it and clean it inside. We remove ash and slag with a spatula, freeing the internal compartment. It is advisable to wipe the inner walls of the firebox with a dry cloth. If this is not done, then during the kindling, the dust will begin to burn, filling the room with an unpleasant odor.
It is necessary to heat the coal stove several times a day. The duration of one furnace should not exceed two hours. For loading it is better to use well-dried coal of medium fraction.
Note! Wet fuel releases steam when burned. It forms condensate that settles inside the chimney
Mixing with soot, condensate forms coke, which gradually clogs the chimney passage, narrowing it. And this leads to problems with traction.
To ignite coal, do not use household waste, as well as flammable liquids - gasoline or kerosene. Do not leave the stove unattended while burning. This rule must be observed especially strictly if there are small children or animals in the house.
How to melt coal?
Bookmark solid fuel boilers
It is necessary to heat the furnace as follows:
First, we lay sheets of newspaper or any other dry paper on the bottom of the firebox. On top of it we place a layer of small wood chips. And on them we stack small firewood, for example, birch logs. To make them flare up faster, they must be folded in the form of a well or a small hut.
We set fire to the paper. We close the oven door, and open the blower. With it, it is easy to control the intensity of combustion of fuel. The stronger the air flow, the faster the firewood bookmark burns out.
After the firewood is completely burned out, and only a pile of smoldering ash remains from them, you need to lay a 15-centimeter layer of fine coal directly on it.
Note! When opening the fuel loading door, be sure to close the blower. When a 15-cm layer of coal burns well, we lay larger coal directly on it and build a pillow 60 cm high
Beforehand, it is useful to stir the burnt fuel well, which will improve air circulation and prevent coal mass from sintering. Coal can be stacked by opening the firebox door
When a 15-cm layer of coal burns well, we lay larger coal directly on it and build a pillow 60 cm high. It is useful to stir the burned-out fuel well beforehand, which will improve air circulation and prevent coal mass from sintering. Coal can be stacked by opening the firebox door.
Note! Low-quality solid fuel tends to coke. Therefore, experienced stove-makers advise laying a layer of coal with layers of firewood
Such a multi-layer cake will allow the installation to flare up well and give off the maximum amount of heat.
In order to properly kindle the stove, it is better to act like this - open the ash pan and let the paper with the wood chips burn through with the help of natural circulation. So it will be possible to warm up the chimney well. As the fuel burns up, the thrust will increase, so you need to close the ash pan and turn on the fan.
Working with a long-burning boiler
The question of how to heat a long-burning solid fuel boiler is multivariate, since the boiler can heat both by burning through and by a layer. This feature allows you to significantly increase the operating time of the unit with just one load.
The implementation of loading and kindling the device is quite simple:
- firewood is laid up in the firebox;
- chips and paper are added through the loading door;
- paper is set on fire, you must wait until the wood chips light up;
- when the door is closed, the control unit can be turned on.
If all the steps were performed correctly, then the top layer will begin to gradually flare up, during the operation of the unit, all the filling will burn out from top to bottom.
In some cases, when the entire system has not fully warmed up, a small amount of barely visible condensate may appear on the walls of the heat exchanger. Sometimes this liquid can leak out of the hatches, forming small puddles on the floor. Mostly this situation is temporary. The boiler, which has good circulation, after heating the system no longer emits condensate.
Immediately after turning on the control system, it is better to leave the solid propellant apparatus in high temperature mode. In this case, the room and the unit itself will warm up faster, after which the temperature can be reduced.
Heating water supply boiler room
Heating installation
LLC DESIGN PRESTIGE > https://resant.ru/
Phone: 8(495)744-67-74
We provide services for the installation of heating systems, water supply for private country houses, cottages, organizations. We carry out the supply of equipment for work with discounts.
Heating: > https://resant.ru/otoplenie-doma.html
Installation, design, service repair. Heating by type: autonomous, water, private, wood, individual, gas, natural.
Water supply: > https://resant.ru/vodosnabzhenie-doma.html
Boiler room: > https://resant.ru/kotelnaya-doma.html
For private houses and industrial enterprises. We will install the boiler, distribution modules for heating circuits, install automation elements for temperature control.
All work is done on a turnkey basis. +7(495)744-67-74 LLC DESIGN PRESTIGE
How to fire up a boiler
How to clean a coal boiler from soot
The composition of soot includes a non-combustible residue, which turns into slag during combustion. An additional problem is that under the influence of high temperatures, low-quality coal leads to increased formation of condensate, an acid that can corrode the metal of the heat exchanger.
Boiler cleaning is carried out in several stages:
- It is necessary to remove the ash from the ash pan, a chamber located immediately under the firebox and representing a capacious box closed with a sealed door. The ash pan is taken out, the ashes are poured out.
- Slag removal is carried out with a special tool, the appearance of which resembles a curved awl. Influxes are removed along the perimeter of the heat exchanger and from the grate.
In addition to regular cleaning of the boiler, measures are taken to prevent increased soot formation. The main reason why the heat exchanger becomes clogged with soot is the insufficient combustion temperature of the fuel. Layered stacking of firewood mixed with coal can solve the problem of increased soot formation.
How to clean the chimney of a coal-fired boiler
Proper operation of heating equipment includes measures to reduce the formation of soot in the chimney during operation of the boiler, as well as regular maintenance and cleaning of pipes.The SNiP stipulates the need for routine maintenance at least twice a year.
Pipe cleaning is carried out in the following ways:
Mechanical cleaning method - proper cleaning of chimneys is carried out using a special brush. Flexible plastic rods are attached to the rod. If necessary, the brush can be extended by attachable flexible bars. Cleaning is carried out from the roof. Soot is removed through special revision wells. The heaviest layers of soot accumulate at corners and chimney adapters
During cleaning, they are given the most attention.
Chemical preparations for cleaning - are available in the form of additives to the fuel. It is enough to place the bag in burning coal to effectively clean the chimney.
Chemicals are used as preventive measures and cannot completely replace the need for mechanical cleaning.
Reducing soot emissions from coal combustion. Soot prevention is the best measure to control deposits on the chimney walls. As a preventive measure, several methods are used. They install a soot trap, provide the required temperature for burning coal, change the design of the chimney and install a deflector to improve traction characteristics.
All of these measures are aimed at maintaining the health of both the boiler itself and the chimney. Acid condensate leads to a rapid burnout of the heat exchanger and chimney.
Proper operation of a coal-fired boiler includes: a competent choice of fuel, kindling and maintaining combustion in the chamber, preventing increased soot formation and regular maintenance of the heating unit and chimney.
The choice of fuel for a solid fuel boiler
Many users of solid fuel boilers are very careful about the choice of fuel. This is not at all surprising, since the quality of the unit depends on this product. Moreover, it must be bought in large quantities, not only because of the cold climate, but also because the long-burning device provides for refueling with large quantities of raw materials.
The most popular today are the following types of gas stations:
Not knowing what is the best way to heat a solid fuel boiler, you should pay attention to briquettes and pellets, which are easy to use and have a long burning time. But when using them, there is also a significant minus - a high price, which is a derivative of the difficulty of manufacturing these products.
But heating with coal is beneficial from all sides - its combustible effect is quite long, and when burned, it does not emit any harmful substances. No less pleased with the low price of the material.
Rice. 3 Cleaning the solid fuel boiler
The method of loading firewood as an attachment to this product is extremely popular because, after burning firewood, black fuel remains active for a long time, increasing the time to the need for a new refueling. Although none of the heating methods can be called correct, each user selects the option that suits him.
Periodic cleaning of the boiler
After learning how to heat a boiler with coal, it is necessary to learn how to clean it. These actions will help prolong the performance and neat appearance of the unit. In the process of smoldering coal at high temperature, the device leaves a minimum amount of waste that is discharged into the ash pan. The amount of waste is almost imperceptible, it becomes visible only after a long use of the device.
The entire combustion process takes place on a grate. But over time, there comes a time when the solid fuel boiler needs to be cleaned. Such clean-up activities are not considered to be particularly time or financially costly.
These products are thrown directly onto hot coals, as a result of which acrid smoke is formed, which will remove all slags inside the boiler and chimney. In this case, the operation of the device can not be interrupted. In addition, the walls of the apparatus can be cleaned with a brush and a metal brush, which are usually included with the purchase of equipment.
How to calculate coal consumption
The consumption of coal in a solid fuel boiler depends on many factors. Costs are affected by:
- Heated area.
- The number of heat losses.
- Ambient temperature.
Exact costs can be calculated only after the end of the heating season. Moreover, depending on the winter, the average consumption of coal for heating can vary from 8 to 15 tons (for a building of 200 m²).
If you make average calculations, based on real operating experience, you can get the following data:
- The costs for September - October will be 1 bucket per day.
- Fuel consumption rates in a coal-fired boiler from November to February will increase to 10 buckets per day.
- In March and April, you will need to burn 1-2 buckets per day.
The calculation of coal consumption per 20 kW boiler, using the above data, will show that the costs during the heating season will be 580 buckets or 10-10.5 tons.
Conclusion
Heating a house with coal has several advantages:
Firstly, coal has a high heat transfer, and its burning time is many times longer than the burning time of firewood. Therefore, one bookmark is enough for 12 hours. Bookmarking is done only manually, and the furnace will have to be loaded only 2-3 times a day.
Secondly, there are several varieties of coal on sale. The lower the moisture content of the fuel, the more expensive it is, but it is much easier to operate the heating installation when using a quality product.
Heating a stove with charcoal is quite simple. But there are a number of nuances that must be taken into account when operating the described installation. All of them are indicated in the article.
