[AT] Shop heating

[Robinson]

At 07:00 PM 11/11/04, you wrote:
>Farmer ,   do you remember the old draft controls for coal furnaces  that
>used a small motor that used  a chain to open and close the draft ?  Correct
>name for one ?   I'm in need of one and been searching draft /draft control
>/etc on ebay but no luck .
>    Awhile back were you talking about using a boiler setup to heat the shop
>, ever get it going ?  Ivan
>

         I had one of those on the coal furnace in the first house Diana 
and I bought about a year and a half after we got married. It had a "check 
damper" on the back that opened when the thermostat said the house was warm 
enough so that it let fresh air into the flue instead of sucking so much 
through the furnace. At the same time the controller motor opened it the 
other arm and chain allowed the "draft door" built into the ash door at the 
bottom front of the furnace to close cutting off the air intake. When the 
thermostat called for heat the controller made a 1/2 turn of the crank arms 
and simultaneously opened the draft door and closed the check damper. You 
sat the check damper opening distance so that it opened just enough to 
break the flue suction but not so open that the furnace would smoke. The 
draft door was set  to open just enough to feed the fire enough air but not 
so wide that the furnace would over-fire and overheat. Too much draft and 
the furnace could almost burn itself up before the thermostat shut it back 
down. I still have that little controller motor here "someplace" but I have 
not seen it for years. I had saved it originally so that I could adapt it 
to a stove but never did. The next time I had my hands on it I saved it so 
I could use it to control a skylight in a greenhouse to control the 
temperature there. Now they have those that are self controlling and 
require no electricity. I won't be around tomorrow but I will try to keep 
an eye out for it.
         As to the hot water heat in my shop it is only "going" in my head 
so far.   :-)   Things are coming together nicely for it this year though. 
I had been looking for something to use as a large heat sink to hold a lot 
of heat that I would generate most of during the day and then release it in 
a stable manner at night when the input heat would be less. I was moving 
some things (OK, junk) and was trying to decide what to do with a 1,000 
gallon underground LP tank when it hit me that it would make an ideal heat 
sink. Scott and I are currently planning to asphalt coat it well and bury 
it under ground in the middle of what will become the addition on the shop. 
It will not be buried very deep and I will insulate it well on the sides 
with sheets of foam and to start with I will also cover the top with sheets 
of foam. When we reach the point of actually building the addition, 
hopefully next year, we will remove the insulation off of the top so that 
the heat will come up through the floor. The system will only have water in 
it and line between building are underground in conduits. I want to run a 
loop off of the system to the stable which will be heated to a lesser 
degree than the shop and I may bury a smaller LP tank (300 gallons) under 
that floor.  At less than $20 per 100 feet that corrugated un-slotted 4" 
field tile makes a very cheap conduit. I love having a conduit down there 
that I can run stuff through when I want to. Son Scott is going to bring me 
enough phone line to install phones in the shop and horse barn both. I 
don't plan to use very high water temperatures. That will have to be 
determined by tinkering in actual use.


"farmer"

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Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net