Step 12 - Light it up and step back...

OK, I know, it's been almost a month since the last post... I got busy with lots of little details, other work, personal crises, and I had a blister. What? It hurt! ;) j/k

Boiler stuff:

After lots of trips back and forth to visit the great folks at Samson Hardware, I got the plumbing up to the point where I could connect the InsulPEX tubing and connect to the old boiler. One of the guys from work (who has his own HVAC/plumbing business) came out to do those connections (and a couple of other things), give me some pointers, and line me out with a few tasks that I could complete on my own before 'Firing Day'. It all ended up looking like this:



I may or may not get a pic of the old boiler end of the system - but there's not much to see in any case...

Once all the valves were opened the new boiler was filled, flushed, burped and mixing with the old. The pumps were run for a few hours to get things mixed well and to get the new boiler warmed up. (Not necessary, but useful to test for warm pipe joints leaking...)

About 4:00 p.m. on Sunday we tore into the 5.5 ton pile of pellets (Not our own - sadly we have not had time to test our 'formula' for pellets at all this summer - looks like a winter project...)



Dumped the first bag into the hopper...



Added 9 more (that's 400 pounds in there...)



Went through the checklist and startup sequence in the manual - and set fire to the pile of pellets in the burn chamber...



After the initial startup period (about 5 minutes) the controls were set to 'Automatic'. When things started to take off and the boiler worked to reach operating temperature I snuck another peek...



Here's the video - turn up your speakers :)



So far, so good - there will be more later - things like pellet consumption, ash produced, how many hot tubs it can heat - stuff like that ;)


Chicken stuff:

All of the hens are laying - we had our 12th egg show up on Sunday morning, followed immediately by 3 more in the early afternoon. (Here's a clip of Lil' Blackie just before an ovamoment - all the other chickens were loaded down with fat men and iron ;) )



The Banty Shanty has been painted, wired for power (possibly electric heat as well, but I think it won't be necessary being attached to the boiler house), and will have it's window installed next Tuesday by the guys in the door shop at Spenard Builders Supply. Hopes are that the Chooks will have a natural light cycle through the winter days... We'll be building the aviary and nesting boxes next weekend. Now we just need a vent for the room...


Bike / Quad stuff:

Nothing to report. Some pieces parts were collected over the summer, but so far there is not a lot to show for it. There WILL be more news, but it will likely be another winter project... I'll have Tuesday and Thursday nights free after October 21, so we'll see what happens...

Again, I know I took a while to do all this, but...

Delay is preferable to error.
~Thomas Jefferson




Stay warm, all!