Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers WITH EPA-Certified Models => HeatMaster => Topic started by: andyjs on February 12, 2014, 10:50:20 AM
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Been tearing through a bunch of my wood.been really cold here in northeast Ohio this winter.just wandered if anyone was burning coal mixed in with wood? Any tricks to it and how well it works.i have a heatmaster 1000e.
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There is a thread going right now in the General Outdoor area: http://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com/forum/index.php?topic=4770.0 (http://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com/forum/index.php?topic=4770.0)
Several of the comments are from HM owners. There are 2 or 3 guys running coal in the HM. Boydz, Scott, and I think one other. I'm not sure if KYbaseball threw some in or not. Oh, and Mountain Duck just chimed in too.
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Ive just been burning Money - Its more fun :D :photo:
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Andy, it will work fine. Just don't over fill it and add a little wood with the coal. Shake the grates every 12 hours and you should be fine.
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Ok Coal guys. I have a line on some coal but they have 2 kinds. Well, 1 kinds, two forms. They have "lump" coal that comes in various sizes ranging from basketball to baseball. I believe it's all bituminous. They also have it in stoker size, which she said is 1.5" pieces. Which kind should I get? The stoker is $56 per ton and the lump is $51. Also, what kind of volume are we talking for 1 ton? I know aggregate is generally 2 tons per cubic yard and I know coal is much less dense. So, how much volume are we talking for a ton of coal? 3 cubic yards? 4?
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John, I believe the general consensus is that lump is preferable in an OWB. Wish I could find it for $51/ton.
I'm not sure on the specific dimensions, but I have a 3/4 ton pickup with an 8ft bed. A ton heaped up in the middle, just a bit higher than bed level. I'm guessing if you raked it down, it would have have been 5-6" below level. I could have easily hauled another 1/2 ton, maybe a full one if I pushed it! :D
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Thank you Mr. Duck. I'm afraid I'll have to get a trailer. My short bed 1/2 ton probably won't get a full ton in it. Not without overflowing the sides anyway. Well, I may just start with whatever it'll hold for this year.
How much coal/wood do you put in and what is your goal burn time? I know our loads are different, but I need somewhere to start my tinkering!!
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Like I mentioned in the other thread, I'm just tinkering as well. Just started this week, so I certainly don't claim to be an expert, BUT.........what I've been doing is adding 1-2 5 gallon buckets of lumps (or rough equivalent) I've been adding this to a good bed of coals. Then I have been adding 3-5 locust rounds. They are ~8-10" round by ~18"long.
My schedule has been more variable than usual this week due to the snow, but that load has been giving 24 hours burns. I came up a little short this morning, but we have been home with the snow, and kept the thermostat on 75, so that cut me a little short. Temps have been upper teens to around freezing.
Hope that helps a little.
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Perfect answer! Exactly what I was looking for. :thumbup:
Glad to see I'm not the only crazy person keeping the house at 75! Non-wood burners scoff at it saying "oh, that's too hot for me", but we all know they're just jealous!! >:D
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I have been using coal when the temps get below 10 and helps keep burn times longer. I usually make aure I have a few chunks of wood and then I have been putting in a 5 gallon bucket size of coal and it last a long time. The wood will get to burning and then fire the coal up. It makes the load last a long time. I actually did it one time and got almost 30 hours out of just one cycle. My biggest thing is getting the coal. Had to drive an hour to get it. I will have a ton on hand next year ready to go!!!
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Little update.... I seemed the last couple days to be having trouble keeping fire with the coal. Temps would be down in the 140s in the morning, with just a little fire burning. Still had some wood, but the coal just couldn't get going. So yesterday evening I raked everything down, and decided to load a little more wood than I had been doing. Also put in some split stuff on the bottom. I added my bucket of coal first, then the wood. Also tossed in a couple big lumps on top of the wood when I finished. I didn't add a full load of wood, but more than I had been. Also set my differential to 10.
Big Difference!!! Bigger, hotter fire, that would have probably given me a 30+ hour burn. Loaded it back similar this evening. Saw a 1 ft flame shooting out a bit ago, so i think it's rolling!! ;D It ran a cycle in ~10 minutes
I believe when I started earlier in the week, I had a good bed of wood coals to keep the coal burning. After a couple days,my wood coals had burnt up, and the big heavy locust rounds just weren't coaling up good enough to keep a good mix of wood and coal "coal bed". I think it is similar to the problem I had early in the year when I was under loading my stove, and couldn't keep it burning.
Not sure how much a bucket of coal saves me in wood per day, but it seems substantial.
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Sounds great glad to see you got the fire going good. I after about 3 days of using coal load the stove with just wood to build the bed back up some and then cut back in the wood and add coal back in and seems to be working great. With the temps going up this coming up week I will back off the coal as the stove will idle longer.
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Got some stoker sat morning and its working great! Back my temp down to 165 with a 10 degree diff seems to work good draft is still wide open .I have been loading two 8-10" rounds and putting 4 small shovel loads of coal on top of wood.
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Got some stoker sat morning and its working great! Back my temp down to 165 with a 10 degree diff seems to work good draft is still wide open .I have been loading two 8-10" rounds and putting 4 small shovel loads of coal on top of wood.
A little better than your previous set up huh?. Haha
Glad it's working well
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Scott, I think the coal does help alot.just wish I could find it cheaper paying 101 for stoker coal.
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Don't mean to hijack your thread, but does anyone know how I go about finding a place to buy coal? I live in southeast MO, Im about an hour and half south of St. Louis.
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I struggled myself finding a phone number for any of the dozen mines around me. I ended up just driving up to the offices and asking them.
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Google nepacrossroads forum. They are the coal gurus. Just be prepared to take abuse for having a OWB. Its like you are a baby seal killer or something...
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Got 500 lbs if this bituminous coal. 3" nuggets. They were out if the big chunks, but the guy there sounded like most of the guys who get this for their stoves like the nugget size better. So, I got a small scoop for $13. First scoop goes in tonight!
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If its like the stuff I got you will love it
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Thanks Mr. andyjs. I wish I had gotten the coal before the weekend so I could fiddle with it. I just threw in 2 - 5 gallon buckets on my coals, added some wood, turned differential down to 8 and came in the house. We'll see how she did in the morning. I'm tempted to go out and check on it, but it's so flippin windy tonight! Guess I'll put on my big boy pants and go check on it.
Oh, you need to update your tags below your name. You have a HM now, right? 10,000E?
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Come on country boy!!! Put the big boy pants on and go check that stove. LoL man I love using the coal.
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I went out and checked! Talk about a GREEN flame!! Shew, that was cool! Went back out this morning to check on things and everything was fine. Tossed in 1 more 5 gallon bucket and tossed in a half dozen 6" rounds of white ash. I knocked the grates and really broke up my coal bed. Then I turned the fan on to see what it all looked like inside. Man that fire got going quick and hot! Turned my dif down to 6 and my high set to 183. I will probably turn it down some more since we're warming up so much this week. We'll see how it goes. I'm hoping to stretch my 1 cord of white ash out to the end of the season with this coal added in.
Do you guys have your coal covered? It's supposed to rain this week. Does it matter if I toss in wet coal?
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Ok, got my first full day and night of actual cold weather to try this coal! And it's awesome! It is basically cutting my wood usage in half with a 1.5 buckets or so of coal. 12+ hour burns with 4 medium sized pieces and see 5" rounds. Normally I put in 8 large pieces with some medium and small mixed in to get thru 12 hours of sub-freezing temps with only wood.
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Great information CBJohn! 8) I was thinking you ought to be running even better run times between fills with your coal addition. :thumbup:
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Mr. Snood, I'm still loading for 12 hours. I might consider loading for 24 after I get more coal and really get used to it. I'm loading stoker coal right not and will likely switch over to lump. The stoker coal starts to fuse together and requires a good stir at the 12 hour mark. That aspect may be different with lump. I'm still playing with it. But, I've run it enough to know that it is cutting my wood usage in half. No doubt about it.
As far as burn times go in general, I've never gotten less than 12 hours. That's also with not even filling it up full. On 0 degree nights, I'll get 12 hours with a load a little less than 3/4 full of hardwood. Tonight should be down to single digits and with a 5 gallon bucket of coal, I'll get through the night with a 1/4 load of white ash.
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Let's see a picture or short video of that MF10000e shaker grate in action CBJ. :photo: :thumbup:
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I did post a short video of the end of my coal/wood burn here. Although I didn't shake the grates. I really do like HM shaker design. I haven't had any problems with them.
http://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com/forum/index.php?topic=4967.0 (http://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com/forum/index.php?topic=4967.0)
I can't do any more coal videos right now because I'm out of coal!! That 500 pounds lasted about 2 weeks. I'm hoping to get more tonight after work. The wife hasn't been too happy with the odor. Upon immediately loading the stove, it smokes like a locomotive. Our house is so drafty that some of the odor gets in the house. BUT, I'm going to look at ordering a couple stack extensions to try to fix that problem. The coal is so awesome, I'm going to do whatever I can to keep burning it. It cut my wood usage in HALF easily!
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I'm back in the coal business! Picked up 1.25 tons in my short bed Chevy. Unfortunately, I got a rookie did steer loader who scooped me up a bunch of worthless fines. Probably 500 pounds worth! :bash: Anyway, been running coal wood mixture all week with great success. I load a five gallon bucket plus a couple big chunks twice a day and a few pieces of wood once a day.
Smokes like a locomotive when it first fires! Holy cow! Thick black tire burning smoke! But, after two cycles it's back to normal smoke signature, which is hardly anything. I don't get 24 hours because it still needs shaken and stirred up at the 12 hour mark.
I'm sold on coal. I have it stored in my shed in an old bed liner. I scoop it into my bucket and dump er in. I empty my ash pan more often too. That stuff needs all the air it can get. I haven't burned a full chord in almost 1 month since I started burning coal.
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How are those fines burning????
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I don't know for sure. I must be getting something out of them because half of my bucket I dump each time is fines and I don't see me getting 12 hour burns on 2.5 "gallons" of coal. I bet they all burn up quickly in the initial fire cause of all the black smoke. I don't know.
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I don't know for sure. I must be getting something out of them because half of my bucket I dump each time is fines and I don't see me getting 12 hour burns on 2.5 "gallons" of coal. I bet they all burn up quickly in the initial fire cause of all the black smoke. I don't know.
Maybe those fines are going up the stack on your first 2-3 cycles John? :-\
Does it smoke "more" than when you were putting in 3" nuggets? Curious. :)
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I'm not sure. I'd say the smoke is the same. I haven't gotten all experimental or anything, but I those first couple cycles are black and smokey no mater what!
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I'm loving my coal burner too. My wood pile has really been stretched with the ton of coal I bought. I'm getting 24+ hours without adding any wood or coal. I usually check and stir it at 7:30 AM which is about the 14 hr mark. Not sure it needs it, but it's part of my morning routine. I've been burning coal for 3 weeks, and still have over half a ton.
The smoke is really bad though! Like John said, thick black, "I just set a pile of tires on fire" smoke! But like John, it smokes very little after a couple cycles. I'm thinking I may put my wood load in at my normal 5:30 time, then go out after dark and toss in my coal, just to be a little less conspicuous!
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Yea load it at night, all we need is some dang nut standing in the bushes videoing the smoke coming out
You guys are burning more coal at a time than me, I never see a huge amount of smoke even on first burn but I'm only throwing in a few lumps and not all those fine
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What works best for me is just enough wood to keep the coal coming back to life. I usually put about 5 stcks of wood around my coal bed and let it cycle a couple times then add a 5 gallon buck of coal. That will last 24 hours easly. The first cycle with coal does smoke some but not bad. Saves a lot on wood but I have to buy coal and I get wood for free so I save coal for cold nights.
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....the argument could be made that coal is nothing more than compressed, "really, really, old" biomass.... ;) :thumbup:
Read this: http://www.indianacoal.com/doc/whatiscoal.pdf (http://www.indianacoal.com/doc/whatiscoal.pdf)
Great argument if one ever gets "questioned." ;D 8)