Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: yoderheating on December 08, 2010, 07:36:10 PM
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I went and picked up a ton of house coal today. I've had lot of customers telling me this is the way to go when you want longer burn times. I have one customer heating heating almost 6,000sq ft using a MF5000. He burned 7 ton of coal last year plus a couple of pickup loads of wood. He went straight to the mine and payed $75 per ton. I bought mine locally and payed $115 per ton. If $500 of coal would heat my home for a winter I would almost consider never cutting wood again. Does anyone else burn coal out there?
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Thats intresting..I know a couple of owb co. make coal versions..One of them is Aqua-Therm called Coal-one..Dont know anyone that has a coal furance..Id be curious on how clean they burn and how often you need to fill it...I agree..$500 for a winter of heat and hot water..Doubt Id do wood..
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Portage & Main makes a coal burner (stoker stove) , I know a guy who has one and loves it. :thumbup:
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A update on how the coal did last night. Normally with wood I have been getting 10 hours out of a load here at night. With the coal I am at currently at 15 yours and it looks like it may last as much as 24.
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A update on how the coal did last night. Normally with wood I have been getting 10 hours out of a load here at night. With the coal I am at currently at 15 yours and it looks like it may last as much as 24.
I am sure you don't have shaker grates,so are you just raking the coal around every now and then?I had wondered about burning coal in my original boiler design I was going to build.Keep us updated. :thumbup:
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I specifically bought my Heatmor with shaker grates in it. I live about an hour from coal country and I have a M35A2. I could go buy 5 tons of coal in one load and bring it home ;)
As soon as I get up and running I'll probably experiment with coal as a supplement to wood. I'll always burn wood because it's free and abundant, but I'll probably add some coal for longer burn times.
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I actually do have shaker grates. Almost all the Heat Master furnaces I sell come standard with shaker grates so you can burn coal or wood or both.
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I have 2 customers running coal. One in a 175 3/8" box and another in a 250 3/8" box. Neither are having any trouble whatsoever. The NCB stoves do not come standard with shaker grates but it is an option. Neither of these customers are using the shaker grates though! They use a garden hoe to stir the coals and just throw a little more on top once or twice a day.
I enjoy cutting wood in the late winter/early spring. I've been nothing but impressed with my burn times on my 175. With highs in the 30's and lows in the 20's it will easily go 24 hours. Last few nights it's been single digits at night and 20 in the daytime and I've loaded at 5 pm, and threw a couple sticks in it in the mornings when I go out.
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So after 26 1/2 hours I still had a nice bed of coals. So glad I decided to try this coal. I bought about $250 worth of coal and will see how far into the winter it will last.
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are you burning only coal right now or coal and wood?
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That's awesome guys.I am glad that your experiments are working out. :thumbup:
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Mostly coal but I mix a little wood with it, it seems to help keep the coal from going out. Normally I run my draft/fan on a 10 degree differential but I moved that up to 20 when I started burning coal. It seems to do better on long burns. The hotter it burns the less smoke is produced, I take this as a sign it is burning more completely. I have seen some pretty hot fires in a furnace before but nothing compares to a full load of coal.
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i looked up Home heating coal (bitimous) and found on the net that pound for pound it has more than twice the btu of wood
(about 10 to15 thousand per pound. I am going to assume (as i haven't seen coal in my area for 40 years) that it is much denser than wood so you could load many more btu's (pounds) into your stove than you could of wood. This would make longer burn times for sure. If you are a person with a "green" concious you may want to consider all the sulphur and other envrienmental substances in the coal you burn compared to the wood you burn. here in canada they are trying to get coal burning electric plants to switch to a cleaner fuel. If you are not a "green" thiking person than it won't matter...have at it
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This has got me thinking and looking. How much coal are you guys going through a day and how many SQ FT are you heating? I have found bagged anthracite coal for $5.90 per 40lb bag by the skid of 60 bags. I also found lump bituminous coal I can hand pick at $0.12 per lb. I'm interested in experimenting with a wood coal mix of some proportion. I'm looking at efficiency more than burn times as I don’t have burn time issues. If I could stretch the wood supply with a little coal I would be happy! I cut on my own land where I also burn so input cost for wood is minimal. Burning up all the junk with a little coal thrown in would really help me improve the stand.
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Bought about two tons of coal for $230. I'm not sure how many pounds a day I am burning but at the rate I'm going I expect it to last most of the rest of the year. I am mixing in a stick or two of wood a day also. I am heating about 1600sq ft but it takes as much heat as a 4000sq ft new house. Mine was built in the 1920's and even though I replaced windows and blew in insulation it takes a tremendous amount of heat to keep it at 72.
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Bought about two tons of coal for $230. I'm not sure how many pounds a day I am burning but at the rate I'm going I expect it to last most of the rest of the year. I am mixing in a stick or two of wood a day also. I am heating about 1600sq ft but it takes as much heat as a 4000sq ft new house. Mine was built in the 1920's and even though I replaced windows and blew in insulation it takes a tremendous amount of heat to keep it at 72.
I've considered burning some coal. I have a friend who works at a coal dock here on the river. I've got a buddy who burns it and his burn times reallly arent that much greater than me burning seasoned oak/hickory. But he's heating a lot more space. I just absolutely hate the smell of the coal.. shew..
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Now that the weather has lifted a little (mid 20's) I can go several days on a load of coal. My furnace is 180ft to the east of my house and I can seldom even smell anything. When I do I really don't mind the smell of coal although I do prefer the smell of hardwood.
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I'm gonna hafto go get some coal! I've got a 1660 sq ft house built in 1875 and it's got older windows that leak a ton (caulking yesterday fixed some of that). I'm doing good on hardwood, but I wonder how long I could go on coal...
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Now that the weather has lifted a little (mid 20's) I can go several days on a load of coal. My furnace is 180ft to the east of my house and I can seldom even smell anything. When I do I really don't mind the smell of coal although I do prefer the smell of hardwood.
Thats really good... I've just never put in a load of coal to try it.
I've put in 3-4 big lumps this year and they all lasted a long long time.
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Coal Update
I found a coal supplier that is a convenient on my way home from work. They have "Kentucky Lump" which ranges from basket ball size down to walnut sized with little dust, most is about grapefruit sized. Cost was 190 per ton. I got a chance to burn some this past weekend. I started with a good bed of red hot coals and some remaining oak from the oak load from 24 hours prior. I loaded in two scoop shovels of the coal followed by a mix of hardwood that was not seasoned the greatest (not green, but not well seasoned). The next morning I was surprised to find the bed of coal remained and a most of the wood was still left. Waiting for the next cycle of the blower, I opened the door to find the coal burning with a blue/ to bright orange flame and consuming the wood on top from the bottom up. The heat was intense and the stove's blower cycled off much quicker than with the wood only. This would be true even considering cycle times with very well seasoned oak, ash, hickory, or cherry. The coal burned clean leaving only a brown to tan ash. The smoke on the first blower cycle right after loading coal was intense with a gray color until the coal got burning, then it went to a dark grey. Once the coal was burning well the smoke was white with a heat signature. The odor was not as pleasant to me as a good oak fire but it was not bothersome. I burned coal in the boiler all weekend and found that if I added a good scoop every 24 hours I could keep a bed of coal burning in the bottom of the boiler greatly reducing the amount of wood consumed. I'm not sure I will burn coal all the time but I’m certain I will keep it on hand when extended burn times are desired or when the temperature is very cold. My boiler does not have the coal grate option; the lump coal caused no issues related to falling through to the ash pan or clogging up the flow of ash or air. The most amazing note was how fast the boiler went into gasification because of the heat from the coal and I now have no creosote build up! :thumbup: Wonder how much better anthracite would be???
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This morning’s update: I’M SUPPRISED AGAIN!
I went out early to check the boiler this morning before I was ready to leave for work. I had so much wood left from yesterday morning when I got home last night I did not load any more in. This morning when I got up I could tell the boiler blower was on and all I was getting was a heat signature. I was concerned that I had burned up all the wood and was burning out as there was no smoke at all. When I got to the boiler the temp gauge was up near the shut off point for the blower and the boiler was running in the gasification mode, I threw the shut off switch for the blower and opened the door to find a bed of coals about a foot thick. There was still a little wood left also. The surprise came when I stirred the coals. There was still a good bit of coal burning amongst the wood coals. The heat was intense! I had not put coal in since Sunday morning 48 hours before! This coal burning is really stretching the wood consumption!
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I got two 40 lb bags of Anthracite today. I waited until the wood in the firebox was about 3/4 burned up, and then I tossed one bag of coal (bag and all) on top around 2 PM this afternoon. It was burning when I left, and I threw in about 4 pieces of wood just in case the coal didn't burn. We'll see what it's like when I get home. 40 lbs of anthracite stove coal directly on my shaker grates outta burn a decent amount of time.
If this experiment works well, I'm going to build up fire brick on either side of my grates (since the firebox floor of a heatmor is sand on both sides of the grates) to make a ~6" deep trench just over the grates that I can pile the coal in. My deuce and a half should be on the road in the next few days, so I can drive it up to a PA coal mine and come home with 5 tons of anthracite. That should last me all winter and then some :)
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This morning’s update: I’M SUPPRISED AGAIN!
I went out early to check the boiler this morning before I was ready to leave for work. I had so much wood left from yesterday morning when I got home last night I did not load any more in. This morning when I got up I could tell the boiler blower was on and all I was getting was a heat signature. I was concerned that I had burned up all the wood and was burning out as there was no smoke at all. When I got to the boiler the temp gauge was up near the shut off point for the blower and the boiler was running in the gasification mode, I threw the shut off switch for the blower and opened the door to find a bed of coals about a foot thick. There was still a little wood left also. The surprise came when I stirred the coals. There was still a good bit of coal burning amongst the wood coals. The heat was intense! I had not put coal in since Sunday morning 48 hours before! This coal burning is really stretching the wood consumption!
The lump I burned a week or two ago burned for I know about 3 days. When coal is burning you smell it, it was probably 3 days later I smelled it burning and saw some big bright red coals still burning. The stuff is pretty amazing.
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The 40 lb bag I threw in yesterday was still there this morning. I loaded up a bunch of wood on top of it, and then threw another 40 lb bag of coal in there too. I just checked it before we left the house again (3 PM) and almost all of the wood was still there and all of the coal was still there.
Smells good! Heats well too. I don't plan on loading anything in the boiler until tomorrow at this point.
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I sure wouldn't have tried another bag til I saw how long the first lasted. You'll be impressed how long just the coals will burn.
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The only reason I did was because we haven't been home longer than 15 minutes all day and probably won't get home until late tonight. Then there's the possibility that my wife will pop at any given minute (3 days past her due date so far) and it could be even longer until I get home.
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The only reason I did was because we haven't been home longer than 15 minutes all day and probably won't get home until late tonight. Then there's the possibility that my wife will pop at any given minute (3 days past her due date so far) and it could be even longer until I get home.
haha.. good thinking.
I thought you were just experimenting, but you are experimenting with a purpose ! Good Luck
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Well, the experiment needs a bit of tweaking.
Wife had the baby today (Brooke Noel 9 lbs 8 oz) and I had my dad check on the OWB around 2 (he's got the same one minus the shaker grates). He arrived to find it boiling over and the water temp gauges reading about 220 degrees F. The high temperature safety shutoff killed all power to the OWB at 200 degrees, but the super hot bed of coals just kept heating the water. He topped off my water and waited around until the OWB had power again when the water temp dropped down to 180. I went home around 5:30 and caught my water temp up at 190 although the normal shutoff temp is supposed to be 180. I checked on the fire and it was GLOWING red hot unlike it's usual smoldering state with no visible glow when it's sitting there idling.
I think 80 lbs of anthracite is just too much to load at once. I'll try smaller quantities again once this burns off. For now, I turned the "heat" on the thermostat off, set the fan to "on", and manually opened the zone valve to the coil so that there's always hot water flowing through the coil and the fan is always blowing the heat through the house. This should help prevent high temperatures in the OWB, hopefully. It doesn't matter that the house is around 80 degrees: no one is home but the dog and he's in the basement.
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Thats what i was worrying about haha...
I would say you'll find that adding 10-20 pounds of anthracite coal will add many hours to your burn times and save you on wood as well.
Congrats on the big little one! haha
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Well, the temporary fix worked to prevent boil over. The house was 81 degrees when I got home around 2:30 AM too. I put all thermostat settings back to normal and tweaked the limits on the aquastats a little bit and she ran all night perfectly. The temporary fix burned up most of the coal pretty well and when I got home, all I had was a smaller glowing bed of coals than before. I threw a few pieces of wood on top this morning and we'll see where it's at when I get home tonite.
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This topic is interesting!!! So I take it that it is ok to add alittle coal to the OWB to increase burn times..I also have a Heatmor with the sand on the side. Judd, when you load your coal, do you try to keep in centered on the grate? and from what I read, only add coal in moderations... I am looking forward to how you make out. This is a whole new learning experience for me
Steve
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My experiment was with 40 lb bags of coal. I literally tossed the entire bag of coal in, centered over the grates and toward the front (right over the blower). I think I will be buying coal in bulk now, and throwing a shovel or two in at a time. I still have some of that 80 lbs of coal in my firebox 3 days later. I bet there's still some in the morning.
If I was going to burn only coal, I would build up fire brick along the sides over the sand. I'd probably go 2 or 3 layers of brick tall so that there is a 5-8" deep trough in the firebox "floor" such that the floor is only over the grates. This would force the coal to be centered over the shaker grates. The firebox wouldn't need to be nearly as large for coal only.
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I kinda like the idea of adding some coal maybe a bag every few days, just to make the wood last a little longer..Or just add the coal on very cold spells,, I am sure the coal wont effect the sand on the side of the grate if some gets in there.. Judd, are the Heatmors made to burn coal?? I thought I read some where that your not suppose to use coal. Or is that just a warranty glitch??
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You are supposed to have the shaker grate option installed if you want to burn coal in the Heatmor. No warranty issue, you just need to be able to shake the clinkers out.
A bit more of an update on the coal situation:
Last night everything was burned up but a little bit of wood due to my forced heat shedding into the house. I loaded up with dry split maple wood and made sure my aquastats were set to factory settings. I woke up this morning and found 230 degree water boiling out of the Heatmor. So, it appears I didn't have a coal issue afterall. I did a little troubleshooting in the manual today. It mentioned several reasons why it might be overheating the water. I cleaned my blower and flipper as the book said to do. There were no issues there to begin with. The book mentioned that boiling over might occur if it was very windy outside (and it has been for 3 days now-winds over 35mph) due to a force draft. It said to turn the temp setting aquastat to 140 to correct the problem. We shall see how it's going when I return home in a few hours. Makes me wonder if I could rig something to partially close the chimney off when the blower isn't running.
Not a coal issue, apparently. Just a wind issue.
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You are supposed to have the shaker grate option installed if you want to burn coal in the Heatmor. No warranty issue, you just need to be able to shake the clinkers out.
A bit more of an update on the coal situation:
Last night everything was burned up but a little bit of wood due to my forced heat shedding into the house. I loaded up with dry split maple wood and made sure my aquastats were set to factory settings. I woke up this morning and found 230 degree water boiling out of the Heatmor. So, it appears I didn't have a coal issue afterall. I did a little troubleshooting in the manual today. It mentioned several reasons why it might be overheating the water. I cleaned my blower and flipper as the book said to do. There were no issues there to begin with. The book mentioned that boiling over might occur if it was very windy outside (and it has been for 3 days now-winds over 35mph) due to a force draft. It said to turn the temp setting aquastat to 140 to correct the problem. We shall see how it's going when I return home in a few hours. Makes me wonder if I could rig something to partially close the chimney off when the blower isn't running.
Not a coal issue, apparently. Just a wind issue.
thats not good i dont care how its doing it. we just came off a really windy spell here where temps were in the 0 - 15 range and 30-40 mph winds and my stove never operated any differently than it does on a calm day. if the flapper on your draft is closed it shouldnt let it suck more air
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I agree with scott7m, I would be surprised if it was just the wind. Put a board over the chimney while the fan is blowing and see if you see smoke coming out anywhere it shouldn't be. Sounds to me like there is air getting to the fire somewhere.
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Would it work in a Central Boiler?It has no fan or shacker grates in it.I would like to try the coal thing
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I can't imagine where else there could be a problem. The unit is new, running less than a month now. All around the base is still very well sealed with silicon, the damper flap is moving freely, there's no creosote keeping the firebox door from sealing, the flue is still sealed shut (haven't opened it yet), the ash auger tube is sealed shut (made sure the gasket was in place), the anti-rollback device seals shut when the outer door is closed. It's been windy before with no ill effects, so I'm at a loss right now. I'll toss a board over the chimney while it's firing to see if I see smoke elsewhere, but I highly doubt I will. Perhaps it's time to call Heatmor...
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Board over the chimney and the blower running doesn't push smoke through anywhere besides the chimney. ???
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My thoughts are this, if the stove is all sealed properly, how can air blowing over the top of the stove create or let air into the stove, I can see where if it was a natural draft that wind could make it draw harder, but if its sealed off, it dont have any place to draw air from
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Well, the fan has to draw air from somewhere, and it's within the outer shell of the furnace. I think it draws air through the "ridge vent" in the roof of the unit, because that's about the only place I can think air can even get into the outer jacket.
WillieG says he's seen this before on a Heatmor. He said that on very windy days, air was forced through the blower and cracked open the flapper that seals it off, which caused boiling over. I'll do some more investigation tomorrow. Right now modified aquastat limits are fixing the problem. We're supposed to be in the high 40's this week, so I might shut down for a day and clean everything really well and see how that does. I've got 5 more tubes of silicon, a wire brush, and a shop vac...I can go to town on the thing.
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here is a little food for thought fellas, i have no idea how heatmore now gets air into their stove. years ago they had a blower that "pushed" open a flapper to get in the stove. the air pressure the blower created actually forced the flapper open. is it still like this i dont know, but here is a little thing that happened to me when i first built my boiler. i made a flapper that covered the intake of my blower that i used a solenoid to open and close. on certain days i would also get boil over, i wondered how could that happen i have no way for air to get in my stove. the next time it boiled over i was ready with one of them incense candle things and went around my door and my blower...no smoke going in the stove, then by chance i noticed a little wiff going in through the motor windings. that was enough to do it. i then made my flapper work on the output side of the blower and still used a solenoid to control it, problem solved. when it is very windy do not count out the natural draft of a good hot chimney with the wind pulling hard to pull air in from spots you would not normally expect.
this may not be the case in the writers case but i thought i would throw it out there jsut to point out that it can be very hard to find. as we all know, boil over is caused by only one thing, air when we dont want it, or can't properly control it.....keep looking
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the flapper is on the output side of the blower, but only gravity closed. the blown air pushes it open. i would imagine a natural draft could also suck it open...
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Yes, that's it. I'd be modifying that, on my stove it would actually close it tighter if wind was blowing across the chimney.
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Yes, that's it. I'd be modifying that, on my stove it would actually close it tighter if wind was blowing across the chimney.
mine as well...and i think that is the way it should be, but others think not
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Ok, so how do I modify this to be forced shut when the fan is off? I'll try snapping a picture tonight when I get home. At least the wind has died down...
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Yes, that's it. I'd be modifying that, on my stove it would actually close it tighter if wind was blowing across the chimney.
mine as well...and i think that is the way it should be, but others think not
obviously we're right haha..
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get us some pictures, i'm sure we can think of something.
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hi , wondering where are you getting the coal from? especially the bagged. live in Southwest Virginia
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I buy mine near Galax but its not bagged. If you live near Bristol there is a place just inside Tn that sells coal both bagged and loose.
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Thanks Yoder, where at in Galax? it only about 30 miles away. what are you hauling it in?
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Hills right on 58 just east of Hillsville. I have just been taking a pickup down and getting a little. From time to time they have house coal and always have stoker coal. $115 per ton on house and $110 on stoker
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Not to sound too dumb but what is the difference in "house coal and stoker coal "
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Stoker coal is about the size of your thumb. House coal is about the size of your fist up to twice the size of your head. The nice thing about coal is if it is to large it easily breaks down into smaller pieces. I like burning house coal because it only takes a couple chunks to keep me going for days.
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Is it ok to throw a couple of chunks of house coal into a OWB with a few pieces of oak??
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I also have a CB and was wondering if it would be safe to throw a few lumps in with wood. No shaker grates or blower. I live in coal country here in Ohio and it is everywhere. I'm not trying to replace wood, just wanted to know if I could use it in a pinch?
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Thanks for the definition Yoder
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Before burning coal in a furnace that wasn't designed to burn coal I would recommend checking with the dealer to be sure it wouldn't void the warranty. Coal burns hotter than wood and some brands may not allow it.
For coal to burn well it needs a strong air supply from below. I have tried burning coal in a furnace without grates and it did okay as long as I put wood in first and packed the coal on top were it could get air. The biggest problem I had was that the wood burned up faster than the coal. The half burned coal would end up in the ashes and wouldn't burn until I dug it out and placed it back on top of some more wood.
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I also have a CB and was wondering if it would be safe to throw a few lumps in with wood. No shaker grates or blower. I live in coal country here in Ohio and it is everywhere. I'm not trying to replace wood, just wanted to know if I could use it in a pinch?
I would probably not burn coal in that unit. Coal needs a good air source flowing through it to burn well, and without a blower, you'd need a chimney that pulls a good draft to get the air flow.
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Judd, how about the Heatmor with the blower under grates?? I am just trying to get a little longer burn times
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If you have skaker grates, go for it. If you do not have shaker grates, Heatmor doesn't recommend it, but if the coal is small enough you could probably get away with it.
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Have a HeatMaster 5000, have been trying to burn coal and when it does, it's wonderful. My problem is I can't seem to get my blower/aquastat settings right to keep the coal lit. Over time, (hours) when the fan kicks on it can't get the coal bed burning again.
Wondering if any of you guys that are burning coal, specially the HeatMaster guys, are having this issue and if not, what percentage to you have the blower damper set at and what is the shutoff temp on your aquastat set to as well as the temp differential?
Thanks in advance for any and all help.
-Jeff
PS Love the burner by the way, have had it 3 years. Just running low on wood and can't get any delivered for a while. Have a ton of coal and thought I would use it to supplement the wood I do still have to try to get through this season before I order up another truck of wood.
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I change the differential depending on how often the stove cycles. During the coldest days I run it at 10 and then have dropped it as low as 3 when it starts getting into spring and the house doesn't need as much heat. With coal you need the fan to come on every hour or two.
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yoder,
The big problem that I have been noticing is that if the shutoff temp is 180, then when the fan shuts off the coal still heats up to sometimes 195 before the coal cools enough to stop temperature rise. If I have it set to a 10 degree differential, that would be a 25 degree swing and in turn the coal goes out before the stove cools enough to fire the fan and in turn stoke coal.
I have been playing with it all day today, 5 so far seems to be my optimal differential number. I also added about 6' to my chimney to help increase my up draft. So far so good, my fan damper is set wide open for max airflow when it's on.
Thanks for the tips.....
-Jeff
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Yes, coal does build up a lot of heat. I love burning it. Sounds like you understand how to make it work.
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I set the aquastat at 180 and the differential at 6 degrees. I haven't put a stick of wood in it all year(lit it with a bag of charcoal, hate wood smoke smell, love the sweet smell of anthracite!!) and am quite happy with the performance. With the weather like it is now (50-60) I tend it every two days. No creosote, splitting, stacking, cutting and the propane truck doesn't stop here at all.
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Bringing up an old topic to check in and share some new information. First, I haven’t seen much coal talk here lately and wondered if anyone is still burning? Also want to share a coal source for those in central Ohio: Oxford Resources in New Lexington Ohio has very good coal this year. I burned it all last year and picked up a ton a couple days ago. They have really got to a good place in the mine as the coal is very hard and shiny. Burns well and has less of a sulfur smell than last year. Still $75 a ton!
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I still burn it when I can find it. Being in Michigan it's tough to come across a good source. I have burned Anthracite in the past with no luck at all. Bit burns great and would love to get to Oxford to get a load if I had something more than a pickup to haul it in to make it worth the long long drive I would have to endure to get it.
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Just read through this thread for the first time...good info. I'm still burnin Anthracite with my wood when I desire longer burn cycles. I went out of town for New Years and new I wouldn't be around to fill the stove...and didn't want the baby sitter messing with it...So I loaded it with a lot of coal and filled the rest of the box with wood. This was at noon on New years eve when we left....I got home yesterday at about 5PM....My stove temp was just starting to drop below my low temp number, 29 hours after I loaded it.... And that's with the house at 70 throughout and my circlulator pump running 24-7....I love coal.
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To pull that kind of burn time, what did you have the temperature differential set to?
I would load mine like that everyday if I could get even a 14 hour burn out of it..... ;D
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To pull that kind of burn time, what did you have the temperature differential set to?
I would load mine like that everyday if I could get even a 14 hour burn out of it..... ;D
Jstrange, I was heating 2200 sq ft average insulated home with a 5000, with a bit of coal, 24 hour burns were easily obtainable
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Jstange,
I run 150 and 180. If I had unlimited free coal I wouldn't even mess with wood....plus my stove works better on wood, just use the coal for longer burns when need be, or when the weather is really cold. Its nice to be able to sleep in on the weekend and not feel like I need to get to the stove first thing in the morning. Typically I just throw a couple of shovels full in when I use coal. On New years, I filled about half the fire box. It's a nice option to have....my stove is my only heat source....so if it goes out...the house gets cold.
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I fill Morning, Dinner and Bedtime. I rarely get much more burn time then those three fills. So on average, I am running on about 8 hours burn time. Sure I could probably get close to 12, but only on warm days above 30 degrees and only if I packed every last possible space full of wood.
Bit Coal works better than Anthracite as the Anthracite is hard to keep burning.
I have 2600-2800 square feet with 2 furnaces. Problem is I am in a ranch so there is no upstairs that benefits from heat rise.
I set my boiler at 180 with a 10 degree swing when I am burning coal. Any longer the coal just goes out. On warmer days I drop down to about a 4 or 6 degree swing.
You'd think after 5 years with the thing that I would have this down and all tweaked out, but it seems it's constant testing.
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Jstange,
You must be loosing heat somewhere...Have you ever checked your underground lines?
How about above your ceiling...Is it well insulated?
I messed around with the soft coal some last year....it burned very well but gave off some yellow smoke and smell. Also if I tried to burn too much it would run together and choke off my air. I had to keep an eye on it more than the hard stuff....it was nice and cheap though.
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Insulation in my house is somewhat decent, the problem is I have 12 ft ceilings through more than half of the house and the knucklehead that designed the place put a furnace in the attic for the back half instead of the basement. They ran the ducts through the ceilings instead of the floor and it's tough to push the heat down to the floor level even with the 72" commercial ceiling fans I have installed.
It's poor design, but nothing I can do anything about for a while. I shouldn't complain too much I suppose. A truck of wood lasts 2 years and costs $1700. Before I had the OWB I was paying $950 a month to heat the house. So it didn't take long to recoup the investment money.
Soft coal is so much easier to keep lit, however I do have to say that there is some satisfaction to tossing a bag of hard coal in and calling it good for a burn cycle. I just got a truck of wood delivered Tuesday so probably won't work too much on the coal the rest of this season. The neighbor hates it when I burn coal anyway, but I always have some around just in case they upset me >:D
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do you burn big chunks of coal
i was told the bigger the better
for a long hot burn
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Size dont matter much, coal quality is day and night different
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I like chunks...grapefruit to basketball size.
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I prefer the nut size....I've tried the stove size, but it seems to be of less quality resulting in more sea shells.
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HUH?
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Just read through this thread for the first time...good info. I'm still burnin Anthracite with my wood when I desire longer burn cycles. I went out of town for New Years and new I wouldn't be around to fill the stove...and didn't want the baby sitter messing with it...So I loaded it with a lot of coal and filled the rest of the box with wood. This was at noon on New years eve when we left....I got home yesterday at about 5PM....My stove temp was just starting to drop below my low temp number, 29 hours after I loaded it.... And that's with the house at 70 throughout and my circlulator pump running 24-7....I love coal.
What are your settings?
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Does anyone know of a bulk supplier in the Connecticut/Western Mass area.
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vinrum, check out the nepacrossroads.com forum. That is a coal burning forum with a lot of smart guys and a lot of people around the northeast. Should be able to find out a good supplier where ever you are.
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Thank you Honda, I will check it out