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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Super Bowl

« on: February 03, 2014, 11:07:42 AM »

heard a coach say this comment years ago. don't remember who it was but has held true. " a great offense will win games. a great defense will win championships".

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: average wood usage ?

« on: January 01, 2014, 05:39:52 PM »

Happy new year!!!
We are about to have 1F weather.
please advise where you get anthracite for 105 to 120 a ton. i want in on that
I pay $105-120 for anthracite ("special arrangement") picked up, and $220 delivered / ton. The best!!! No smoke, no smell.
I don't like it bagged because it's too much trouble ripping the bags open, and I have to waste all the plastic. It seems to be really wet too. Bagged is $300-330/ton
We have a mine in Ohio, they sell bit coal for $75 a Ton, ok quality (bad smoke, bad smell. KY coal is $140-$180 where i work, good quality.
So, it's cheaper here by a lot.
I enjoy splitting wood too, but 12-15 cords is a lot. Especially thinking when I get older, I may not want all that work. Right now wood is very easily available due to the ash borer. It's not always the case. A lot of people are switching to wood heat. Once the ash trees are gone, we will have a lot less available. At least in Ohio. Here, it's hard to get a reliable source if you want to buy wood.
I tried for months.
In Ohio it's against the law to transport some wood, from some county to another, which makes it even more difficult in some counties with limited wooded areas.
I collected 30 cords just my self this summer, from people who didn't want their trees. Took probably 1 week total. Not bad, for saving $5500+. Just a lot of work.
With coal, I save $4500+ vs $5500 with coal, but 90% less labor.
My boiler NCB250, can't ever, no matter what I do, go more than 10hrs-12hrs per load on wood alone. So I have to rush out to load it first thing in the morning. Lot of other people seem to have the similar experience with wood boilers of different kind.
I like how I can go from 8pm to next day 8pm-10pm (24 hrs-28hrs) with one load of coal. No need to rush out in the morning.
May be some other boilers are better. Our friends have CB, and some others and they get about 12hrs. I know, there are so many other factors, soft , etc.
May be I should have bought a CB. They just don't make a coal unit. 
I don't really understand why propane is so expensive anyway, they are franking our entire state for gas. You would think it would be close to free. Since 2003, propane price 5x.
 
Have a great New Year.
 

ati53 - Welcome to the forum.  Happy New Year! 

Believe it not, some of us actually enjoy physical labor (sweat equity); i.e.cutting, splitting, stacking, hauling, etc.. of fire wood.  After splitting wood all day, I feel the same physically as I do after a long run; energized!  Before I purchased the outdoor wood boiler, I heated my home and domestic hot-water with fuel oil.  It was costing me $5100.00/yr with the thermostats set at 68 degrees in my house.  That $5100.00 I used to spend for oil now buys a whole lot of firewood log length.  The guy from whom I purchase the logs guarantees an 11 cord load at $100/cord.  After the cutting, splitting and stacking (on half cord pallets and moved by tractor to area to dry.  The pallets are never unloaded) that load of logs yielded a 13 1/2 cord load.  I have 2 seasons worth of fire wood out of that load.  I now have my thermostats set 70 degrees 24/7.  Any warmer than that I find it too warm.  It's uncomfortable for me. 

The last time I checked to get coal delivered in bulk was $325/ton.  Or, I could have had it delivered in bags on 1 ton pallets at a cost of $375/ton.  Believe me, if it hadn't cost so much for the coal I would have gone that route.  In Ohio, do you have easy access to coal?  I believe if I wanted coal in bulk it would have come from a company in Maine.  I live in NH in a town bordering VT.

Thanks for the numbers.  It was an interesting read.  Roger   
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3

Natures Comfort / Re: NCB-250 COAL

« on: December 30, 2013, 03:19:21 AM »

don't know what to say. fire went out again. house freezing. boiler at 113°. plenty of material. i will take blower back off once it quits snowing and i have daylight. opened draft all the way and it will barely burn. cleaned draft opening a week ago. fill up with ash in a week? when i empty it daily? i don't know but i will check. out of ideas

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Natures Comfort / Re: NCB-250 COAL

« on: December 29, 2013, 08:18:43 AM »

marginal success. lost fire sometime this morning. stove was 147° when i went out at 9am. fire pretty much out except for an area 10inches by inches. threw some slabwood in to hopefully reignite the coal. burning lehigh anthracite nut coal. draft at 2 1/2 notches from closed 175/3 aquastat settings. cast iron shaker grates...i also increased the demand in house by raising stat so hopefully it helps for the long idle times. i am in ashtabula county ohio...

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Natures Comfort / Re: NCB-250 COAL

« on: December 19, 2013, 03:10:39 PM »

natures comfort ncb250 coal. this is getting to be like a boat for me. two best days owning a boat are the day you buy it and the day you sell it. the latter of the two is fast approaching for me

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Natures Comfort / Re: NCB-250 COAL

« on: December 18, 2013, 11:40:33 AM »

winner winner chicken dinner. i believe the draft opening being plugged was the culprit. pleasure speaking with you ati53. when you mentioned the ash door blowing ashes all over the place when opened while the blower was running got me to thinking. i haven't had it blast ashes in a loooong time. went out and checked after speaking with you and it does now. Scott7m i called you and left a message. need to order some things

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Natures Comfort / Re: NCB-250 COAL

« on: December 17, 2013, 12:16:03 PM »

ati53, i want to thank you for trying to aid in my trying anthracite coal again. i have to give up with it for now and go back to a combo of bituminous coal and wood. it worked fairly well last season. i was just so impressed with your burn times i had to try it. i may revisit anthracite when the weather breaks just a little. and i agree with you that  scott7m is a godsend for info on these boilers. he has advised me on more than one  occasion with everything him telling me being exactly the case. happy holidays everyone

8

Natures Comfort / Re: NCB-250 COAL

« on: December 16, 2013, 03:06:01 AM »

okay checked stove at 4:30 am. been 14 hrs. reason I checked was that I noticed house blower running a long time between cycles( 25 minutes) went out to boiler and the stove was down to 124° and coal was down to the 1st row of fire brick . seemed like plenty of coal still in there. barely burning though just a little bit way in the back.  was barely enough to light the wood I had to add. wife will be up soon for work and will be upset to wake to a cold house since she was against ant experiment again.

9

Natures Comfort / Re: NCB-250 COAL

« on: December 15, 2013, 07:16:39 PM »

okay, ncb250coal unit. decided to try ant coal again. bought 5 50 lb bags of reading nut coal. put 3 bags in to start with to fill up to the fire brick and started a fire. got it going and boy did it burn hot. have my stat set at 175° with a 3° diff. draft wide open. this was at 2:30pm. just checked it here at 8:30pm and there is plenty of coal still fire was dismal and the stove was down to 167°. it really seems like it is starving for air. i took a hoe and moved the coal around and the coal on the bottom was molten lava caked to together and i noticed it no longer sounded like a blast furnace like it did when i first lit it. after i moved the coal around the fire came back. it got crazy hot again and sounded like a blast furnace again. stove came up to 169° in ten minutes. any ideas why it is doing this? ati53 advises not to touch it but didn't think it was ever going to recover if i didn't. consumption seemed minimal over the period.

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Natures Comfort / Re: NCB-250 COAL

« on: December 08, 2013, 06:29:41 AM »

We are still going strong. I think I got it figured out. I've been getting 26-28 hrs of burn time with one reload of 4 shovel full of coal.
I finished my chimney last week. The boiler works much better with the 16 foot chimney by the way. No over heating issues like some has predicted that it may happen. NC actually said it's ok to add a 20 foot stack if need to.
Now, there is no smoke at all at the house with the top of the chimney 7+1(clean out T)+16+1(cap)=25 high.
I filled up the entire firebox three days ago with anthracite coal. All the way from front to back and to the top of the fire bricks.
Settings are 175/168 with 7 differential.
Draft 100% fully open.
I have a 16 foot double wall chimney on.
Once the first load burned for 26 hours, I added 4 shovel full of coal, than it goes another 24-28 hours.
I shake the coals down ever 12-16 hours, and empty the ash once every two days. Not full but very important not to let it fill up or the grade can warp I guess.
That's it. It is working way, way, way, better than with wood. And, there is no smoke, or embers coming our at all.

If I load wood only at 10pm, it is almost all died down by 8am. By 10am, the fire would be completely out.
Now, I have 100% coal, and I love being able to go an entire day (yes 24-28 hrs) with just shaking the coals and adding 2-4 shovels full of coal.
I am so much happier with this boiler now.
I hope this helps anybody else wanting to burn coal in the NCB-250 coal.
I tried butanious coal too. Works well, but too smelly, and too many clinkers to clean. With the anthracite coal, no clinkers, just load and shake. I love it.

4 shovels full? what size shovel?

11

Fire Wood / Re: TYPE of CHAIN SAWS USED

« on: December 02, 2013, 06:54:53 AM »

looking for a similar supplier of wood in ne ohio western pa.

12

Equipment / Re: Gas to oil ratios

« on: November 21, 2013, 06:14:35 AM »

was a factory mechanic for 2 stroke motocross professionally in the 80's. although not as applicable here but this comment you wouldn't think you would ever hear. " i ran it too rich with oil mix and burned up the motor". this is actually a factual comment. the actual concern is fuel air ratio's for proper combustion. when you have ideal jetting for your motor fuel/air with a specific ratio of oil to gas usually recommended by the manufacturer of the oil and richen that ratio what happens is you actually lean the fuel/air ratio to the motor with too much oil. not as much an issue with saws with external adjustment for jetting. but remember we are tuning the air/fuel ratio when we tune not the oil. we used numerous lubricants throughout the years because of various sponsors for different seasons with great success as long as you didn't deviate too far from recommended dilutions from the manufacturer of the oil.

13

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: underground pipes

« on: November 19, 2013, 04:34:39 PM »

i am primarily clay. i have no rocks even close to that size. largest is roughly driveway gravel size. just not sure at the time where my water is coming from. getting about a gallon in a 24 hr period.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: underground pipes

« on: November 18, 2013, 05:07:08 PM »

that's what's confusing right now. consumption doesn't seem effected yet anyways.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: underground pipes

« on: November 18, 2013, 12:08:12 PM »

after a bad rain i have the same issue with the corrugated pipe leaking water into the basement. did you notice a compromise to the corrugated when you dug it up? i for the life of me cannot understand why this has happened. 5 wrap badger pipe this is the beginning of 2nd season with pipe and no issues till this week....puzzled