50-93 Ideal Stack Temp? Damper Needed?

It's always amazed me that people post & ask questions & recieve answers from people who have gone through similar learning situations with the same stove & don't listen. Then comes the--"must be the stove" rational--I've posted this before--it is very, very rarely the stove, it is mostly the operator. I don't get it--I know that when this dumb ass found this FORUM--I knew very little about my stove & with the help of people with the same stove who were patient enough to help me get through all my ego stuff, I have been heating a 2400 sq broke up 200 yr old farm house for 4 seasons at a comfy 72* & I am very grateful to all those who got me to this point. ( I seriously believe that at one point, oliverpower, was ready to load up & come out here & kick my ass.

No, I really do think it is the stove--its installation location and the house it's in...not getting enough heat upstairs--or even in the basement--when surface temp is nigh on 500. If I had the MPD here I'd have tried that first based on your info, but I had all of the other stuff on hand from previous work or came with the stove.

I had the (badly!) mistaken idea that 'since the factory rates it at 100k BTU/h and my oil furnace is rated similarly, and doesn't run that much (when set at 62 ) that it would have a similar heating capacity. Unfortunately this seems not to be the case. I'd guess, steady-state, I'm getting somewhere around 60% of that rating, if I'm lucky, and the stove is down in the basement. Chose to overlook the obvious, that the furnace doesn't heat the basement much, and that 100k is the max rating, which probably only happens when all stars are in alignment.

Regards
Jacob

agcowvet wrote:Put in baro on horizontal part of flue last night. Using it as a substitute for a manometer, I had around .04-.05 WC draft. Set it at .06 WC. Would only be useful on the windier days, I know the draft is much stronger then. So I don't expect it to make much difference in coal consumption except on certain days. Certainly it isn't making much change in stack temp (why would it, when it's not doing anything ) Stack temps have been running 120 to 250, body temp (high on left side) running anywhere from 140 to 450, depending on state of fire.

You can't accurately use the gauge on the baro.. First get a mature consistent fire burning then move that weight out on the baro door, in small increments, till it starts to open. At that setting, it should maintain your current fire at a constant temperature. But overall, guessing without a mano is still just guessing IN my experience so far, the baro will provide a consistent draft pressure which in-turn will provide you with consistent heat output without needing to babysit it very much

agcowvet wrote:... the factory rates it at 100k BTU/h ... I'd guess, steady-state, I'm getting somewhere around 60% of that rating

60% sounds about right and you probably have to push it a bit to get that high. All the factory ratings are lies, doesn't matter which brand you are talking about. Or maybe I should say, not lies, but the factory rating means something significantly different from what you and I naturally THINK it means.

At 70% efficiency 100,000 BTU's of output for one hour would require the consumption of roughly 11.5 pounds of coal. That's about 276 pounds of coal burned per day.

50 pounds of coal burned per day is yielding about 18,000 usable (output) BTU's per hour.

I wonder if a coal stove would survive one full day of non-stop 100,000 BTU's per hour output. I could imagine it glowing.

I suspect that most stoves run most often at 15% (or less) of their manufacturers rated output.

To achieve 100,000 BTU's of output at 72% efficiency an oil furnace would be burning right close to 1 gallon of oil per hour. 24 gallons per day. 730 gallons per month.

lsayre wrote:At 70% efficiency 100,000 BTU's of output for one hour would require the consumption of roughly 11.5 pounds of coal. That's about 276 pounds of coal burned per day.

50 pounds of coal burned per day is yielding about 18,000 usable (output) BTU's per hour.

I wonder if a coal stove would survive one full day of non-stop 100,000 BTU's per hour output. I could imagine it glowing.

I suspect that most stoves run most often at 15% (or less) of their manufacturers rated output.

I totally agree.. My furnace rated 120,000 BTU uses around 50 pounds per day.. I would never attempt trying to get 120,000 BTU. It would likely melt into a heap of molten steel and burning coal But a smooth 20,000 BTU per hour 24/7 seems to keep the home comfortable

Looked in on the stove and it's at peak output now, around 500 degrees. Stack temp 275 before baro, and baro is open a goodly bit. So I was wrong, it will save some coal even in non-windy weather. Usually I'm only looking in on it when needing to be fueled.

Burning right around 50-60 lbs per day (24hr period) now (1.5 5-gal buckets). True enough, if the oil burner (0.85 gal/hr at 86% eff for this one) was running non-stop that would surely be a great deal more coal than that to be equivalent--but it hasn't ever run that much, I would go broke. Probably around half that in what little really cold weather we got last year, but tstat set quite low (60ish).