Pilot Error Is It the Coal...??

 
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Carbon12
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Other Heating: Heat Pump/Forced Hot Air Oil Furnace

Post by Carbon12 » Sun. Mar. 23, 2014 5:55 pm

I think you understand what lighting and I were saying :D burning coal is fun for lots of reasons but it really does make your head hurt sometimes trying to understand the nature of the beast.

 
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Dennis
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Coal Size/Type: Anthracite/stove size

Post by Dennis » Sun. Mar. 23, 2014 8:05 pm

Crow Horse wrote:If I run it in this manner, I should have less issues with half burned coal jamming the shaker up
how often are you shaking.You might try to wait longer between shake downs and let the coal burn longer,or shake till you see just a slight bit of hot/glowing ash falling into the pan

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Mon. Mar. 24, 2014 2:13 am

Crow Horse wrote: I've been running it a while now with the primary wide open and the MPD barely open and it's burning well.
You might try opening the MPD a little more than usual and cut back the primary air if your desire is to get a slower cooler burn.
Crow Horse wrote:As I'm putting all the advice together in a manner I can understand, as outside temps rise, draft reduces proportionally.
Yes, this is the case.
Crow Horse wrote:In order to compensate for this reduced draft, opening up the primary air to raise the burn temp to create a larger temperature difference between burn temp and outside temp. Have I got it right?
There is more than one way to skin a cat. Sure, you can open the primary to run the stove hotter and open windowstats, OR you can add more secondary air which will run the stove cooler, save coal and not heat yourself out of the house.. It's a combination of temperature and air mass that maintains the draft. This is why the addition of secondary air to maintain draft, works..


 
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Crow Horse
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Post by Crow Horse » Mon. Mar. 24, 2014 8:18 pm

There is more than one way to skin a cat. Sure, you can open the primary to run the stove hotter and open windowstats, OR you can add more secondary air which will run the stove cooler, save coal and not heat yourself out of the house.. It's a combination of temperature and air mass that maintains the draft. This is why the addition of secondary air to maintain draft, works..

This is where I'm a bit confused. On my stove, I don't have any secondary vents. Just the vent on the ash door and the main door itself......

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Tue. Mar. 25, 2014 3:54 am

Crow Horse wrote:This is where I'm a bit confused. On my stove, I don't have any secondary vents. Just the vent on the ash door and the main door itself......

Main door - you mean on the load door? It has a vent?
Yes, that is secondary air.
It comes in over the fire to burn volatile gases that are baked out of the coal.
This is mainly noticed after a fresh load ignites.

On the ash door is primary air.
It comes in under the fire.. and goes up thru the grates to burn the coal itself.

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