Question : I Have a Harmon SF 360, Attempting to Use Coal

I live in the middle of no-where Alaska. wood is plentiful, and I have a lot available to use. But, my woodsplitter/stacker is getting up in years (and looking to go to college soon), so I decided to get a dual fuel boiler - use wood when I can, and Coal for when I want the extra heat and semi convenience of just being able to load some in. Wood heats everything fine, and I can get everything running on a 10-12hr schedule. But, with my schedule this summer/fall - I was unable to cut as much wood as I liked, so I ordered, and had delivered 10 tons of coal. Its stove sized, from the descriptions I have been reading. The size is from golfball to the size of a shoe. The stove has a damper that is controlled by the thermostat, there are a few small flaps I can adjust manually, but they are cracked open slightly right now.

My issue, I got the coal fired up, took a while, but I expected that. I started a small bed, and gradually got it filled and fired up completely. Last night, before bed, I made sure it was topped off, shook it a little, dumped the little bit of ash out, and called it a night, expecting it to last till morning. In total, there was probably (5) 5 gallon pails of coal burning or close to 100lb. It lasted to around 4-5am, when I got up to head to work, there were a few random embers, ash and clinkers. do I need to shut the manual dampers down completely and adjust the temperature settings even lower to keep the air flow down even more?

The bed of coal looked like the picture at the top of this forum, mostly red with the random blue flame flickering around and across everything. I have only started using coal for a few days, and I want to get this figured out before the temp gets worse (its -15 or so now)....and I really don't want to go out and cut some more wood either.

Thanks in advance for any tips and ideas for me.
Pfeiffer

that is really big coal, your in Alaska so I would guess its bituminous coal? your using a boiler correct? what kind of heat do you have? baseboard/in floor/radiators/water to air exchanger? do you have a barometric dampener? the primary air, or air under the grates, is controlled by the aqua stat and is just a motorized door correct? no combustion fan?

Coal is from Healy AK,just looked it up its subbituminous coal ( http://www.usibelli.com/Coal-data.php ) I have a boiler (the harmon), my house is baseboard heat, with plans to put infloor heat in the basement next year. I do not have a barometric damper. Air is under the grates, and controlled by a aquastat (small motorized door/flap) No combustion fan, 18ft of chimney for the draft. I have a heat dump set up to kick on at 180' and that has not fired up yet, unless I switch it on manually.

what are your aqua stat settings? bituminous needs over fire air just like wood, the spin knobs on your load door, so don't shut them, its a totally different animal than anthracite though, im sure some bit guys will be along soon to help out, at -15 that is a big heat load, how many hours did you get out of that do you figure?

the boiler is set low right now, it tries to maintain 150 to 160' once its a little cooler - I'll change it to 170-180. The knobs on the door are almost shut, 1/8th ccw would close both of them. If I had to guess, I noticed a change in the temp of the house about 4am, so I figured I got 5 hours, maybe a little more out of it. I have the next week off, so I can play and tinker with everything while the temp is like this. I want to get it figured out before it really drops, -50 sucks, and I don't want to have a oil bill like last years.

You need more over fire air among other things. I hope you are just letting to much heat go up the chimney. Anyway, There are several other Alaska member here and they may be a lot of help to you as it would be similar burning coal. I am no good with remembering their user names except kielanders. Go to your Alaska page and private message/email some of them.

Other members with similar stoves may be able to help too.

so when you loaded it before bed, was the aqua stat satisfied? or did it never get satisfied? you may need more under fire air, or more over fire air, depending on how the flame is, I believe you will have more flame than with anthracite, as there is more gasses to burn off, when loading make sure you are giving it plenty of over fire air so you don't experience a puff back! I think that the 360 has a massive fire box, how deep was the coal bed? you say 5, 5 gallon pails or 100 pounds, a 5 gallon pail of anthracite weighs roughly 40 pounds so that would be 200 pounds, maybe bit is lighter? you want a deep bed, you might have to put even more coal in to get the longer burn, do you have any pics of your setup? we just love pics here.

I was guessing on the weight, it could have been 200lb, I'll do a series of pictures, i'm going to give it a shot again tonight, ...practice makes perfect.

thats right, make sure the bed is at least 8" deep tonight, do it in layers just like you said you did, and make sure to always have a spot glowing red and burning so that it will keep the gasses ignited. don't over shake it, once you get a nice glow from the grates its good, no need to drop burning coal into the ash pan. once you get it full, keep it that way, tomorrow if its still going good just keep it going, hopefully the aqua stat will satisfy and then it can idle. where do you live in Alaska?

Just measured it, the firebox is 27" deep, 18" wide, and to the top of the firebrick, 10". I just started a small fire to get the initial coals started, and soon i'll start adding to it. Should end up taking a few hours. Yesterday, I remember it taking about 4 hours before I was tossing in a whole bucket. Its a nice boiler (from what I have read and been told) and one of the few I can find locally. I have been very happy with it so far just using wood, but I have the coal, and good reason to take advantage of it. Its more than capable of heating my house, and if I need a heat sink, my eventual goal is to run some insulated lines to the greenhouse my wife wants me to build, and have a 1k to 2k gallon water tank to soak up the extra heat. (Or just put the tank in the garage till I get a greenhouse built)

I live 2 hrs south of Fairbanks, in a place called Delta Junction, Nice quiet area.

Alright, I think the first time it went out cuz yo didn't have enough I there, but just make sure it's full, to the top of the fire brick then mound it in the middle.