Hot Blast 1500 has me concerned

Hello fellow coal burners! I have sealed up my grate as Lightening has shown to do for Anthracite. This evening I fired the furnace up in a hurry to check my results, it only caught on the front half of the fire box so I laid an oak board over the hot coal to spread the fire to the back half. This spread the fire past the center of the grates and the heat started leaving the hot air outlet at 90*F with the blowers running constantly. I had to keep the ash door 1/2 open to keep the coal from going out. It was then I noticed that the front heat shield to the right of the grate shaker bar was glowing red/yellow over a space of about 1 1/2". Is this normal? After closing the ash door down to 2 fingers the heat shield quit glowing and the fire started going out probably because the back of the coal never started burning and the hot coals couldn't get adequate air flow.

Thanks for any advise,
New member,
Allison

Hi Allison, welcome to the coal community. By "heat shield" I assume you mean the front cast iron fire box liner. They will get really hot, I do recall seeing mine glow in small spots but only occasionally.

It sounds to me that you had an excessively hot fire in just the front half of the fire box. Once you get a more uniform burn you won't see that front liner get so hot and the furnace will have even better heat output.

Ok, thank you for the quick response!

Allison wrote: ↑

Sun. Feb. 09, 2020 1:13 pm

Ok, thank you for the quick response!

No problem, dont be afraid to ask if you have any more questions

I put firebrick in front of my liners. Just so they won’t burn out

Allison, Ifn i can be bold; Lightning has more experience with your type of unit than ANYONE on this entire forum!!! So please don't be bashful. We are all here to help.
Lee, I hope this post was not too out of bounds.
Jim

What this boils down to is heating 1,350 sq/ft of storage garage space with a 10 ft. high ceiling with lots of machinery (read clutter) that all needs warmed up each time I want to do something in the garage. My goal is to be able to heat the area up quickly on the few occasions it is needed for doing my projects and keep it warm for up to 6 hours while I sandblast or just relax in front of the Amish tv and listen to the stereo blasting. Today I cleaned the firebox and stacked firebricks against the front & rear liners with fiberglass across the grates to seal up with the bricks. This will result in a smaller grate area which hopefully will burn aggressively to start the Anthro quickly and give intense heat with ability throttle it down as desired. No barometric damper or flue damper since I am always present during use and can watch temps and draft at a glance. My gauge arsenal consists of 1. air temp leaving furnace duct 2. firebox temp above feed door 3. flue temp 18" above furnace cleanout T 4. digital thermocouple at top of chimney 5. magnehelic draft gauge sampling from just above my cleanout T. My exhaust (?) system is 6" stovepipe from furnace up to the rafters where it enters a 6" quadruple lined stainless steel chimney that travels 15' through the upstairs and outdoors to my chimney cap. During my last burn the draft ranged from .09 to .105" WC. Enough draft here for everybody! My feed door is original with a thermo operated secondary air inlet plate that has 2 small 3/16" bleed holes to allow a small amount of secondary air at all times. It might ward off a BOOMER but the air can't get over the coal where it could do some good. (IMO) anyhoo. Lastly, the furnace sits atop 2 rows of cement blocks to put the doors within easy reach.

Allison wrote: ↑

Tue. Feb. 11, 2020 1:11 am

What this boils down to is heating 1,350 sq/ft of storage garage space with a 10 ft. high ceiling with lots of machinery (read clutter) that all needs warmed up each time I want to do something in the garage. My goal is to be able to heat the area up quickly on the few occasions it is needed for doing my projects and keep it warm for up to 6 hours while I sandblast or just relax in front of the Amish tv and listen to the stereo blasting.

This is a perfect case for wood. It will light fast and can burn hot for short durations.

Lightning wrote: ↑

Tue. Feb. 11, 2020 5:29 am

This is a perfect case for wood. It will light fast and can burn hot for short durations.

Precisely what I was thinking. Wood!!!

What kind of machinery? Hopefully none containing gasoline. If it’s wood working equipment or metal working equipment...even farm machinery...there is lots of metal to heat up...and it will be slow any way you look at it. As quick as possible means wood. You will also just be able to let it die out.

I’m thinking a wood double barrel stove...line them with bricks please. Puts out lots of heat in short order, but you’ll be feeding it a lot.

Or...

If you’re willing to keep it warm by stoking some, either with wood or twice a day with coal...find a Hitzer 354 or freestanding 983 would be even better. They will heat it nicely and you can burn wood on days you won’t be in there long or coal when you plan to be in there a lot or days back-to-back...or keep it warm for several days.

Is this building insulated at all?

Bituminous will heat quickly and burn for a shorter time.

fig wrote: ↑

Tue. Feb. 11, 2020 8:03 am

Bituminous will heat quickly and burn for a shorter time.

6 hours short?

I guess it depends on how much is put in I suppose. I don’t think bituminous requires a deep bed, but I could be wrong. Perhaps a wood fire to get it going and add some eastern KY lump then?

There are items with small gas engines, small diesel track hoe and electric tractors none of which leak or give any noticeable fumes. I am always on the alert for flammable odors, 3 large 10x12 garage doors that leak air that can seep upstairs to roof vents by natural convection. Solid log building with 1/2 of first floor earth covered, no insulation, upstairs is open rafters to gamble (barn style) roof. For many years my heat was from oak planks that were stick stacked and kept in the garage for 25 years, outstanding wood to burn but the supply is dwindling away now. I was hoping to use Anthracite as a clean burning alternative for my dwindling dry oak supply.

For short burns wood is my first choice. It's easy to light, will get hot fast and then extinguish about the time you need it to. Not nearly the hassle with ash. Wood ash is usually 1-3% and coal 10-15%. Coal fires are more for long duration heating, several days at minimum considering the effort involved with getting a good coal fire ignited and stable.

Yer not going to enjoy cleaning out the fire box all the time of unburnt coal and ash to start a new fire. You can try building one on top of the mess but that can be cumbersome also.

Just my opinion for your needs..

But you might enjoy learning the burn, and possibly heating your house with Anthracite at some point. What do you heat your house with currently?

You are right Lee I do enjoy learning the burn and with 8 bags left I can experiment through the remaining cold season of how this might work out for me next season. Our log house is 5200 sq/ft and heated with 2 propane furnaces. We quit using our fireplace many years ago due to all the work, dirt and insurance expense related to the fireplace usage. Granted, that propane gets quite expensive but heating the house with wood or coal is not a practical option for me.

Allison wrote: ↑

Tue. Feb. 11, 2020 6:56 pm

Granted, that propane gets quite expensive but heating the house with wood or coal is not a practical option for me.

Dont be so sure these guys around here know a thing or two lol. Might save you thousands per heating season. It might be worth investigating...