Pictures of Your Stove
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- New Member
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Sat. Feb. 25, 2006 10:14 pm
- Location: Tamaqua, PA
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Here is a shot of my Van Wert Economy Anthratherm. The wall is only about five feet behind the burner so I had to angle it quite a bit to fit it into frame. Never noticed it before, but maybe it's time to repaint the cover!
Gonna reminisce a bit ... back around 1965 my folks bought the house I grew up and still live in, and it had an old hand-stoker that burned chestnut coal. There were pros and cons - I learned a bit about smithing by trial and error (pro - it was great for heating up chunks of steel), but mostly cons (the grate would snap in half every couple of years, and eventually could no longer be welded).
Balanced between a pro and con was that it had a large enough firebox so we could feed wood into it. My folks were scrimping and saving, and, after the grate blew out that last time, and for a year or two afterward we burned everything from broken-up pallets to logs we split up from the woods out back.
Some time around 1976 Dad (a carpenter by trade, but at loose ends at the time) arranged to raze a local residence. It was a family outing ... Mom, Dad, and all us kids swarmed over it for a couple of weeks to salvage the wood - great big beams, and the original log walls; it had started out as a log cabin - that he then sold to an individual building a log cabin.
The jewel in the crown was this Van Wert stoker, but it was a year or so later until we had enough money to get it installed, and it has been providing space heating and hot water ever since. Except for that intermission (and however long it had been out of service at the original owner's) this stoker has been running since the mid to late '50's ... Dad worked a couple of years for a local plumbing contractor, and recalled installing this very same stoker around the time of the 1955 flood.
It uses a Honeywell L8124A1007 'AquaStat' controller for main zone control in conjunction with an ancient water pump feeding five radiators placed throughout the 1800 square foot, two story house. Only one radiator is upstairs, but we found it (coupled with warm air rising up the stairway, and one small air louver into the middle bedroom) is enough to maintain a reasonable degree of comfort. A second thermostat/pump controller feeds water into another loop for the back room.
A five foot long x 2-1/2" auger feeds buck coal from a 55 gallon drum into the burner, and it uses an 8" exhaust duct into the original brick chimney.
I'd have to dig through the last couple of years worth of receipts to develop a baseline, but an off-the-hip estimate is it burns about 5 to 6 tons per year depending on how severe the winter turns out to be.
Hard to beat from a cost standpoint
Gonna reminisce a bit ... back around 1965 my folks bought the house I grew up and still live in, and it had an old hand-stoker that burned chestnut coal. There were pros and cons - I learned a bit about smithing by trial and error (pro - it was great for heating up chunks of steel), but mostly cons (the grate would snap in half every couple of years, and eventually could no longer be welded).
Balanced between a pro and con was that it had a large enough firebox so we could feed wood into it. My folks were scrimping and saving, and, after the grate blew out that last time, and for a year or two afterward we burned everything from broken-up pallets to logs we split up from the woods out back.
Some time around 1976 Dad (a carpenter by trade, but at loose ends at the time) arranged to raze a local residence. It was a family outing ... Mom, Dad, and all us kids swarmed over it for a couple of weeks to salvage the wood - great big beams, and the original log walls; it had started out as a log cabin - that he then sold to an individual building a log cabin.
The jewel in the crown was this Van Wert stoker, but it was a year or so later until we had enough money to get it installed, and it has been providing space heating and hot water ever since. Except for that intermission (and however long it had been out of service at the original owner's) this stoker has been running since the mid to late '50's ... Dad worked a couple of years for a local plumbing contractor, and recalled installing this very same stoker around the time of the 1955 flood.
It uses a Honeywell L8124A1007 'AquaStat' controller for main zone control in conjunction with an ancient water pump feeding five radiators placed throughout the 1800 square foot, two story house. Only one radiator is upstairs, but we found it (coupled with warm air rising up the stairway, and one small air louver into the middle bedroom) is enough to maintain a reasonable degree of comfort. A second thermostat/pump controller feeds water into another loop for the back room.
A five foot long x 2-1/2" auger feeds buck coal from a 55 gallon drum into the burner, and it uses an 8" exhaust duct into the original brick chimney.
I'd have to dig through the last couple of years worth of receipts to develop a baseline, but an off-the-hip estimate is it burns about 5 to 6 tons per year depending on how severe the winter turns out to be.
Hard to beat from a cost standpoint
My Harman VF3000 - Not very impressive looking but does a great job. Third year with it and I've really got it dialed in this season. Does all my heat and hot water. I wish it had a glass door so I could enjoy watching the blue flames.
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Jimmy - I only burn it in winter. This year I started in early November. It looks like I'm going to burn about 3 1/2 tons this season. Previous years, I burned that much and didn't even fire it up until late December. But with oil being as high as it was, I started burning as soon as I needed heat. I lowered the feed rate and lowered the water temperature this year to about 145. I bought in February of 2003 and paid $3,500.00. It's 14 degrees here thisd morning and the house is an even 70 on all levels. Thats the nice thing about a boiler, even temps throughout the house.
- LsFarm
- Member
- Posts: 7383
- Joined: Sun. Nov. 20, 2005 8:02 pm
- Location: Michigan
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Axeman Anderson 260
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Self-built 'Big Bertha' SS Boiler
- Baseburners & Antiques: Keystone 11, Art Garland
OO-v-OO, what size coal are you burning?? That looks like much larger than nut, is it stove or egg size??
Greg L
Greg L
- Oo-v-oO
- Member
- Posts: 72
- Joined: Sat. Jan. 07, 2006 11:47 pm
- Location: Live Free or Die, USA
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Ashley 7150-F
- Coal Size/Type: Chestnut/Stove
That's actually a bed of Stove with some Nut on top of it. I'm experimenting to see what works best.
I think the Nut will work as well as Stove in my Ashley and it's easier to shovel in. The supplier I got this from doesn't have any more Stove, anyway, and he says that he has to buy it by the tractor-trailer load, so he doesn't know if he's going to get any more this year or not.
I'm beginning to get the hang of burning coal - it needs a LOT more air than wood and works best if you don't muck about with it once it's going.
I think the Nut will work as well as Stove in my Ashley and it's easier to shovel in. The supplier I got this from doesn't have any more Stove, anyway, and he says that he has to buy it by the tractor-trailer load, so he doesn't know if he's going to get any more this year or not.
I'm beginning to get the hang of burning coal - it needs a LOT more air than wood and works best if you don't muck about with it once it's going.
- Yanche
- Member
- Posts: 3026
- Joined: Fri. Dec. 23, 2005 12:45 pm
- Location: Sykesville, Maryland
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Alternate Heating Systems S-130
- Coal Size/Type: Anthracite Pea
Picture of my Alternate Heating Systems S-130 installation. In use two heating seasons. Works well. Pipe in series with my existing oil boiler. Burn 5 tons pea PA anthracite a winter.
Yanche
Yanche
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Hey Yanche...I really like that set-up. Did you use mostly coal this year? what percentage coal/oil ?Yanche wrote:Picture of my Alternate Heating Systems S-130 installation. In use two heating seasons. Works well. Pipe in series with my existing oil boiler. Burn 5 tons pea PA anthracite a winter.
Yanche
Clinker
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- Member
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Sat. Jan. 07, 2006 8:43 pm
- Location: Syracuse
How much was the s-130? did you install it?Clinker wrote:Hey Yanche...I really like that set-up. Did you use mostly coal this year? what percentage coal/oil ?Yanche wrote:Picture of my Alternate Heating Systems S-130 installation. In use two heating seasons. Works well. Pipe in series with my existing oil boiler. Burn 5 tons pea PA anthracite a winter.
Yanche
Clinker
- Yanche
- Member
- Posts: 3026
- Joined: Fri. Dec. 23, 2005 12:45 pm
- Location: Sykesville, Maryland
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Alternate Heating Systems S-130
- Coal Size/Type: Anthracite Pea
I switched to coal on Oct. 25 when the weather stared to get consistently cold here in central Maryland. I've be using coal exclusively except for a 6 day period when I was out of town. Then I switched to oil and set the house thermostat to 60 degrees. I log the weight of each coal bucket I put in the hopper. My thermostat is normally 72 during the day and 70 at night. I burn 50 to 125 lbs in 24 hours. 50 lbs when the day time temperature is 40-50 with the night time lows close to freezing. 125 lbs when the night time low was 6 and day time high was 22 and windy. The resulting ash from the 125 lbs coal was 23 lbs 11 oz, i.e. 18.8% by weight. My annual coal usage is right on target to be slightly less that 5 tons. I also heat my domestic hot water and a 1000 sq ft workshop with the boiler. I did the design and installation myself. In non-heating months I use the oil boiler for domestic hot water only.
The photo shows the boilers in my shop which is in a separate building from my home. A 30-35 ft underground pipe run gets the hot water to my home. The max water temperature is about 210. The boiler has no problem maintainimg at least 180 under all conditions. It's an efficient boiler design, I can put my hand on the flue pipe without getting burned. Don't recommend doing it because it's hot but you don't get burnt either. I'm saving big time vs oil. The electric rates are scheduled to go up 72% this summer. I suspect a lot more homeowners will be looking to alternate heating sources, especially those with heat pumps or electric radiant heat.
Yanche
The photo shows the boilers in my shop which is in a separate building from my home. A 30-35 ft underground pipe run gets the hot water to my home. The max water temperature is about 210. The boiler has no problem maintainimg at least 180 under all conditions. It's an efficient boiler design, I can put my hand on the flue pipe without getting burned. Don't recommend doing it because it's hot but you don't get burnt either. I'm saving big time vs oil. The electric rates are scheduled to go up 72% this summer. I suspect a lot more homeowners will be looking to alternate heating sources, especially those with heat pumps or electric radiant heat.
Yanche
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- New Member
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Tue. Aug. 22, 2006 11:55 pm
- Location: Williamsport, PA
The plumber and I just hooked up my Motor Stoker yesterday. I found this autmatic stoker in the corner of the basement when I moved into my house about 6 years ago. The previous owner converted to natural gas and fortunately for me he saved this unit. It is a real gem. I was spending $2200 to $2500 for natural gas. I won't know how much I will save until spring.
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- Member
- Posts: 1923
- Joined: Mon. Oct. 02, 2006 8:59 am
- Location: Berwick, PA and Ormand Beach FL
1990s Model Alaska Kast Console II Stoker purchased for $800 (Triburner stoker unit), Coal-Trol digital standard control unit, 6 inch stack connected to Magic Heat waste heat recirculator and vented out the side wall with a SWG Field Controls power Vent (4 inch). Unit heats a 2,200 sq ft two story house (upstairs hall is open to the lower floor on both ends so the heat circulates with a little help from the ceiling fan above the unit).
Unit holds temperature within one degree F as advertised by Automation Correct. Currently working on a project to seperate the combustion fan and bring in outside air. When complete the unit wil operate as sperate combustion and stoker motor like non Triburner units. Doing this to improve the burning efficiencies at lower heat settings.
Please feel free to ask information on Coal-trol unit set up for Triburner, with a littl trial and error the units are set and forget like they should be!
Unit holds temperature within one degree F as advertised by Automation Correct. Currently working on a project to seperate the combustion fan and bring in outside air. When complete the unit wil operate as sperate combustion and stoker motor like non Triburner units. Doing this to improve the burning efficiencies at lower heat settings.
Please feel free to ask information on Coal-trol unit set up for Triburner, with a littl trial and error the units are set and forget like they should be!
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Last edited by Matthaus on Sat. Oct. 28, 2006 12:52 am, edited 1 time in total.