Getting started with coal

silveradodriver · Post by **silveradodriver** » Wed. Jan. 16, 2019 7:26 am

Hey guys, new to the coal burning world. Been burning slab wood in my out door wood boiler the last 2 years. I have a Heatmaster 10000E. Has shaker grates in the bottom. Its designed to burn wood or coal. I have 2 locations near me here in WI where i can get coal. I can get anthracite or bituminus. I need to know what one i should be using and what size first off. i know from the first place i can get rice, nut, stove anthracite or Stoker coal sized 1 1/2" to 3" bituminus. the second location i have to call them and see what they had but i remember it was bigger pieces (maybe 3"-6" pieces).

Sunny Boy · Post by **Sunny Boy** » Wed. Jan. 16, 2019 8:37 am

Welcome SD,
For a beginner, the larger sizes of coal are easier to learn on. The larger air spaces between larger pieces help the firebed start easier, breath better, and respond faster to damper changes. As you learn how your stove and chimney system respond to coal you can experiment with smaller sizes.

Coal has a much bigger learning curve than wood. I suggest doing a lot of reading before you jump into using it. Here's a list of topics to help you, from the first threads up in the "Hand Fired Coal Stoves" section.

Popular Hand Fired Coal Stove Topics

Paul

Post by **franco b** » Wed. Jan. 16, 2019 9:28 am

Your boiler's fire box is sized for wood. With coal, if you load the fire box to proper depth, you will have many times the potential heat compared to wood. It will tend to overfire or starve and go out.

Reducing the fire box by one third to one half will give much better results. Anthracite will burn clean without the smell, smoke, and soot of bit coal.

I would suggest starting off by just adding coal to an established wood fire and experiment with adding more.

BigBarney · Post by **BigBarney** » Fri. Jan. 18, 2019 1:54 pm

Franco B :

Why do people say bituminous coal smokes when it burns ??

With proper equipment it burns like other coal , of course there

are differences in how you tend a fire.

I make very little smoke and have burned many different coals , all

you have to do is get a procedure down with a proper burner . The

smell is harder to get rid of completely but with proper combustion

even that can be mitigated. Burns with a blue flame just like any other

coal.

BigBarney

ASea · Post by **ASea** » Mon. Feb. 04, 2019 8:35 pm

I'm looking at the Heatmaster Units. the idea of an outdoor boiler intrigues me. If I had Bit available I'd probably use that because it's cheap. I have anthracite, so I'd use stove size. the nice thing about these boilers is you can use pine or what ever other wood you have available.

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Tue. Feb. 05, 2019 9:33 am

How big is one ton pile of pine?

How many BTU's in a ton of pine?

ASea · Post by **ASea** » Tue. Feb. 05, 2019 10:11 am

McGiever wrote: ↑
Tue. Feb. 05, 2019 9:33 am
How big is one ton pile of pine?

How many BTU's in a ton of pine?

Not sure, the idea with an outdoor boiler is you can burn just about any biomass. Though we know Coal is the way to go long term or on the coldest days. Not sure what I want to do or commit to doing.

Post by **franco b** » Tue. Feb. 05, 2019 10:41 am

BigBarney wrote: ↑
Fri. Jan. 18, 2019 1:54 pm
Why do people say bituminous coal smokes when it burns ??

With proper equipment it burns like other coal , of course there

Very true,but not easy to accomplish.

Because bit coal is about one third gas, there must be a good air handling system to properly burn it, or else it goes up in smoke. Like wood a great part of the heat potential is released quickly, which makes it hard to cope with. Tending procedure can of course mitigate the problem.

LeoinRI · Post by **LeoinRI** » Tue. Feb. 05, 2019 7:16 pm

According to
https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wood-combustio ... d_372.html
Assuming 65% heat recovery from 1 ton = 2000/2240*14,300,000=12,767,857 btus
Leo

LeoinRI · Post by **LeoinRI** » Tue. Feb. 05, 2019 7:20 pm

And a ton of pine should be 128*2000/2240 = 114 cubic feet

mntbugy · Post by **mntbugy** » Tue. Feb. 05, 2019 8:03 pm

Eastern white pine 2125 lbs in a cord.
13.2 million Btu per cord.

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Tue. Feb. 05, 2019 9:32 pm

How many BTU to get it from the stump thru the fuel loading door?

Assumed sawed, loaded, unloaded, split, stacked, unstacked, unloaded, loaded and moved to door. Och my aching back...

mntbugy · Post by **mntbugy** » Tue. Feb. 05, 2019 9:54 pm

McGiever wrote: ↑
Tue. Feb. 05, 2019 9:32 pm
How many BTU to get it from the stump thru the fuel loading door?

Assumed sawed, loaded, unloaded, split, stacked, unstacked, unloaded, loaded and moved to door. Och my aching back...

You missed sweat,blood and adult Kool Aide.

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Tue. Feb. 05, 2019 11:26 pm

Maybe just call bio-mass dealer and have a T.T. load of that delivered along with a big load of that adult Kool Aide.