Coal Trol High Feed Rate Settings to Past Hand Fed Usage

Uglysquirrel · Post by **Uglysquirrel** » Sun. Jun. 28, 2009 4:57 pm

Wanted to run some logics by you guys as I'm reading the LL messages on the coal trol and burn rates. I'm trying to figure out the LL max feed rate that correlates with my Mark II coal usage last year.

The LL max feed rate is 40, this means the feeder is running 40 sec out of every 100 seconds. All this means to my understanding is that a 40 max feed rate is equivalent to 90K of coal running thru the chute every hour. 90K BTU's of coal/hr is ~6.9 lbs of coal per hr.(1 lb of coal is 13,200 BTU's).

Now comes the interesting part as I'm trying to calibrate last years Mark II coal usage of 50 #'s a day to the LL. This 50 #'s coal usage per day in the Mark means I was using around 2.1 #'s of coal per hr (50/24) in the Mark, this means I was burning up around 27,000 BTU's of coal each hr in the Mark (interestingly not anywhere near the "72,000" rated burn rate!)

Putting the ratio together, 40/X = 6.9/2.1, where X is the max feed rate that corresponds to burning 2.1 #'s coal in the LL, X = 11.

What is suggests to me is that if I put the LL Coal Trol max feed rate at 11, I should get the same coal rate burn in the LL as the Mark II.

All this does not consider efficiency loss, I'm thinking the Pocono has a slightly better efficiency compared to the MarK II. As long as draft is maintained we should be good.

Makes sense? Am I'z missing anything?

DOUG · Post by **DOUG** » Sun. Jun. 28, 2009 5:05 pm

It sounds right to me.

Paulie · Post by **Paulie** » Sun. Jun. 28, 2009 7:08 pm

Apples to oranges. On the LL, set the coal-trol to a room temp the stove can not achieve. Only then with the stove burning
at max, can you adjust the feed rate to attain the full grate burn. Once that is set, set the room temp for what ever you want
and let the control and stove do it's job. Then, once it is dialed in, you can measure(pretty close) the BTU input/output. Full
btu output can only be achieved with a full burning grate, chances are good that 40 will not give you that. Good Luck!

WNY · Post by **WNY** » Mon. Jul. 06, 2009 2:59 pm

it depends on the stoker mechanism too, the MAX 40 is just a base to start with, You have have to tweek it

I have my LL Hyfire running about 48 Max, it has about 1/2" of ash at full burn 99% Feed Rate.

At Max 40, I would have around 1-1.5" of ash. I wanted to get max burn our of my stove.

Jerry & Karen · Post by **Jerry & Karen** » Tue. Jul. 07, 2009 8:25 am

The draft of the chimney and the quality of the coal will come into play to make a max burn. The # 40 is just a starting point. I have had our stove here at home up to #72 to get a full burn. I also have had the stove at # 45. People buy coal thinking its all the same, but we know better. People will ask me if you can look at coal and tell the difference, I can't. It's like looking at gas, what's regular and what's hi-test.
Jer