It's Heading Into the Low 70's for 4-5 Consecutive Days ...

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Mar. 11, 2012 1:35 pm

..., with night time lows in the low to mid 50's. Anything special I should consider doing to keep the AHS S130's fire going?

One plus is that if the fire does manage to keep going, I should be in a fairly good position to evaluate the minimum daily consumption needs of the AHS S130.

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » Sun. Mar. 11, 2012 8:00 pm

I noticed last week when the temps. were close to 70* outside the boiler temps. were much higher,close to 190*continually. This evening I started lowering the depth of firebed from 13" to 8" deep.I don't need all the extra heat since the baseboards won't be used as much,maybe at night only.

Post by **Rob R.** » Sun. Mar. 11, 2012 8:45 pm

You shouldn't have to do anything different.

I'm On Fire · Post by **I'm On Fire** » Sun. Mar. 11, 2012 8:56 pm

This weather is out of control. If it continues this trend I may consider shutting down.

LsFarm · Post by **LsFarm** » Sun. Mar. 11, 2012 11:19 pm

I do nothing with warmer temperatures. Your keepfire timer will run the fan every hour like in the winter. you might want to monitor the boiler temps.. if wired normally, you have a high temp aquastat that keeps the fan from running and making the water too hot. make sure this is set at at least 210*.

Try to use domestic hot water to keep a BTU load on the boiler.

Greg L

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Mon. Mar. 12, 2012 5:50 am

LsFarm wrote:I do nothing with warmer temperatures. Your keepfire timer will run the fan every hour like in the winter. you might want to monitor the boiler temps.. if wired normally, you have a high temp aquastat that keeps the fan from running and making the water too hot. make sure this is set at at least 210*.

Try to use domestic hot water to keep a BTU load on the boiler.

Greg L

Unlike the Axeman's, the AHS Coal Guns do not have a keepfire timer.

The latest forecast shows more high 60's than low 70's.

Post by **Rob R.** » Mon. Mar. 12, 2012 10:22 am

lsayre wrote:Unlike the Axeman's, the AHS Coal Guns do not have a keepfire timer.

It would be easy enough to add one if you find that it is necessary.

btrowe1 · Post by **btrowe1** » Mon. Mar. 12, 2012 11:08 am

Can't believe this temperature either, Was on the deck yesterday having a cold one and it was a bit warm, Last year we had 2' of snow still on the ground... I think I'll need to adjust down the Hi fire size a bit, but gotta say I'm enjoying the savings in possibly having extra coal to go into next year with..But then again it means I can burn longer into the season if it cools a bit in April.. ..

BeerMonley · Post by **BeerMonley** » Mon. Mar. 12, 2012 11:29 am

i just shut my pocono down today, it was 78 in the house yesterday. its easy enough to start up if it gets cold again

maurizziot · Post by **maurizziot** » Mon. Mar. 12, 2012 9:10 pm

Feel like im letting the coal down by shutting down for a little while

ceccil · Post by **ceccil** » Tue. Mar. 13, 2012 2:04 am

I shut the Keystoker down at 11:30 after I got home from work. Supposed to be in the mid 60's to about 70' for the next week or so. Seems to be a waste to keep it running for the time being. Just as well anyway, The lower part of the gasket on the top door is coming loose and hanging down a bit and seems to be getting crispy. It's been such a warm winter I haven't had to shut it down to do my mid winter clean out that I usually do sometime in January. There's about 3/4" of flyash in the pipe but it's not affecting the draft much if at all. I still had -.025 even with outside temps at 67' yesterday. So now is as good a time as any to do some maintenance on it.

samhill · Post by **samhill** » Tue. Mar. 13, 2012 7:47 am

I shut my keystoker down a few days ago & went back on pro-pain but even that hardly kicks on, I was holding off on cleaning it for the season but now I think I will. I was driving across the causeway the other day & there were dozens of boats out, last year at this time they were still ice fishing but no ice fishing at all this year. Had a few brain surgeon's try but they didn't get too far (pun intended), must have been a chilling experience.

jrn8265 · Post by **jrn8265** » Tue. Mar. 13, 2012 8:23 am

Koker was shutdown this morning at least until Friday. Will vacume her out later today and the Chimney flue.

Might have her shutdown completely for the season next week!

Wow, what an unusual winter but saved one ton of coal!

I agree, it's like loosing an old friend for 6 months!

Post by **Rob R.** » Tue. Mar. 13, 2012 8:34 am

With the outside temperatures in the 50's, the radiant heat from my boiler is usually enough to keep the entire house in the low 70's. I keep the boiler at 160 degrees or so...the house always seems more comfortable with a "warm glow" from the basement.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Tue. Mar. 13, 2012 6:30 pm

I just looked at a month by month comparison of this year and last, and it wasn't until the last week of April and then again in the second week of May last year that we hit temperatures like those of the present here in these parts of Ohio.

Last March we had mostly daytime temperatures in the 30's to 40's and night-time temperatures in the 20's to 30's, with a smattering of nights in the teens. I took delivery of my Coal Gun late in March of 2011, and I remember pushing out the shipment and delivery dates a few times because there was still too much snow and ice in my driveway and I was using a pallet jack to move it into the garage.

This year I had to run the snow-blower exactly twice. Totally unprecedented.