Coalpail.com Forum

I made mine as big as I could; 8" x 18" rectangle.

Tater1977 wrote:Any recomendations on the size trunk line required off of the furnace to handle 1550 cfm ?

...are you sitting down ?

...by design ....at a desirable velocity (600-900 lfm) you would need a trunk with a cross sectional area of...oh lets say 288 sq inches
..so 12x 24 "
..or 8 x36 "
.or 10 x 28"
....nearly 20 " if round..

...so you can see...it would have to be quite large

...now...thats on paper in a perfect world!

...keep it as large as you can to start
...dont worry so much about velocity- youre gonna need some to push it thru your attic ducts

That is much larger than I had expected.

Tater1977 wrote:That is much larger than I had expected.

...yeah-I hear that alot

...dont sweat it- keep your main trunk as large as feasible...step it down as you supply rooms...youll be fine

..can you start with 8 x 20" ?

One tip, a little off this new string of threads. When you set your koker up (before installing your air ducts/plenum), make sure it is tilted ever so slightly forward. It just needs to be a hairs worth. IF it is tilted a hairs worth backwards, the stoker will have trouble pushing the coal down the "chute". Just slightly shim the back two corners and the coal will flow smoothly.

I have 2 8in. round for my cold air return and 2 8in. round for the hot air tying into my duct work. The only thing about more air is, that the stove cools down quicker(shorter heat cycles). I have only had my koker for one winter so im still learning. As far as my coal consumption, about a ton a month when it is up and running. Some months less and some months more.

Hey Tater,
I have a 2800 sf log home that has a heat pump and in the dead of winter, I had electric bills over $400. After installing my Keystoker which I tied into my cold air return, I now have electric bills around $175 but I still have an electric hot water heater. I burn right around 3 ton of coal and my house is now a comfy 72 degrees instead of 60 something.
Jim

Fired up my Koker this past Monday. She is humming along, you will love her!! I burn 4-5 tons in 5-6 months for a 1800 sf home kept at 73!

Sorry, I haven't been on much. This is my set-up, the cold air returns are the large rectangle on the right and the round on the left. I have three return locations from upstairs. My HVAC friend used a formula to determine the sizes required for the blower.

Today ,I finished running wire and installing a new outlet where the furnace will be located. I have a HVAC guy who is coming over Wednesday evening to see about building me a plenum under the table {cash on the side}. He made mention of coming off the furnace and blowing it out to 20 inches. Friday I have a core drill and 5 inch coring bit reserved at my local rental yard. I have to core through my 8in thick poured basement wall for the vent pipe...... not looking forward to that. The vent pipe unfortunately has to go closer to the dryer vent than I would like, about 15 inches next to it and 3 and a half feet below. I think I will run the vent for the furnace a little further out of the foundation, away from the dryer vent just to be safe. I am limited on where I can put the vent due to the grade around my foundation. My stove will be 13 ft from my hot water tank, keystoker claims 10 ft away is max distance for gravity feed to hot water coil in stove. Any suggestions for setting up a pump system. My hot water tank is an 80 gallon electric about 13 ft away. The koker and HW tank are on opposite walls, so the piping will have to run up to the ceiling and down to the koker and HW tank, so gravity feed is not an option.

Tater,

Here is the link to my stove setup, Pictures of Your Stove you can see the plenum, air return, and I have a filter fabricated to catch any dust. My hot water is about 12' or so and the thermo syphon works, no pump required.

tater..

couldnt help notice ur avatar
..A160. Keystoker with coil
..any chance of getting a pic of ur set up ?
and a quick desriptiom of ur water coils location in regards to the stoker bed?
...very much appreciated.....thanks!

forgot to add...
ur coil probably wont thermo siphom if you plumb higher than the tank and then back down

Rigar wrote:tater..

couldnt help notice ur avatar
..A160. Keystoker with coil
..any chance of getting a pic of ur set up ?
and a quick desriptiom of ur water coils location in regards to the stoker bed?
...very much appreciated.....thanks!

I don't have the stove up and running yet. but im close. Time to work on it has been in short supply lately. I will take some measurements and pictures of the water coils location tomorrow. I just got my 20x20 x45 plenum on today, and started cutting it out for my 8x20 trunk line.