2 Stoves 1 Coal Trol

rennierc · Post by **rennierc** » Tue. Jul. 21, 2015 7:54 pm

I am new to forum.I have 2 alaska channing III stoves.Stoves have been my only source of heat for about 6 years.I was wondering if I would be able to connect both stove coal feeder motors and fire blowers to 1 coal trol system?I was going to have the blower for the heat plugged into a seperate outlet .Stoves are about 60 feet apart.If I were to run a 12 gauge cord between the stoves so I would be able to plug the units into the coal trol controller,would this work?The thermostat controler would be centrally located between both stoves.Thanks for any help!

freetown fred · Post by **freetown fred** » Tue. Jul. 21, 2015 10:23 pm

Welcome to the FORUM R. I know nothing about the coal-troll so just be patient my friend.

2001Sierra · Post by **2001Sierra** » Tue. Jul. 21, 2015 10:45 pm

Very good questions. I think we need to find out what the "load" of the Coal-trol taps or outlets are. Dual everything. Many devices have additional capacity. I do not believe the Automation Correct people will bless it. Just find out what the output will support. I would check with them.

coal stoker · Post by **coal stoker** » Wed. Jul. 22, 2015 5:28 am

As far as the electrical load is concerned, the motor loads can always be put is series with relays or contactors that will handle the rated curent draw and then your coal-trol controller can supply power to the coil on the relay or contactor in order to pull in the contact and complete the circuit. this will take a little auxillary wiring but electrically it can definitely be done.
Regards
CS

blrman07 · Post by **blrman07** » Wed. Jul. 22, 2015 7:02 am

I went to their site. The combustion circuit is rated for 1.5 amps. The stoker circuit is 1.5 amps. The convection circuit is 2.0 amps. As long as you don't exceed that, the circuit doesn't care how many motors it's supplying. Current draw is current draw.

I am not with the coal trol people but their installation manual shows a wiring diagram for multiple burners on a furnace/boiler. I would imagine that the system wouldn't know the difference between two burners on the same unit or two separate burners on two separate furnaces. You will have some wiring to do but it should do it. Being as your installing something outside the instructions you will probably void the warranty as soon as you do this.

Just make sure you don't exceed the current draw for each circuit. And remember that a problem with anything shuts down all heat but you can still go to manual operation meaning plug each one in to the house circuit and run them as designed without automatic coal-trol operation.

See page 21 of the installation manual.
http://www.automationcorrect.com/documents/Coal-t ... ll_Web.pdf

freetown fred · Post by **freetown fred** » Wed. Jul. 22, 2015 7:16 am

Like the Padre said, these are made for ONE unit!!!!!! What safety issues might be involved--I personally don't have a clue. Just an old hand fired guy here that winces at all the new fangled stuff people come up with.

blrman07 · Post by **blrman07** » Wed. Jul. 22, 2015 7:24 am

Hey Fred I replied before my coffee kicked in. I went to the site and found on page 21 of the install manual that you can put at least two units to each port as long as you don't exceed the ratings listed. I would also caution that your doing a lot of wiring on two stoves 60 feet being apart.

Just an aside there is no way my wife would let me get away with this. She hates to see wires no matter how small or what they are for.

freetown fred · Post by **freetown fred** » Wed. Jul. 22, 2015 8:13 am

Padre, there's no way I would let ME get away with all that. Hand book be damned. When the hell did any of us start following directions???

coalnewbie · Post by **coalnewbie** » Wed. Jul. 22, 2015 10:04 am

She hates to see wires no matter how small or what they are for.

Unplug the TV, she will come around.

rennierc · Post by **rennierc** » Wed. Jul. 22, 2015 10:04 pm

thanks guys,i have an old farm house and have been doing alot of work to for the past 15 years.i already have the wires ran in the basement.i used regular 12/2 wire and installed 2 male plug units at 1 end and 2 female plugs at the other,all nice and neat.i just wasnt shure if I should try it or not!!i burned about a ton a month this past winter here in the finger lakes area of ny.useing a manual burn controler and sometimes the house was 80 (2800 sq ft house) other times it was 60..so I wasted alot of coal at times.my big plan is to buy a efm coal boiler and run steam heat,but thats alot of money I don't have right now.

freetown fred · Post by **freetown fred** » Thu. Jul. 23, 2015 7:28 am

Keep us updated R.

Post by **pvolcko** » Thu. Jul. 30, 2015 11:09 pm

For the convection and stoker motor outputs this should be okay, so long as the combined current draw is less than the ratings on the two outputs. Run Y-splitters for each output (parallel circuits, not series). This is basically no different than we do on a dual burner furnace, except that the distances are less and we have a special version of the software and hardware to allow for changing between one and two burner operation via a parameter setting. In your case you will simply unplug one of the stoves if you only want to burn one of them.

I would not recommend running a y-splitter for the convection blower output. On units with two matched motors and short cable runs we can run the y-splitter for dual speed control on convection motors, but for your situation I think it would be a problem. Even if the total current draw is under limit, the distances involved and differences between the motors on a speed controlled output will likely result in the circuit ending up stuck full open, regardless of the speed being commanded, until the control commands to shut the output off.

Problems:
1) With the dual load on the circuit, if one of the stokers gets jammed, even slightly, you will be more likely blow the stoker circuit than if you were just running one stoker.
2) Even if you are under current limits for the circuits, the control module will likely get pretty warm so make sure it isn't enclosed or contained in anything. If possible have some air moving around it to help in cooling it.

When you first try running both, keep an eye on the control module and check the case temperature around the two rivets on the cover. If they get hot to the touch, you'll need to run a fan blowing on the control unit or discontinue running both at the same time off the same control module.

rennierc · Post by **rennierc** » Sat. Aug. 22, 2015 6:54 am

ok..so I finally got my friend who has been a electrician for over 20 years, to come over and figure out the amp draw for each unit.Each stoker motor draws .4 amps(while pushing coal) for total .8 amps for 2 stoves,max amp draw for unit 1.5 amps (directions also states that it can handle up to 2 amp spike).The combustion blowers both use .3 amps for a total of .6 amps,max amp draw for unit is 1.5 amps.(manual states it too can handle up to a 2 amp spike).The new coal trol system arrived a few days ago.So we are now running the wiring (neatly in the basemnent)Monday.We figured out a way to wire everything safely and without a bunch of cords.When its done I will try and post some photos.Also the convections blowers will not be controlled by the unit.Both will be plugged into wall seperatly and controlled by the original reostat controller.

freetown fred · Post by **freetown fred** » Sat. Aug. 22, 2015 7:47 am

The proof is in the pudding R. Again, keep us posted once ya get them going.

rennierc · Post by **rennierc** » Sat. Oct. 03, 2015 9:08 pm

I have both stoves up and running.all seams to be working fine.front stove has a smaller paddle feeding the coal so the stove temps are not the same.Room temps are about 5 degrees apart.Could I possibly put a resistor on the feed motor to slow the coal delivery down and equal out the stove temps?If anyone has any other ideas ..im all ears.Im not to worried about it ,but it would be great to get the stoves opperating at the same rate.