Anyone know the approx. cu.ft. in a ton of rice or nut coal ?

Got an idea for an outdoor coal bin for bulk anthracite with a beveled concrete bottom and block walls.

thanks, Pat

I use 40 cubic feet for my calculations... I think it's a pretty close estimate

Thanks, so that's less than 1K cf for 24 tons. Smaller that I thought it would be.

Pat

Somewhere the other day I read that a guy had a bin 4’x4’x8’ to put his coal in I believe he said it held 3 tons of nut coal. Just so happens that is also the measurement for 1cord of wood...which is how I remembered it. I made special note of it because I plan to build a bin the same size. Just so happens to be about the amount of coal I may need each year.

Every coal is different. 50 pounds per cubic foot is a good place to start. But,,,,, you take a different coal,,,,like Lehigh,,,,it can range from 54-57 pounds per cubic foot. That could be 35-37 cubic feet per ton. Every coal is different.

40 cu ft per ton will give you plenty of room. If your tight on space, 35 cu ft per ton is more accurate, in my opinion.

Scottscoaled wrote: ↑

Sat. Feb. 15, 2020 6:43 pm

Every coal is different. 50 pounds per cubic foot is a good place to start. But,,,,, you take a different coal,,,,like Lehigh,,,,it can range from 54-57 pounds per cubic foot. That could be 35-37 cubic feet per ton. Every coal is different.

Yeah, I suppose they are all a little different. As long as it's close to 40 cf/ton I have an idea on how big it needs to be to hold the coal. I was thinking of a 12'X16' and 5' high would give me 960 cf. I've done my own concrete and block work so no problem there. Might have to reinforce the block, not sure what kind of outward pressure that would be, but I would probably build it with 3 rows of block below ground level.

Next question...anyone know how far you can push/pull coal thru a 2" PVC pipe with an auger going slightly uphill? My plan would have the bin about 10' from the hopper. The auger would bring the coal thru a hole in my garage wall and dump it into a 400-500 lb. capacity custom made hopper beside the boiler. All I'd have to do would be to flip a switch and fill the hopper every few days. At least that would be the plan ….! LOL

thanks, Pat

Several of the members have built coal vacuums and have been very successful with them.
There are several coal vacuum videos on youtube and here on the forum as well.

lzaharis wrote: ↑

Sat. Feb. 15, 2020 11:30 pm

Several of the members have built coal vacuums and have been very successful with them.
There are several coal vacuum videos on youtube and here on the forum as well.

Sounds interesting, I'll look for them, thanks

Pat

I put 23 ton of Lehigh nut in 960 cf no problem.

steve

A 40# bag of Lehigh nut will fit in a 5 gallon bucket.
A 5 gallon bucket is 0.6684007 cubic feet.
50 bags is a ton, so 50 x 0.6684007= 33.42 cubic feet per ton.
I bring my coal into the stove in 5 gallon plastic buckets,
so I empty a bag into a bucket quite often.
I normally run just under a dag a day as supplemental heat.

LouNY wrote: ↑

Fri. Feb. 21, 2020 10:10 am

A 40# bag of Lehigh nut will fit in a 5 gallon bucket.
A 5 gallon bucket is 0.6684007 cubic feet.
50 bags is a ton, so 50 x 0.6684007= 33.42 cubic feet per ton.
I bring my coal into the stove in 5 gallon plastic buckets,
so I empty a bag into a bucket quite often.
I normally run just under a dag a day as supplemental heat.

Sounding better and better all the time !!

Pat

LouNY wrote: ↑

Fri. Feb. 21, 2020 10:10 am

A 40# bag of Lehigh nut will fit in a 5 gallon bucket.

Nut takes up less space than rice, the bucket has a lot surface to create more air space with nut and lehigh coal is very dense.

I measured a ton to be around 33.5 cu ft also, but make to leave some wiggle room

A bag of BLASCHAK NUT will NOT all fit in a 5 gal. pail. Hmmm, interesting LOL