Coalpail.com Forum

now- how about this to help control the smoke???

Around here large paper pellets are mixed in with the coal to reduce emissions

you have new sources for wood pellets opening - test a mix of say 4 parts coal to 1 part wood pellets and see if that doesn;'t help as the wood wold combust quickly and hot to burn off those pesky first smokey volatiles. You may be able to cut that mix even farther and since your hand feeding = you may simply have success with a top dressing - but it depends.

Kind Regards
Sting

I like that wood pellet Idea, not burning by hand now, but I like that Idea.

I'm still lurking on Alaskas list and Craigs list for a older small prill rotating ring, or coal king, these modern 25" rings just seem to big, I understand prill built some 13".

Hey Sting,
I just checked Craigslist in FB and there's a used wood/coal boiler for sale at North Pole. Don't know the condition, or if a stoker can be put in it etc., but might be worth calling about. Here in Utah, used indoor boilers w/coal stokers show up for sale but I don't know how common they still are in AK.
These guys might have a solution for you.
http://www.coalandheat.com/

Short Bus wrote:I like that wood pellet Idea

You can use pellets in your stoker but I would think they would cost quite a bit more than coal.
Around here they used to add walnuts (in the shell) to stoker coal. Not really for smoke issues because bituminous stokers don't smoke hardly at all....they added the nuts to save coal.
The stoker you have can handle walnuts too but you probably don't have walnut trees around your place

You might try adding a couple of split pieces of wood on the fire, about 6" apart, let them catch fire, burning real well, then add coal in between and alongside the splits. don't cover and smother the fire, it takes some finess, but I found that the big wood flame tended to burn up the volitiles in the coal.

If you want to experiment, adding some over the fire combustion air [seocndary air] will help burn off the volitiles from the coal when it is first heating up. T But this secondary air needs to be warm or hot, preheated by the coal fire so that when added to the smoke coming off the coal, it will promote combustion , not cool down the smoke, preventing combustion. It's a difficult combustion to creat, but just about eliminates the smoke from fresh coal.

I think Steinkebunch had a video of secondary air burning off volitles, and how he made the preheated air mechanism.

Good luck, let us know how you are doing.''

Greg L

Sting,

Like Rockwood mentions, give a call to Coal and Heat http://www.coalandheat.com/ there in Fairbanks. He is the rep for the Flame King Boilers. They are designed for the sub-bituminous coal in Healy. The fella with Coal and Heat uses several to heat and provide domestic water for several apartment complexes there in Fairbanks. I use one in the Mat-Su and am very happy with it. The machine shop that has the rights to manufacture the Flame King has been having some financial difficulty in recent years so keep that in mind.

I'm going to go visit that outfit Coalandheat.com, Thank You, I was concered that he had nothing listed for sale, but I've heard of a machine shop that was making some parts but could never get farther.

Short Bus, the fella at CoalandHeat.com is busy with all of his apartments and a bunch of other projects so getting his attention can be difficult at times. He'll do what he can to help you get things alive and kicking though. He has been working with the North Dakota machine shop to get the rights to manufacture some of the parts for the boilers in Fairbanks. If you're down in the Mat-Su and have a few minutes I can show you my Flame King installation.

I check this forum from time to time, and it looks to me like more and more people here in Alaska are giving coal a try. Seems funny that Alaska contains more than half the coal of our entire nation, and there's about a half dozen of us using it to heat our homes.

I live in Valdez, and have been hand loading a Harman TLC 2000 for the past two winters, and just beginning my third. It works great. Getting coal from North Pole to Valdez is one of my challenges. I live in town and lack a good place to store it. I get about a ton at a time and store it outside in two fish totes. They keep the rain off and can be slid around the driveway or into the garage. I am fortunate that nobody has complained about the smell.

Last Saturday I stumbled onto an old stoker on Craigslist in Spokane. I had my brother pick it up for me, and now it's waiting for me. The brand is "Mercury" and according to my brother, "it's heavy." He said it must go 250 lbs., looks to be in very good condition, and has an auger that's about 3" in diameter. I would sorely like to find a way to attach this stoker to my stove -- not a furnace. I like the look of the fire, and I like the radiant heat. I don't want a boiler, and I don't want forced air. Is this a possibility?

I wouldn't necessarily think there is a good way to attatch the stoker to the stove, however, you could easily weld up a steel box with a glass viewing door and do a nice job (make it somewhat pretty) so that you would have a radiant stoker stove. I would think that any "stand alone" stoker unit would be too big to achieve any kind of efficiency without a BIG blower.

Turns out the unused 10 inch rotating head that I have, without stoker, probably came from him. Yes he seams to have plenty of irons in the fire. Were planing to shake hands in Healy somtime when he comes down for coal. Probably not as epic as the meeting of Smith and Wesson but we at least have a subject to discuss

Short Bus wrote:Probably not as epic as the meeting of Smith and Wesson but we at least have a subject to discuss

That's funny
You gonna try to get one of those rotating burners from him?

Hunky Dory wrote:I would sorely like to find a way to attach this stoker to my stove

How are you planning to attach the stoker to your stove? Cutting a hole in the bottom?
I'm assuming this is an underfed stoker similar to this one..?
What Does a Stoker Mechanism Look Like?
This stoker may be too large/hot to run in your stove. These stokers produce lots of heat. You would need to have electrical components (temperature limit switch etc.) to control the stoker. Were you planning to control this with a regular furnace thermostat?

Rockwood, I'm going to do somthing that involves a rotating ring, and automated ash removal, currently trying to find time to do some wiring in house and garage so I can insulate, and wallboard, we've been in the single didgets a few weeks ago, currently 35 F, insulation is a good thing. Probalby get moving on stoker in March or April, I hope. My goal is use less coal, insulate, and get a system where I can leave for a week.

Short Bus wrote:Rockwood, I'm going to do somthing that involves a rotating ring, and automated ash removal, currently trying to find time to do some wiring in house and garage so I can insulate, and wallboard, we've been in the single didgets a few weeks ago, currently 35 F, insulation is a good thing. Probalby get moving on stoker in March or April, I hope. My goal is use less coal, insulate, and get a system where I can leave for a week.

I rather doubt with coal you can ever leave for a week with out some resistance heat backup

I see on the web cams an inch of fresh white stuff in down town Squarebanks