Keystoker KA6 Run Time

jcw265 · Post by **jcw265** » Sun. Jan. 20, 2008 10:42 am

A question was asked of me how long does the boiler I Have run. I have been down when it has been in off cycles and just the secondary fan works. Yet I have started to think about this how long should it run ?? my house is 1860 built no insulation what so ever maybe some in the attic , 2800 square feet 2 storys with 11 foot celings both up and down I have 13 radiators that measured off at 132000 BTU;s and the Keystoker I have is rated at 144000 BTU's I have my thermostat set at 69 deg can someone give me a rough idea on this ??

Oh and by the way some of you have been calling me and I am sorry but per my last call with gaw which by the way was my last call due to our phones kinda went ( junk ) so I had to buy new ones which are working great , so for the voicemails I missed I am so sorry , but my phones at home are now working again !! THANKS !!

Love in Christ Jesus

Jay Williams

gaw · Post by **gaw** » Sun. Jan. 20, 2008 2:58 pm

If it were running non-stop this would indicate one of two things. Either wired up wrong or you are using all the heat it can make and still wanting more. The fact that it starts and stops periodically is a good thing.

Your boiler was matched for the potential load your radiators could place on it. Getting an accurate idea of actual BTU needs of your house is a little bit more complicated. Member Yanche has posted on other threads info on this. In short you need to know about window types, sizes, wall dimensions, what they are made of, insulation R-values and a whole bunch more. An accurate idea of your actual heat loss will take some time and figuring. There are some quick guesstimate rules of thumb out there but they only get you to the ballpark at best. I would have to say you have the right sized boiler for your application. The next size larger is quite a bit larger and the next size smaller is quite a bit smaller.

jcw265 · Post by **jcw265** » Sun. Jan. 20, 2008 3:58 pm

I had all that stuff done or at least I thought I did, Had Radiators measured counted coils and colums etc... came up with 132000 BTU and thats why I got KA6 which projects 144000 BTU. Yet it seems I can get the water temp over 140 deg ?? I am not sure why this is. I had set it up to 150 low and 170 high and waited at least 2 1/2 hours and the water wasnt above 140 and the house had dropped another deg. from 67 to 66 deg so I turned the aquastat back to 130 and 150 and I heard the water begin to cycle and in about 10 minutes the house jumped back up to 67 which is where it is now. I guess this cold weather is not helping but by the pictures I have posted you think my fire is to small. When the coal was getting thick I did back off the adjustment another turn back and I see no differance in fire length , the only thing I noticed is that the coal is not thick again , Any thoughts ???

jcw265 · Post by **jcw265** » Sun. Jan. 20, 2008 6:33 pm

waiting on the results since I have closed the flow valve thing ! The heat is starting to rise above 140 !! something has changed for sure , Is the pressure ok 15-20 PSI , hope the house temp begins to change too !!

Love in Christ Jesus

jcw265 · Post by **jcw265** » Mon. Jan. 21, 2008 6:46 pm

Got home today and house was down to 66 deg dropped another deg, found my fire had become smaller then it has been I figure this is due to setting up water temp on aquastat to 160 - 180 with the diff still set at 10 so I am getting cycles at around 150 or so. Flow valve for sure is allowing water temp to go above now I think I am going to have to re adjust to satisfy the new water temp I have set , Any comments,. ?? One thing we have noticed there are no more cold zones in the house no matter where you are up or down it is 66 deg and we have not had this before. The wife was kicking off the covers last night !! ( aHH that never happens ) So we know things keep getting more tweaked in as the days go by. I did a coal bag count and 7 days I have used 25 bags . I am sure the first few days I was wasting some coal as far as burn rate, I would like to see a couple bags a day ( 80 lbs ) but we will have to see. I have got 5 tons to feed from and I think this will get me through the winter. Again comments are welcome what you all think !! I have had no issues with the boiler , empty ash pan in morning and evening and add a bag or so in morning and a bag or so at night . All in all every day it gets a lil better and I am becoming very happy with our new child !! ( KA6 ) you got to take care of them for awhile but we hope he is on his own soon !! LOLOL

Love in Christ Jesus

Jay Williams

1975gt750 · Post by **1975gt750** » Mon. Jan. 21, 2008 6:52 pm

do you have your thermostat hooked to the aquastat on the coal boilerb or are you just running of the high and low limits of the aquastat.. if you don't have a thermostat input to the coal boilers aquastat this will cause huge lag time on the reheating of the boiler water. I ran into that with my keystoker boiler

jcw265 · Post by **jcw265** » Mon. Jan. 21, 2008 6:55 pm

I have thermostat hooked up to the boiler as well as the aquastat , do they have to be hooked up a certin way ??

1975gt750 · Post by **1975gt750** » Mon. Jan. 21, 2008 6:59 pm

there should be only one hook up for a themostat and that is in the aquastat itself. if you have a thermostat hooked up any place else you might have a problem, remember you have a seperate thermostat called the 40006bto protect you system from having a over heat situation.

jcw265 · Post by **jcw265** » Mon. Jan. 21, 2008 7:03 pm

I will have to check with installer and find this out. I think it is hooked up that way but I will make sure !!

Love in Christ Jesus

Jay Williams

coalburnin · Post by **coalburnin** » Sat. Jan. 26, 2008 9:55 am

jcw I have a few questions . are you feeding from the coal boiler directly to the zones or are you feeding a gas or oil boiler . I have a gas boiler and coal boiler.The coal boiler feeds the gas boiler via a circulater pump that runs continuosly , the hot water that comes from the coal boiler enters the gas boiler at the return side , water that is returning from the zones, and returns to the coal boiler on the feed side .My coal boiler maintains temp by the aquastat not the thermastat. The thermastat only controls the zone pumps, not the boiler. I have a ton a questins to ask you , I hope I can help

jcw265 · Post by **jcw265** » Sun. Jan. 27, 2008 1:10 pm

I had the timer set way way wrong, causing the boiler to overheat , the run time was long because of me setting the timer wrong, the only reason why the hi-stat didnt go off is due to the varation in the boiler temp and the hi-stat temp almost 40 deg's , I would bring this to note for at least all of you who have a keystoker KA6 or something similiar. I have checked this against gaw who has the same stoker as me. and he had the same results, my boiler temp would to have to be at almost 260 DEG !!! for the hi stat to go off. HOTTTTT. I now have my hi stat set to around 170-180 deg that way if the boiler temp gets to 200 - 210 it will go off and move the water, I am also testing it once a month,

Love in Christ Jesus

Jay Williams

beatle78 · Post by **beatle78** » Thu. Jan. 31, 2008 8:18 pm

glad things are working for you. I'm trying to figure out what boiler to buy.

How much did you pay for your KA-6? was it new?