The Van Wert VA600 Project
- StokerDon
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 7496
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
- Location: PA, Southern York County!
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
- Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
- Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood
Meter reading today was, 3819.3 - 3758.1 = 61.2 hours over the passed 7 days, 8.74 hours per day, times 12.25 pound per hour = 107.1 pounds per day. WOW!
Gofer. In other news, earlier in the week I put together the doghouse stoker cover from the other VA-600 and installed it on this one. It fits real good and keeps the stoker a little bit quieter. The Van Wert is doing a great job of keeping up with this cold weather. It's running pretty hard, 8.74 hours per day. I have thought about bumping the feed rate up from 12.25 to 15 pounds per hour. I'm not 100% sure that would help.
-Don
So, we're back in the 100+ pound per day club. It has been very cold though, down in the ice box, below 30 degrees for the passed week and the temps aren't going up at all in the forecast. I don't feel to bad though, I'm in good company. Many other members are reporting over 100 pounds per day in this cold stretch.Gofer. In other news, earlier in the week I put together the doghouse stoker cover from the other VA-600 and installed it on this one. It fits real good and keeps the stoker a little bit quieter. The Van Wert is doing a great job of keeping up with this cold weather. It's running pretty hard, 8.74 hours per day. I have thought about bumping the feed rate up from 12.25 to 15 pounds per hour. I'm not 100% sure that would help.
-Don
- StokerDon
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 7496
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
- Location: PA, Southern York County!
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
- Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
- Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood
I guess you're right Rob. This is the first real Winter we have had since I put the boiler in the basement. I've gotten used to 4 hour a day run times.
Meter reading Friday was, 3863.0 - 3819.3 = 43.7 hours over the passed 5 days, 8.74 hours per day, times 12.25 pound per hour = 107.1 pounds per day. The Axeman Anderson has been pushing heat into the house since Friday so we won't count those days.
Wow, that's interesting, those 5 days average run time was exactly the same as last week 8.74 hours! Gofer action. The Axeman Anderson in the garage is constantly pushing 170 degree water into the return of the Van Wert. For the receord, the Van Wert ran for 4.5 hours over the passed 2 days, 27.6 pounds per day.
-Don
- StokerDon
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 7496
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
- Location: PA, Southern York County!
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
- Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
- Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood
They are for standing on. The plumbing and wiring are up in the floor joists. The coal bin is 6 feet high to. You need something to stand on to see what the gofer is doing.
Your not going to turn me in to the milk police, are you?
-Don
-
- Verified Business Rep.
- Posts: 742
- Joined: Thu. Sep. 29, 2016 1:02 pm
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Van Wert
- Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Warm Morning
- Coal Size/Type: Rice,Buck, and Nut
- StokerDon
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 7496
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
- Location: PA, Southern York County!
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
- Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
- Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood
For the passed week or so, I have been running an Axeman Anderson 130M out in the garage pumping it through the Van Wert to heat the house. I was trying to keep the Van Wert lit by having the HI limit slightly lower than the Axeman. That didn't work out to well, so the Van Wert went out on Wednesday.
Since it is taking it's heat from the Axeman in the garage, I was worried that the chimney draft would steal some of the heat. I took an old piece of 8" pipe and used it as a block off for the pipe coming up out of the Van Wert. There we go, no more heat sucking draft. The Axeman is sending about 160 - 170. The Van Wert is pushing out about the same. The aquastat Hi and LO limits are turned all the way down to prevent the stoker from running. This allows us to run all the controls as if the Van Wert were fired up.
-Don
Since it is taking it's heat from the Axeman in the garage, I was worried that the chimney draft would steal some of the heat. I took an old piece of 8" pipe and used it as a block off for the pipe coming up out of the Van Wert. There we go, no more heat sucking draft. The Axeman is sending about 160 - 170. The Van Wert is pushing out about the same. The aquastat Hi and LO limits are turned all the way down to prevent the stoker from running. This allows us to run all the controls as if the Van Wert were fired up.
-Don
- StokerDon
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 7496
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
- Location: PA, Southern York County!
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
- Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
- Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood
It's been about two months now that the Van Wert has been without a fire. Today I figured out that if I run the pump on the Van Wert 24/7 rather than the pump on the Axeman Anderson in the garage, I should be able to keep both fires going.
-Don
3873.5 hours.
Draft -.02
Supply 176 degrees.
Return 160 ish degrees.
Stack 350 degrees.
I raked the bin level. It looks like there is a little lees than 3 ton left. That will last quite a while because we are less than 2 weeks from Spring.
So, this is now set up to run constant circulation and the PEX loop to the garage is just another zone, but it is open all the time. This will make the garage boiler constantly warm, but if the garage radiator calls the garage boiler for heat it will start stoking. This way we should be able to keep both boilers from going out.-Don
- BunkerdCaddis
- Member
- Posts: 708
- Joined: Sun. Jan. 18, 2015 10:26 am
- Location: SW Lancaster County
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Bairmatic-Van Wert
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Van Wert VW85H
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Saey Hanover II working when I feel the desire, Waterford 105 out on vacation, Surdiac Gotha hiding somewhere
- Coal Size/Type: pea/nut/rice/stove-anthracite, nut/stove bit when I feel the urge
- Other Heating: oil fired hydronic
Oh Great, now that you've figured out how little coal you can burn with the boilers, you realize it's not enough coal being burned to keep the addiction happy... I'm telling you... A primary/secondary loop with a logic controller that switches between boilers for heat calls is what you need...
- StokerDon
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 7496
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
- Location: PA, Southern York County!
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
- Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
- Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood
Getting these two boilers to balance is a little tricky. This is all manual so it's cracking valves and adjusting aquastats trying to keep one boiler from overheating the other and keeping them both from going out.
Meter reading Friday was, 3884.2 - 3873.5 = 10.7 hours over the passed 2 days, 5.35 hours per day, times 12.25 pound per hour = 65.5 pounds per day. Got a pretty good gofer hole already! -Don
Meter reading Friday was, 3884.2 - 3873.5 = 10.7 hours over the passed 2 days, 5.35 hours per day, times 12.25 pound per hour = 65.5 pounds per day. Got a pretty good gofer hole already! -Don
- StokerDon
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 7496
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
- Location: PA, Southern York County!
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
- Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
- Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood
Meter reading Friday was, 3898.8 - 3884.2 = 14.6 hours over the passed 5 days, 2.9 hours per day, times 12.25 pound per hour = 35.8 pounds per day.
We shut down the Van Wert again on Friday. The Axeman Anderson in the garage is carrying the full load right now. -Don
We shut down the Van Wert again on Friday. The Axeman Anderson in the garage is carrying the full load right now. -Don