The Van Wert VA600 Project

 
User avatar
lsayre
Member
Posts: 21781
Joined: Wed. Nov. 23, 2005 9:17 pm
Location: Ohio
Stoker Coal Boiler: AHS S130 Coal Gun
Coal Size/Type: Lehigh Anthracite Pea
Other Heating: Resistance Boiler (13.5 KW), ComfortMax 75

Post by lsayre » Wed. Aug. 01, 2018 5:44 am

Rob R. wrote:
Wed. Aug. 01, 2018 5:34 am
Guys, the gauge is on the flue pipe....not the boiler. :o
That's a relief. It would take about 85 PSI to keep that from boiling if it was the internal boiler temperature. How did I miss that. Now I know I'm getting old.


 
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freetown fred
Member
Posts: 30293
Joined: Thu. Dec. 31, 2009 12:33 pm
Location: Freetown,NY 13803
Hand Fed Coal Stove: HITZER 50-93
Coal Size/Type: BLASCHAK Nut

Post by freetown fred » Wed. Aug. 01, 2018 6:12 am

Not yet Larry, but you're gainin on it!!!! :)

 
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StokerDon
Site Moderator
Posts: 7486
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

Post by StokerDon » Wed. Aug. 01, 2018 6:59 pm

lsayre wrote:
Tue. Jul. 31, 2018 9:31 pm
Wow!
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Larry, keep it together, we still need ya around here!
:lol:

-Don

 
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StokerDon
Site Moderator
Posts: 7486
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

Post by StokerDon » Fri. Aug. 03, 2018 5:58 pm

Last night I changed the feed rate from 12.25 pounds per hour to 10 pounds per hour. I'm not a big fan of reducing feed rates for Summer DHW burning, this contributes to outfires. But we will give it a try here.

Since I lowered the feed rate by changing the motor pulley from 3.5" to 3.0", slowing the blower down too, I moved the air setting up to 5.5.

-Don

 
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StokerDon
Site Moderator
Posts: 7486
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

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Aug. 05, 2018 6:48 pm

The meter reading today is 4180.4 - 4170.5 = 9.9 hours over the passed 5 days, 1.98 hours per day. We can't really equate that to coal usage since we changed the feed rate to 10 pounds per hour mid-week.
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A weeks worth of ash.
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A weeks worth of gofer activity.
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Piled up some more coal over the auger mouth.
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In a few weeks we will get to the point where the coal pile over the auger mouth will last less than a week. Then it will be time to put the barrel in.

-Don

 
User avatar
StokerDon
Site Moderator
Posts: 7486
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

Post by StokerDon » Sat. Aug. 11, 2018 8:24 pm

Today we pulled the stove pipe off of the Van Wert to clean the fly ash out of it.
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First, I removed the BBQ thermometer so it wouldn't get damaged.
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Then pulled the cover off the strait pipe that goes to the thimble.
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Cleaned it out.
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I took the stove pipe outside and dumped the fly ash in the ash pile.
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Then put it all back together.
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This all took a fairly long time, and I had shut down the stoker a few hours earlier.

When I turned the stoker back on, the fire did not recover. I re-lit it and took pics at various stages of recovery.
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On this last one, the fire was 99% recovered and the heat call ended. You can see that one little spot in front that is not quite lit.
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Tomorrow when we calculate how much coal we used over the week, we will subtract 1.5 hours. .5 for trying to recover the fire and an hour to re-lit it.

-Don

 
User avatar
StokerDon
Site Moderator
Posts: 7486
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

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Aug. 12, 2018 7:44 pm

The meter reading today is 4194.2 - 4180.4 = 13.8 - 1.5 for re-start = 12.3 hours over the passed 7 days, 1.76 hours per day. 17.6 pounds per day.
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I re-piled the coal over the auger mouth.
IMG_2987.JPG
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Good to go for another week!

-Don


 
User avatar
StokerDon
Site Moderator
Posts: 7486
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

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Aug. 19, 2018 6:53 pm

The meter reading today is 4208.3 - 4194.2 = 14.1 hours over the passed 7 days, 2.01 hours per day. 20.1 pounds per day.

That's still a bit high for DHW only. I think it would be better if I turned up the air but with the firebox running positive, we're gonna leave it where it is. Because of this the ash has a lot of black in it.
1 weeks worth.
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The fire is a little lazy look'in.
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Gofer action.
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Here's the BoilerMate we talked about earlier. I got it cheap off CL and it hasn't missed a beat in 4 years!
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If it wasn't for this forum, I would not have known what an indirect water heater was. Now I gots one!
IMG_2995.JPG
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-Don

 
User avatar
StokerDon
Site Moderator
Posts: 7486
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

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Aug. 26, 2018 6:35 pm

The meter reading today is 4222.0 - 4208.3 = 13.7 hours over the passed 7 days, 1.96 hours per day. 19.6 pounds per day.
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Gofer action.
IMG_3022.JPG
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It's gittin more and more difficult to make a pile in there.
IMG_3023.JPG
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-Don

 
User avatar
StokerDon
Site Moderator
Posts: 7486
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

Post by StokerDon » Mon. Sep. 03, 2018 7:28 pm

The meter reading today is 4239.4 - 4222.0 = 17.4 hours over the passed 8 days, 2.175 hours per day. 21.75 pounds per day.
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The coal is Git'in down there.
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It's still WAY hot and humid down this way. Chimney draft is still low and over fire draft is still less than low. With the air set on 4, it just doesn't burn the coal up too good.
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Can't wait for it to get cold again!

-Don

 
User avatar
StokerDon
Site Moderator
Posts: 7486
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

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Sep. 09, 2018 8:39 pm

The meter reading today is 4251.8 - 4239.4 = 12.4 hours over the passed 6 days, 2.066 hours per day. 20.66 pounds per day.
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We should have enough rice coal to get through the end of this month.
IMG_3130.JPG
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The ash looks a little better this week.
IMG_3131.JPG
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-Don

 
User avatar
StokerDon
Site Moderator
Posts: 7486
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

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Sep. 16, 2018 7:52 pm

The meter reading today is 4266.4 - 4251.8 = 14.6 hours over the passed 7 days, 2.086 hours per day. 20.86 pounds per day. Almost exactly the same as last week.
IMG_3145.JPG
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Last week I turned the air up from 4 to 6. This makes the overfire draft a little more positive. I have not seen any problems though.
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The ash looks about the same.
IMG_3147.JPG
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I piled the coal up one more time.
IMG_3148.JPG
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Ready for another week.

-Don

 
User avatar
StokerDon
Site Moderator
Posts: 7486
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

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Sep. 23, 2018 7:24 pm

The meter reading today is 4280.2 - 4266.4 = 13.8 hours over the passed 7 days, 1.971 hours per day. 19.71 pounds per day.
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It's been chilly and rainy overnight and today. I opened up the 2 living room radiators to make sure everything was OK with them. The pump and the stoker ran for about 30 minutes, then the A/C kicked on, Whoops!
IMG_3192.JPG
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Yesterday, I put the barrel back in the coal bin. A barrel full should last 2 weeks.
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2weeks is also my target for completing and firing the Axeman Anderson 130M in the garage. When that happens we will shut down the Van Wert and leave the Axeman carry the load.

-Don

 
User avatar
StokerDon
Site Moderator
Posts: 7486
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

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Sep. 30, 2018 7:22 pm

The meter reading today is 4294.5 - 4280.2 = 14.3 hours over the passed 7 days, 2.043 hours per day. 20.43 pounds per day.
IMG_3209.JPG
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This week's ash.
IMG_3210.JPG
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Used a little less than half a barrel during the week. By the numbers it was 143 pounds, which equates to, less than half a barrel.
IMG_3211.JPG
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-Don

 
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David...
Member
Posts: 243
Joined: Sun. Nov. 06, 2016 9:48 am
Location: RI
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Franks 80k output
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Jotul 507B
Coal Size/Type: Nut

Post by David... » Mon. Oct. 01, 2018 12:30 pm

That is some is pretty expensive hot water.


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