Converting to EFM From OWB

 
Cummins junkie
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Post by Cummins junkie » Fri. Nov. 11, 2016 6:12 pm

So I have had my EFM going since October 19th since then I have dumped 48- 40 pound bags in the drum. I'm definitely a lot happier with the ease of putting coal in every few days and not loading wood twice a day :D The temperature seems to drop drastically when I have a heat call but it will catch up once the fire gets going. I have the aquastat set on 150 low, 190 high, 4 teeth and 4.5 air. The bagged blaschak coal I bought a few weeks ago is about half gone but I plan on making a trip to Lehigh with my dump trailer to get between 4 and 5 ton ( it's $100 a ton cheaper than buying local). Here are a couple pics of the gauges

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Cummins junkie
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Post by Cummins junkie » Sat. Nov. 26, 2016 1:24 pm

Made the trip to Lehigh yesterday and picked up 4.51 tons of buck. Great people to deal with took about 4.5 hours to get there and about 5.5 to get back home. Wasn't a bad trip love the cummins power 16 mpg down and 15 on the way back. My gross was 22080 very happy with the trip all around.

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sun. Nov. 27, 2016 8:28 am

Sounds good.

I see that you have insulated the boiler. If the shed is not insulated, you should insulate all of the exposed piping the best you can. Insulate the shed as you have time and money.

 
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Post by Cummins junkie » Sun. Nov. 27, 2016 9:17 am

Thanks Rob. I insulated the shed already. I keep my tractor with the snow blower in there so it stays warm. I'm still going to insulate the pipes, I think it'll still be warm enough in there it also doubles as the dog house lol. We put up a kennel to put our 4 dogs in when we leave since they feel the need to make a mess anytime we leave and they are left in the house (3 rottweilers and 1 newfoundland). I know we could've gotten smaller dogs but I can't stand the little ankle biters lol.

 
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Post by Cummins junkie » Sat. Feb. 11, 2017 8:01 pm

Been really enjoying using this EFM. So much easier than wood. It'll get even easier once I get my permanent bin set up. I have burned around 6.5 tons since October 19th and just picked up 4 tons from Lehigh today that should hopefully get me through the rest of the year. I don't know where tractor supply gets their bagged coal from but it is garbage. I needed to buy some to get to today and can't believe how hard it was for the boiler to keep up, I haven't had to set the feed any higher than 4 teeth and I had to go to 6 and 6.5 air and still had a hard time keeping up with the demand. Back to Lehigh buck now :D

 
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CoalHeat
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Post by CoalHeat » Sat. Feb. 11, 2017 8:07 pm

Lehigh is very good coal, been burning their nut in the hand fed and rice in the EFM.

 
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Post by Cummins junkie » Sun. Feb. 25, 2018 12:29 pm

Hi everybody! Just realized it’s been a year since I have updated lol. At the end of last winter I figured I used around 11 ton of coal, 8.5 tons of buck the rest was rice, that’s going from around 45 face cord of wood every winter. My wife and I decided last summer to buy a tractor trailer load of coal so we had 23 tons delivered and can’t believe the savings in buying that way. Hopefully that will get us through 2 years. We have a large room that we are remodeling to be a game room/living room that has temporary heat in it I’d like to put a coal stove in it and I’m figuring that will help heat the entire house as my heaters are setup in the basement and the stove would be setup at the opening so the heaters will also pull some nice warm air from there. A friend of mine is selling a leisure line independence for $1450 with 40 bags of rice. It’s only had 7 tons burned in it so I’m thinking it’s a pretty decent deal just have to get the chimney pipe is all. I think it would take quite a bit off the EFM. Thanks to all you guys that helped with questions and advice and thanks to Scott for selling me a great unit, I’m extremely happy with it and how it handles the load. From the shed it heats my entire house which is just over 4600 total sqft and my garage which is around 1200 sqft and handles it pretty well.


 
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windyhill4.2
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Coal Size/Type: 404-nut, 520 rice ,anthracite for both

Post by windyhill4.2 » Sun. Feb. 25, 2018 1:36 pm

You're worried about taking a bit of the load off the EFM ????? The EFM is running on 4 teeth ??? Your EFM hasn't even gotten out of sleep mode yet !!! Now you want to add noise to your living space by putting a stoker in there ??
My EFM520 is burning 22 tons/yr. & you are hoping to get 2 yrs out of that amount,that should show you that your EFM has a bit more reserve just waiting to do your bidding. :)

 
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Post by Cummins junkie » Sun. Feb. 25, 2018 2:30 pm

I haven’t decided 100% if I’m gonna do the stove yet but I do like the idea of one. I’ve also considered getting a hand fired stove but I have till next year to figure out what I’m going to do

 
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windyhill4.2
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Post by windyhill4.2 » Sun. Feb. 25, 2018 2:37 pm

Cummins junkie wrote:
Sun. Feb. 25, 2018 2:30 pm
I haven’t decided 100% if I’m gonna do the stove yet but I do like the idea of one. I’ve also considered getting a hand fired stove but I have till next year to figure out what I’m going to do
Hand-fed would be better than a noisy stoker in living area, but even better would be a few cast iron radiators.

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Mon. Feb. 26, 2018 5:46 am

Thanks for swinging back and letting us know how your boiler worked out. If it was me, I would put that great room on its own zone and skip the stove. I don't care for the noise from a stoker stove, and adding a zone to the EFM should cost quite a bit less than putting up a chimney and buying a separate stove.

 
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Post by titleist1 » Mon. Feb. 26, 2018 7:43 am

Unless you are looking for the nice orange glow and the blue flames to add to the feeling in the room - then as Rob and WH said another zone is the way to go from ease of installation and ease of use (and less noise if you do put a stoker in there).

Either way we all know it will be warm! :yes:

 
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Post by Cummins junkie » Tue. Jan. 22, 2019 9:28 am

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can anyone help me. This is the first time I’ve had this issue. Got up this morning and had cool air coming from my registers, after checking the fire was not to hot so I added 2 more teeth (now at 6 teeth) set the air at 6 and it went out. I’ve relit it 3 times now and it’ll get a good fire going the it starts to look like this and goes out. I think I’m getting a lot of fines now, is there anything I can do to offset the extra fines or do I need to empty the bin and start over. Bin has about 1.5 tons in it now

 
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nepacoal
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Post by nepacoal » Tue. Jan. 22, 2019 9:51 am

It looks like it's not feeding coal at capacity and has a blockage in the auger. But, if you have been using bagged coal and dumping wet bags in your barrel, it could be solidified fines blocking the auger tube. Have you tried manually cranking the auger to clear it?

 
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Post by Cummins junkie » Tue. Jan. 22, 2019 10:00 am

Yes. I’ve tried everything. I got a tt load before last winter which is almost gone now I’ve noticed that there have been a lot of fines in the pile now. That making me think fines is the issue


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