Coal Boiler in series with Oil Burner.

Post Reply
 
User avatar
ASea
Member
Posts: 1156
Joined: Thu. Nov. 27, 2014 8:55 pm
Location: Athol Massachusetts
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska Kast Console II
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Coal Chubby
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood Modern Oak 114, Glenwood 30 "Estate" Warm Morning 120
Coal Size/Type: Sherman Anthracite Nut/Stove from C&T Coal
Other Heating: Peerless Boiler with Cast Iron Baseboards

Post by ASea » Sun. Oct. 15, 2017 11:15 am

Does anyone here run a coal stoker in series with an oil burner? I'm exploring options. I'm debating doing that or running a forced hot air unit and installing central air conditioning at the same time. Ive had my eye on used EFM or Axeman Anderson units. EFM 350 or AA130. I have a ranch about 3400sqft basement included.

Your thoughts?

 
User avatar
coaledsweat
Site Moderator
Posts: 13763
Joined: Fri. Oct. 27, 2006 2:05 pm
Location: Guilford, Connecticut
Stoker Coal Boiler: Axeman Anderson 260M
Coal Size/Type: Pea

Post by coaledsweat » Sun. Oct. 15, 2017 1:07 pm

If you plan on shutting the oil burner down I would run it parrallel. In series you will suffer a parasitic loss of heat from the chimney and boiler itself.

This oil is a boiler, correct?

 
User avatar
ASea
Member
Posts: 1156
Joined: Thu. Nov. 27, 2014 8:55 pm
Location: Athol Massachusetts
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Alaska Kast Console II
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Coal Chubby
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood Modern Oak 114, Glenwood 30 "Estate" Warm Morning 120
Coal Size/Type: Sherman Anthracite Nut/Stove from C&T Coal
Other Heating: Peerless Boiler with Cast Iron Baseboards

Post by ASea » Sun. Oct. 15, 2017 1:50 pm

It's an oil boiler. It's been a good unit I just want options. Thanks for the input.


 
Rollie NEPA
New Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun. Oct. 15, 2017 8:35 pm
Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 350
Other Heating: Oil

Post by Rollie NEPA » Sun. Oct. 15, 2017 8:59 pm

This is my first post so here goes. I have a EFM 350 boiler. It is located in my detached garage/workshop. I pipe the water underground to my oil burner. Let me say that this my own design and installation and I am not saying it is the best or most efficient.
I have a two story house with two zones. I use the oil burner to control the coal boiler. When a thermostat calls for heat the aqua stat on the oil burner sends that request to the aqua stat on the coal boiler which in turn starts the circulator pump on the coal boiler. The hot water is fed into the oil burner and the circulator pumps on the oil burner send the hot water to the zone requesting heat. The coal boiler also supplies the domestic hot water thru the oil burner.
The water that is fed into the oil burner is then returned to the coal stoker via the oil burner drain connection.
I can isolate the oil burner from the coal stoker anytime I want.
The benefit of this setup is, I have no coal dust in the house, no chance of carbon monoxide and my garage is kept warm in the winter. My coal boiler runs year round. Note, I have the oil burner stove pipe disconnected from the chimney and the oil burner stove pipe outlet is packed with insulation.

 
alpineboard
Member
Posts: 302
Joined: Thu. Jan. 20, 2011 8:12 am
Stoker Coal Boiler: Van Wert 600
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Tarm 202
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman HXL, 150, Crane 88, Crane 404
Other Heating: Solar

Post by alpineboard » Sat. Oct. 21, 2017 8:00 am

I am set up almost like you, except my oil boiler in the house has a power vent, so my loss from draft is very slight, with not any heat felt at all on the galv pipe. It is nice to have it in the shop, and in the house it is always very quiet.
And yes on parallel, last time I counted, I have 8 different ways to heat my domestic hot water, everything is in parallel, so just turn the appropriate ball valves.
It is important to have a well insulated supply line that is in the ground. Was going for r30 or r40, but as it was being built, just happen to find plenty of insulated garage door panels at the dump, which work out to be great for the exterior surface, and the whole thing ended up being r70.

 
lzaharis
Member
Posts: 2366
Joined: Sun. Mar. 25, 2007 8:41 pm
Location: Ithaca, New York
Stoker Coal Boiler: Keystoker KAA-4-1 dual fuel boiler
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: former switzer CWW100-sold
Coal Size/Type: rice
Other Heating: kerosene for dual fuel Keystoker/unused

Post by lzaharis » Sat. Oct. 21, 2017 8:32 am

ASea wrote:
Sun. Oct. 15, 2017 11:15 am
Does anyone here run a coal stoker in series with an oil burner? I'm exploring options. I'm debating doing that or running a forced hot air unit and installing central air conditioning at the same time. I've had my eye on used EFM or Axeman Anderson units. EFM 350 or AA130. I have a ranch about 3,400 sq. ft. basement included.

Your thoughts?
===========================================================================================================

A lot of it depends on how much hot water you use in the off/non coal season.
My old system used a series parallel piping arrangement that fired the oil boiler in the event the hand fed boiler went cold or if we were away from the house too long and we did not use a lot of hot water in the warmer months.

Piping in series saves work and pipe, uses the same circulator or circulators and one or two heat exchangers (with extra piping in parallel and 4 ball valves) if one is used to balance the boiler temperatures between the two boilers and installing simple flap check valves reduce heat loss if one external water to water heat exchanger is used which is what I used for 33 years .


 
User avatar
Rob R.
Site Moderator
Posts: 17980
Joined: Fri. Dec. 28, 2007 4:26 pm
Location: Chazy, NY
Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Chubby Jr

Post by Rob R. » Sat. Oct. 21, 2017 9:31 am

ASea wrote:
Sun. Oct. 15, 2017 11:15 am
Does anyone here run a coal stoker in series with an oil burner? I'm exploring options. I'm debating doing that or running a forced hot air unit and installing central air conditioning at the same time. Ive had my eye on used EFM or Axeman Anderson units. EFM 350 or AA130. I have a ranch about 3400sqft basement included.

Your thoughts?
I like piping the two together. It gives extra thermal mass, which helps keep the temperature of the system very stable. Also allows for automatic backup.

 
User avatar
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... » Sat. Oct. 21, 2017 10:10 pm

I am set up so when I burn coal the coal and oil boilers are in series. Coal boiler first. If I am not burning coal there are ball valves so that the return water bypasses the coal boiler. I have an outdoor reset control for the oil burner. Unless it is below 40 out the burner usually only runs to 140.

David

Post Reply

Return to “Stoker Coal Boilers Using Anthracite (Hydronic & Steam)”