Retired another OWB

It's been an easy start to the heating season so I figured while Stoker Don is winged I'll write a quick story about a fun coal conversion that we did this summer. ( its my buddys , but he will prob never get to a write up )

I have been prodding my friend for years now to try coal. He had a OWB for years , it heated 2 homes and ate 35 cords of nice oak hardwood a year. The boiler was in a shed 200' from one house and 300' from the other.

We sweated out the boiler sizing for a long time, I just had a hunch that half his BTU's were going right out the stack. But you never really know once the wild card of underground piping gets into the mix.

We settled on a pair of EFM 520's . Dave O'Neil dropped them off this spring and the swap was started.

My buddy is an iron-man, machinist, builder type. He rebuilt both stokers and bases. My son Rob and our buddy Rich did all the piping. The OWB shed got framed for walls, insulated and split in half for a tt load coal-bin with an auger in the center dumping into the boiler room..... That part is really slick !

It's been a few months now of burning. My buddy loves it. All his friends are in awe, The OWB got sold and his wood prosessor. We had a few nights of single numbers here this week. So far only one unit is lit,(they are piped together), and his highest coal use is half a barrel in 24 hours.

I know Don would have included pictures, Sorry , Im not much with computers. Dave

Did not happen without pictures!!

And with this setup, we need at least 20 pictures!! Of everything!

Sounds like a fun project. What feed rate is he using on the boiler that is currently running?

Are the 520's in the basement of each house ? Or are they in the shed ?

You do realize that just 1 520 could do both houses all winter long ?

7 teeth heats 2 mobile home trailers here,1 is a 24 x60 with completely crap windows .When the wind speed is at 30 mph outside.. the wind speed inside my house is 5 mph
The dhw for both houses all yr long..

My 30 x40 cinder block repair shop is also heated by the same unit,to 65- 70*.

Careful assuming windy... we don’t know how big these houses are.

hotblast1357 wrote: ↑

Sat. Dec. 16, 2017 7:11 pm

Careful assuming windy... we don’t know how big these houses are.

You don't know how bad my house leaks !!

If i didn't have the Crane 404 in my cold concrete floored room... i might need to go to 8 teeth or .... more ??

I too am sure wanting to see some photos... I had some years here where I did not contribute very much but if I recall, not too many times have we discussed EFM 520s running as a team. This would be a good thread to learn on for anyone else lurking in the shadows that may have a need such a system.

At any rate, it sounds like a very nice system and one that will last many years.

Windy I know, you’ve got some pretty leaky buildings..

I’m interested in the size of the building, what kind of auger is feeding from the TT bin to the boilers, the piping and circulators, the whole setup!

Maybe a 30 minute YouTube video of the whole shabang?!

If i am not mistaken ,there was a thread about this sometime in the past,when they were considering converting from the OWB to coal boilers. I could have it mixed up with another setup.

We have discussed one vs multiple boilers in the past, but that is the first time I can remember someone actually installing a pair of 520's: One Big Boiler Vs. Multiple Boilers

Most people with wood boilers get hung up on the fake btu rating stamped on those units, and think they need to get an coal stoker with the same rating. Ironically a lot of the older coal equipment has conservative ratings, so most people end up with way more capacity after the conversion to a coal boiler.

About 10 minutes from me there is a good example. There is a Keystoker K12 heating a general store with two apartments upstairs, an 1840's post and beam house, and a detached duplex. Previously they had a big wood boiler that smoked out the town and burned a mountain of wood, and they were very concerned that the Keystoker suggested by the dealer would not do the job. Everything turned out fine.

We had a few nights of single numbers here this week. So far only one unit is lit,(they are piped together), and his highest coal use is half a barrel in 24 hours.

That is about 200 lbs? There is still quite a bit a head room on the stoker, but once you get to the point that 5 teeth won't do the job I would light the other unit. I don't disagree with the comments that one probably would have been enough, but as long as there is two you might as well use them to your advantage. Keep the feed rate in sweet spot, and make sure the one doing the heavy lifting gets a mid season cleaning.

Dave 1234 wrote: ↑

Sat. Dec. 16, 2017 5:14 pm

It's been an easy start to the heating season so I figured while Stoker Don is winged /I know Don would have included pictures, Sorry , Im not much with computers. Dave

Number 1,nice job ! Number 2,and not to hijack,but what did the Ol' Boy do to himself ? If he's "winged",than that means to me that he's down,and in a Consulting Only mode ! Not good !

Hambden Bob wrote: ↑

Sat. Dec. 16, 2017 9:41 pm

Number 1,nice job ! Number 2,and not to hijack,but what did the Ol' Boy do to himself ? If he's "winged",than that means to me that he's down,and in a Consulting Only mode ! Not good !

Stoker Don is the "winged" one... he was in a bad car wreck earlier this yr.... broken shoulder,etc.

Rob R. wrote: ↑

Sat. Dec. 16, 2017 6:56 pm

Sounds like a fun project. What feed rate is he using on the boiler that is currently running?

Yup, its way more fun to build a system for your friend ! We had a good slush fund 'cause I had done this 2 years ago with another buddy . The OWB's are a quick sell, plus we had the wood prossesor for more wiggle room.

The day we lit her off I set the S 20 at 5 teeth and 5 air. That is still the settings. She is burning buck (love buck) short augers, ss auger pipes.

I settled on two 520's for many reasons. But my buddy does'nt get around well, and if one stoker could not carry the load , or just died , a waiting unit was what I thought would solve every possible emergency or need for extra power.

If I can get my son to load up some pics I will . This mans set-up is very cool, and simple . ....... We did not even use a timer. (please don't tell Dave O ! )

Dave

Pictures would be great. I would like to see the bin setup.

When I burned buck in my 520 I found that I could cut the air back compared to rice. I suggest you go back and look at the ash ring while it is working hard.

Nice work Dave!
Tandem boilers, now that's an interesting idea. You can run one until you need the power of both. If one has an unexpected failure, you can quickly switch over to the other. It would be nice to see how this setup is piped.

That TT sized bin with the auger fill setup does sound slick!

Start twist'in your sons' arm to get pictures uploaded!

-Don