Help with boiler selection

 
titleist1
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Post by titleist1 » Sat. Feb. 03, 2018 8:21 am

Ash by weight would be about 15% of the amount of coal burned. By volume, it depends on what boiler you get as to how large an ash pan they can fit and how long between changing the pan out.

 
Qtown1835
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Stoker Coal Boiler: Keystoker '81 KA4 (online 1/16/17)
Coal Size/Type: WAS Lehigh Rice (TBD)
Other Heating: EFM SPK600

Post by Qtown1835 » Sat. Feb. 03, 2018 10:30 am

Soupy6914 wrote:
Fri. Feb. 02, 2018 8:26 pm
I was planning on building a bin and buying in bulk. And to be honest I haven’t put much thought into the ash thing. How much a week are we talking about?
Like others have said the volume of ash will depend on how hard you fire the boiler. I burn between 35-60#/day. I have a wheelbarrow that I dump my ash into and I usually dump the wheelbarrow every 1.5week or 2.

 
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lsayre
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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 » Sat. Feb. 03, 2018 10:41 am

titleist1 wrote:
Sat. Feb. 03, 2018 8:21 am
Ash by weight would be about 15% of the amount of coal burned. By volume, it depends on what boiler you get as to how large an ash pan they can fit and how long between changing the pan out.
Ash at about 1/3 of the volume of the original anthracite seems about normal. I'd go with about 12.5% of the coal burned for the ash weight.


 
lzaharis
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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. Feb. 03, 2018 1:21 pm

As far as the ash volume goes and to quote our valued forum member "Sting";

"It depends".

I have a KAA-4-1 with an oil burner in it and I use my plastic coal bags for the ash and I can fill one bag a day and sometimes 2 bags If I decide to change the pails I use early during the day or night.


I would like to suggest that you purchase three paperback books about heating written by Dan Holohan and they are:

"Classic Hydronics"

"How Come"

"Pumping Away"


You can purchase them directly from the author at his bookstore in the www.heatinghelp.com forum

You can purchase them from amazon BUT by buying them directly from The heating help forum through Dan's book store you will be supporting him and his family.

Dan takes time to explain everything about heating in these three paperback books and he writes everything he talks about in very easy to understand plumbing terms for the layperson and the plumber alike and he also talks about his life as a plumbers helper for his father and others and he worked as a technical representative for B+G products at plumbing supply warehouse. he also talks about how he became a HVAC plumbing and heating trouble shooter and about some of the experiences he has had with diagnosing heating problems in many of the old mansions on Long Island.

If you invest in these three books you will learn about the dead men and how they designed heating systems and many other relevant items related to heating a home of business.

He talks about the early history of heating and how it was done with gravity hot water heating systems, steam boilers, and hydronic hot water boilers used with circulators to heat homes and businesses


You will be referring to these books often and gain huge amount of good plumbing and heating knowledge when you start at the very beginning of your wanting to switch over to coal for heating your home and pool the all year round.

 
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hotblast1357
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Location: Peasleeville NY
Stoker Coal Boiler: 1984 Eshland S260 coal gun
Coal Size/Type: Lehigh anthracite pea
Other Heating: air source heat pump, oil furnace

Post by hotblast1357 » Sat. Feb. 03, 2018 5:25 pm

I get 40-50 pounds of ash per week, I have a 15/1/2 gallon ash tub, it gets emptied once per week, when I fill the boiler hopper.

 
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Rob R.
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Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Chubby Jr

Post by Rob R. » Sun. Feb. 04, 2018 12:34 pm

waldo lemieux wrote:
Fri. Feb. 02, 2018 4:50 pm
Souper,

I suggest a used EFM (for its simplicity and efficiency). You can likely use the same chimney for both as you wont use both at the same time. you will wonder why you didnt do it long ago.

waldo
x2. Depending on the layout of the basement, it may be possible to feed directly out of the bulk bin.


 
Soupy6914
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Location: Buffalo, Ny

Post by Soupy6914 » Sun. Feb. 04, 2018 10:53 pm

Thanks for all the great info. I will look into buying the books. I also pay for my trash pick up annually so I will probably just put the ash out to the curb. Now I just have to find a used efm 520

 
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McGiever
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Joined: Sun. May. 02, 2010 11:26 pm
Location: Junction of PA-OH-WV
Stoker Coal Boiler: AXEMAN-ANDERSON 130 "1959"
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: BUCKET A DAY water heater
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Warm Morning 414A
Coal Size/Type: PEA,NUT,STOVE /ANTHRACITE
Other Heating: Ground Source Heat Pump and some Solar

Post by McGiever » Thu. Mar. 01, 2018 10:51 am

So we see you did get that EFM 520, good choice.

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