September tale of the tape

 
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lsayre
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Coal Size/Type: Lehigh Anthracite Pea
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Post by lsayre » Tue. Oct. 02, 2018 5:51 am

344 lbs. coal consumed by the Coal Gun, so 11.47 lbs per day for September.


 
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StokerDon
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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 » Tue. Oct. 02, 2018 7:54 pm

August was 11.3 lbs. per day, now 11.47 pounds per day. Yer Kill'in me Larry! I'm up between 19 and 21 pounds per day.

-Don

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Tue. Oct. 02, 2018 8:23 pm

My guess is that a good part of it has to with the insulation on the Coal Gun. That plus no circulating boiler water.

 
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StokerDon
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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 » Tue. Oct. 02, 2018 9:07 pm

Oh, your using a DHW coil. I never really thought about it before but using the coil may have less standby and piping heat loss than an indirect water heater like mine.

Interesting.

-Don

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Thu. Oct. 04, 2018 6:15 am

StokerDon wrote:
Tue. Oct. 02, 2018 9:07 pm
Oh, your using a DHW coil. I never really thought about it before but using the coil may have less standby and piping heat loss than an indirect water heater like mine.

Interesting.

-Don
On gas and oil systems it is the opposite. Instead of keeping the boiler hot 24/7, and indirect allows the boiler to be fired only when needed. With coal however, the fire needs to be kept burning regardless. As long as the boiler is insulated, I think you may be correct.

It is also possible that Larry is more frugal than most with hot water usage.

 
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hotblast1357
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Post by hotblast1357 » Thu. Oct. 04, 2018 9:31 am

I would love to know how many gallons a month larry uses..

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Thu. Oct. 04, 2018 11:25 am

hotblast1357 wrote:
Thu. Oct. 04, 2018 9:31 am
I would love to know how many gallons a month larry uses..
The usual. Regular and routine showers, daily dish washing by hand or via machine, and weekly (at least) laundry. Nothing special or magical or mysteriously unusual is going on here as far as I can tell. Just good insulation, no circulation losses, and good coal.


 
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hotblast1357
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Post by hotblast1357 » Thu. Oct. 04, 2018 11:56 am

What would you consider regular time for a shower? How many loads of laundry? You use cool/warm/or hot setting?

I have been looking around but can’t seem to find a simple cheap flow meter..

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Thu. Oct. 04, 2018 12:11 pm

hotblast1357 wrote:
Thu. Oct. 04, 2018 11:56 am
What would you consider regular time for a shower? How many loads of laundry? You use cool/warm/or hot setting?

I have been looking around but can’t seem to find a simple cheap flow meter..
1) 5 minutes
2) 1 to 2 laundry days, multiple laundry loads
3) all of the above depending on what's in the machine

 
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StokerDon
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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 » Thu. Oct. 04, 2018 7:31 pm

If i could get one of these Axemans down to 14 pounds per day I would be happy.

-Don

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Thu. Oct. 04, 2018 8:06 pm

If I could get down to 1-2 loads of laundry per week I would be happy, regardless of the fuel burned!

I have the biggest washer and dryer GE makes, and I think we still do at least 5 loads per week.

Dishwasher runs once per day during the week, twice per day on the weekends.

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Wed. Oct. 24, 2018 7:38 am

Two new theories as to why my coal consumption has noticeably dropped this year (and as of only a couple months ago) vs. years past:

1) As of a few months back our main bathroom now has a 1.5 GPM shower head, vs. what was either a 2 or 2.5 GPM shower head before.
2) The Lehigh coal that I had piled on top of my remaining Blaschak in the chamber of my bin which is in current active use is now in play, and it may actually have been first reached a few months back. My bins three chambers all utilize bottom draw-off. Gravity would dictate that the Lehigh gravitied down mainly right at the point of draw-off, first leading to a blend of Blaschak and Lehigh at that point, and then eventually to pure Lehigh. Further back in the bin I likely still have some Blaschak with Lehigh sitting on top of it.

*** If point #2 is accurate, then my fears of Lehigh causing potential warm weather fire outages may have been negated. ***

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Wed. Oct. 24, 2018 8:25 am

The shower head will certainly make a difference. I switched ours to 1.8 gpm models a few years ago.

 
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Post by plumber » Fri. Nov. 16, 2018 11:06 am

Wow, I wonder if I’m doing something wrong, or that CoalGun is just that efficient?
I’ve never been able to burn less than 600 lbs a month in my EFM.

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Fri. Nov. 16, 2018 1:36 pm

You aren't doing anything wrong. 18-20lbs per day in the summer is pretty common for EFM, depending on what you are doing with it. If you have the right coal and chimney, you can reduce the timer cycles and save a few pounds per day...but that is a trial and error process.

Low flow shower heads help also.


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