KAA-4 October Tale of the Tape

nepacoal · Post by **nepacoal** » Fri. Nov. 01, 2019 11:29 am

674.83 lbs. coal fed into the Kaa-4 in October. 400.2 HDD's. I estimate 3 lbs. per day for DHW and the rest for home heating.

(674.83-93)/400.2= 1.454 lbs. per HDD for home heating only.

HL - 220
LL -165 (was 185 last year)
Dump - 225
Timer - 52 sec every 10 min

1940's cape cod with decent windows (at just under 1,900 ft elevation). No insulation in brick/plaster walls, attic insulated with 12" fiberglass

P.johnson14 · Post by **P.johnson14** » Sat. Nov. 02, 2019 8:14 am

Just because I’m curious,

What made you decide to change your low limit?

I’ve been slowly upping mine, (from 140 in summer to 165 as well) as the cold slug of water and ramp up time when going from idle was causing problems.

Oh, also, red nut or white nut style burner?

nepacoal · Post by **nepacoal** » Sat. Nov. 02, 2019 8:24 am

P.johnson14 wrote: ↑
Sat. Nov. 02, 2019 8:14 am
Just because I’m curious,

What made you decide to change your low limit?

I’ve been slowly upping mine, (from 140 in summer to 165 as well) as the cold slug of water and ramp up time when going from idle was causing problems.

Oh, also, red nut or white nut style burner?

It's a white nut, flatbed stoker... I have cast iron radiators and on mild days it doesn't run much. Because it doesn't run much, the 140 gallons of return water drags it down way past the low limit. Sometimes all the way down to 135 even though the pumps shut off at 155. I had it at 185 to protect DHW. With just two of us this year, plus I have a remote temperature monitor, I'm not really worried about protecting DHW quite as much. Still might need to raise it on the coldest, -10 type days, but for now it's working as expected and burning a little less coal.

Post by **Rob R.** » Sat. Nov. 02, 2019 8:27 am

Low limit setting will depend on if you are using the domestic hot water coil, and how the system is controlled.

nepacoal · Post by **nepacoal** » Sat. Nov. 02, 2019 8:38 am

Forgot to mention that it rarely dumps now. With it at 185, it was dumping at least once after every call for heat or hot water...

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sat. Nov. 02, 2019 4:24 pm

I just checked, and I burned 644 lbs. of black rocks in all of October. From the 1st through the 10th it was running only for DHW and to keep the fire lit.

1.4384 lbs. per HDD from the 11th (when T-Stats went on and I started recording HDD's) through the 31st.

nepacoal · Post by **nepacoal** » Sun. Nov. 03, 2019 6:04 am

lsayre wrote: ↑
Sat. Nov. 02, 2019 4:24 pm
I just checked, and I burned 644 lbs. of black rocks in all of October. From the 1st through the 10th it was running only for DHW and to keep the fire lit.

1.4384 lbs. per HDD from the 11th (when T-Stats went on and I started recording HDD's) through the 31st.

That's a little higher than normal, isn't it? You're usually right around 1.38 in mid winter. Is that a good number for a shoulder month?

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Sun. Nov. 03, 2019 9:09 am

nepacoal wrote: ↑
Sun. Nov. 03, 2019 6:04 am
That's a little higher than normal, isn't it? You're usually right around 1.38 in mid winter. Is that a good number for a shoulder month?

Shoulder month effect (I hope). Efficiency suffers when the boiler isn't firing very often, as for October.