Coalpail.com Forum

Right, I agree with you

Rob R. wrote: ↑

Tue. Dec. 24, 2019 12:35 pm

It is - and it confirms that the ash is not loaded with unburned coal. What it does not tell us is if he is using way too much combustion air and sending the btu's up the chimney.

Yup! An ashcroft 500 deg NPT thermometer on a 1/2'' flange with 4 self tapping screws works good to dial in settings. Without one its like dialing in a motor without a vacume gage. You need real information to do a good job when looking for efficency.

And they are pretty cheap on Ebay. Put one into the stack after the breach, it tells a story quick.

Dave

PS. Saw a dino-juice boiler cut its yearly gallons in half by cleaning, and setting the baro.
So its worth looking for where the BTU's are going.

Hello all,
It's been a while. I've been pretty busy and haven't had a chance to post.
Anyhow I just cleaned her out again. Got inside and wire brushed everything. I was black when done.

So I isolated the boiler 40 gal and the main loop to the house (to determine the coal required to heat the boiler and the main loop, 1.25 x 150' one way) I cannot isolate the boiler by itself the temp rises to high in idle.
I have
high temp 170 deg
Low temp 150 deg
But in idle without the draw from the house the water was 193 deg.(maybe I can still lower idle more but I am very close)
Over 24 hr period with outside temp around 30deg I burnt 39# of coal.

I have been burning around 80-110# in 24 hrs while heating the house

Hi Frank, so far this season I am on my 7th ton of Lehigh rice this season. I have 5 more ton of rice to burn through this season. Has been a pretty boring year so far, the AA-220 is chugging along beautifully. I have cleaned mine twice so far and I am probably done until the end of season cleanup. I may do one more quick clean but that will be it.

swyman wrote: ↑

Thu. Feb. 13, 2020 10:59 pm

Hi Frank, so far this season I am on my 7th ton of Lehigh rice this season. I have 5 more ton of rice to burn through this season. Has been a pretty boring year so far, the AA-220 is chugging along beautifully. I have cleaned mine twice so far and I am probably done until the end of season cleanup. I may do one more quick clean but that will be it.

Sounds similar to me. I'm on my 6th ton. I also have just cleaned mine for the second time.

Frank F wrote: ↑

Thu. Feb. 13, 2020 7:34 pm

Hello all,
It's been a while. I've been pretty busy and haven't had a chance to post.
Anyhow I just cleaned her out again. Got inside and wire brushed everything. I was black when done.

So I isolated the boiler 40 gal and the main loop to the house (to determine the coal required to heat the boiler and the main loop, 1.25 x 150' one way) I cannot isolate the boiler by itself the temp rises to high in idle.
I have
high temp 170 deg
Low temp 150 deg
But in idle without the draw from the house the water was 193 deg.(maybe I can still lower idle more but I am very close)
Over 24 hr period with outside temp around 30deg I burnt 39# of coal.

I have been burning around 80-110# in 24 hrs while heating the house

My assumption is that the AA220 requires less than 39# of coal a day to keep the boiler and loop to the house at the required temp. Due to the temp being almost 30 deg above the high set point.

I'm going to try and lower the idle burn rate today while it's not firing at all. And see if I can get it down into the set temps without it going out.

I think you will be hard pressed to idle that boiler all day with the loop hot for under 30 lbs per day...but even a 5 lb reduction from where you are today is about 750 lbs over the season.

Rob R. wrote: ↑

Fri. Feb. 14, 2020 9:08 am

I think you will be hard pressed to idle that boiler all day with the loop hot for under 30 lbs per day...but even a 5 lb reduction from where you are today is about 750 lbs over the season.

Ive been lowering the idle all day little by little. I cannot get the temp below 193 degrees. That's with the main loop running. It's cold today 11 deg I believe. At 7 pm it's 24 hrs so I'll post how many pounds it used today.

I tried doing what you said. To see where I'm loosing heat but I over temped without the loop running while in idle.

If the loop is only requiring say 1000# for the season. Then I wonder where I'm loosing the other 3 ton I'm projecting to burn.

I estimate based on usage per day, that my total use for this season is around 9ton.

When we converted last years propane usage to BTUs then based that on BTU/# of coal, the coal estimate was roughly 5 ton.
So theoretically I should be burning 5.5 ton with what's required to keep main loop up to temp+ house requirements.

Does that make sense? Or am I overlooking some other factors?

Thanks Frank.

Rob R. wrote: ↑

Fri. Feb. 14, 2020 9:08 am

I think you will be hard pressed to idle that boiler all day with the loop hot for under 30 lbs per day...but even a 5 lb reduction from where you are today is about 750 lbs over the season.

Also since the last time I posted...December I think, I've insulated every inch of my piping with 1" thick Armaflex. Seems to make a pretty big difference.

Another 24 only heating main loop. Temps are cold.

Burned 32#
Water temp is 190 deg, still can't get it down to the high set point.

If your boiler and loop is 190 all the time, that is definitely going to increase your coal consumption.

Frank F wrote: ↑

Fri. Feb. 14, 2020 5:30 pm

When we converted last years propane usage to BTUs then based that on BTU/# of coal, the coal estimate was roughly 5 ton.
So theoretically I should be burning 5.5 ton with what's required to keep main loop up to temp+ house requirements.

Does that make sense? Or am I overlooking some other factors?

Thanks Frank.

I would use 78,750 BTU's per gallon as the "available" heat output from propane, and 8,750 BTU's as the "available" heat output from anthracite. Thus, 9 Lbs. of anthracite equals one gallon of propane. These should be decent "real world" figures.

Rob R. wrote: ↑

Fri. Feb. 14, 2020 7:16 pm

If your boiler and loop is 190 all the time, that is definitely going to increase your coal consumption.

No it's normally not at 190. It's typically 160, my low limit. My high limit is 170. But without the house calling for heat it hasn't went below 190. That's at idle as well, the boiler has not kicked on at all since I isolated it for the test. So two days without it kicking on.

Ahh, gotcha. 190 is a little warm for a coal boiler with no load, but not terrible. Cut the timer back and see where you end up.

swyman wrote: ↑

Thu. Feb. 13, 2020 10:59 pm

Hi Frank, so far this season I am on my 7th ton of Lehigh rice this season. I have 5 more ton of rice to burn through this season. Has been a pretty boring year so far, the AA-220 is chugging along beautifully. I have cleaned mine twice so far and I am probably done until the end of season cleanup. I may do one more quick clean but that will be it.

What's your idle set at? So far I've got mine at 8 min off, and 35 seconds on.