The Epoch of the Axeman

 
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hotblast1357
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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. 25, 2023 11:02 am

Retro_Origin wrote:
Sat. Feb. 25, 2023 8:59 am
Wow! Are you at an artic research facility or something?!
Nahh just upstate NY lol


 
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Retro_Origin
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Stoker Coal Boiler: 1957 Axeman Anderson 130
Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat / Pea

Post by Retro_Origin » Sat. Feb. 25, 2023 11:38 am

hotblast1357 wrote:
Sat. Feb. 25, 2023 11:02 am
Nahh just upstate NY lol
I was right!

 
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Lightning
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Location: Olean, NY
Stoker Coal Boiler: Modified AA 130
Coal Size/Type: Pea Size - Anthracite

Post by Lightning » Sun. Mar. 05, 2023 2:43 pm

It took 9 days this period to fill the two ash tubs. We averaged 61 pounds per day with an average outdoor air temperature of about 33 degrees. Ash vs coal used percentage came in at just a hair under 11%. Pounds of coal used per HDD is around 1.8 which seems to be consistent..
Also, these inexpensive hour meters can be inaccurate, especially if you run them at the lower voltages. I run a mechanical clock in parallel with them to check this before I trust them.

- Don
Coal used per hour of fan run time calculated over 13 pounds per hour. I'm pretty convinced this is not accurate. I changed the wiring. Instead of the hour meter being triggered off the 12 volt relay power from the Inkbird, it is triggered from the 120v AC going to the fan motor. We'll see if that makes a difference..

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Retro_Origin
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Post by Retro_Origin » Sun. Mar. 05, 2023 3:06 pm

Great info! I love reading it

 
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davidmcbeth3
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Post by davidmcbeth3 » Sun. Mar. 05, 2023 3:28 pm

Lightning wrote:
Sun. Mar. 05, 2023 2:43 pm

Coal used per hour of fan run time calculated over 13 pounds per hour.
13#/hr avg over that time ? Not too cold from the chart.

Factor not included is the volume of space being heated.

So hard to say if its efficient of not.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sun. Mar. 05, 2023 6:53 pm

davidmcbeth3 wrote:
Sun. Mar. 05, 2023 3:28 pm
13#/hr avg over that time ? Not too cold from the chart.

Factor not included is the volume of space being heated.

So hard to say if its efficient of not.
The coal used per hour of fan run time has nothing to do with any of these items. If you are interested in learning more about this, start here -

Post by Lightning - The Epoch of the Axeman

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Wed. Mar. 08, 2023 4:43 pm

I topped off my barrel for 252 pounds with 20.4 hours on the hour meter. Still seems high at 12.35 pounds per combustion fan hour. I guess the only way I'll know it's accurate is to add another hour meter to compare it to... :annoyed:


 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Tue. Mar. 14, 2023 8:36 pm

I just did the analysis for the last 10 day period. We have 68 pounds of ash for 650 pounds of coal used. This gives us 10.5% ash vs coal used. Pretty spectacular percentage, even though I do see what looks like some unburned coal in the ash tubs.. looks can be deceiving. For comparison, with my hand fed Clayton furnce I would get 15-17%. Pounds per heated degree came in at 1.69 per HDD. Average temperature for this period coming in at 29.1 degrees via my Inkbird Bluetooth temperature sensor that I have set to record a sample at 1 hour intervals. I have noticed that the pounds per HDD tend to decrease as the average temperature for the period decreases. This is a bit counterintuitive of what's expected because of increased cold air infiltration at lower temperatures. My though is that the Axe is more efficient when it has more work to do.

The pounds per hour of fan run time shows 12.29 pounds per hour, but not sure I believe it. Jury is still out on that one lol.

My bin had 16-18 inches of buckwheat in it before I loaded it with 6 tons of pea size. I'm starting to get down to the buck size now. So I've used roughly about 5.5 tons so far this heating season.

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Retro_Origin
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Post by Retro_Origin » Tue. Mar. 14, 2023 9:00 pm

Helpful info! Makes me feel a little better about my very small amount of sunburnt. Apparently Dons "very light ashpans." Mean I'm comparatively very week or he's got some special adjustments on his axe, hahaha! So what's your opinion on why you get better burnout with the axe versus the handfed? Air speed? Or uniform air movement and presence? I find it intriguing that axeman seemed to deliberately design around a fast and furious combustion whereas others have a much lazier airflow and yet still achieve good burnout. Does this relate to wood burning to where some parts of the fuel can't be burnt unless temp gets hot enough?

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Tue. Mar. 14, 2023 9:30 pm

Retro_Origin wrote:
Tue. Mar. 14, 2023 9:00 pm
So what's your opinion on why you get better burnout with the axe versus the handfed?
With the hand fed I had very aggressive ash clearing technique. I'm pretty sure I ground up some unburned coal that ultimately came down thru the grates.
Retro_Origin wrote:
Tue. Mar. 14, 2023 9:00 pm
Does this relate to wood burning to where some parts of the fuel can't be burnt unless temp gets hot enough?
I don't know the answer to that one.

But thanks for your interest!

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Fri. Mar. 24, 2023 5:39 pm

We've reached another two full ash tubs totalling 67 pounds of ash. This 10 day period averaged 34.2 degrees which is about 5 degrees warmer than the prior period. Coal used per day was 56.4 pounds. Ash vs coal used percentage came in at 11.9%. Pounds per HDD coincidentally arrived at 1.69 pounds per heated degree, same as last period.

Total combustion fan run time for the 10 days was 46.7 hours. This is about 6 hours less than last period, which seems to make sense since this period was 5 degrees warmer. Coal consumed per hour of combustion fan run time around 12 pounds per hour. I'm still on the fence about accuracy of the hour meter but it seems to be somewhat consistent lately.

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swyman
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Post by swyman » Mon. Mar. 27, 2023 11:24 am

My ash is getting really heavy and has shiny black rocks.....errrr

 
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Retro_Origin
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Post by Retro_Origin » Mon. Mar. 27, 2023 12:15 pm

swyman wrote:
Mon. Mar. 27, 2023 11:24 am
My ash is getting really heavy and has shiny black rocks.....errrr
There so efficient they produce coal, didn't you know that? :ugeek:

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Mon. Mar. 27, 2023 12:29 pm

swyman wrote:
Mon. Mar. 27, 2023 11:24 am
My ash is getting really heavy and has shiny black rocks.....errrr
All you need to do is hook up another house or two to make it run more. 8-)

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Tue. Apr. 04, 2023 9:06 pm

Here's another analysis of the last 10 day period. Short n sweet this time. The numbers are consistent with the conditions. Not much else to comment on in that regard.

The current period in progress will have a lot of warm days in it. Hit 70 yesterday, 65 today and forecast is 76 tomorrow.. Then a few cooler days, and back into the 60s after that. So that'll have some interesting data to look at.

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