New Home in Colorado, Considering Coal for Heat

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Mon. Jan. 05, 2009 2:19 pm

I'm no bituminous expert, but one question hasn't been asked that might be important.... what size is the coal? A stoker (stoker means automatic) needs a particular size. If your coal is large chunks a stoker might not be something that you can use.

Infloor for sure! Outdoor boiler fur sure! I say that because bituminous isn't as clean as anthracite.

Maybe part of this story is how handy you are and how much work/money you want to put towards the project. Maybe a hand fed and a large hot water storage tank? Just dreaming out loud. If you can't automate it, but can't be there to tend it, maybe once every so often you have a big burn & heat a huge tank of water. That water would heat the house for several days. If you have 10 ton a year and it only takes 5 to do the job, what would it matter if you burnt 7 or 8 and lost 2 or 3 to inefficiency?

Interesting.... keep us posted & best of luck to you.

 
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rockwood
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Coal Size/Type: Lump and stoker + Blaschak-stove size

Post by rockwood » Mon. Jan. 05, 2009 2:56 pm

Coal_Miner_76 wrote: As an employee I am entitled to 10 tons of free stoker coal. (about 11,500-12,000 BTU coal).
He says it's stoker coal.
Stoker coal (soft coal) size is usually 1-3/4" down to about 1/2" and is usually oiled to keep dust down and aid gravity flow in hoppers etc.

My brother in law worked in a coal mine a few years back and could get free coal. Would be nice to have no heating bills beyond installation costs and the electricity used. :(

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Mon. Jan. 05, 2009 7:14 pm

rockwood wrote:He says it's stoker coal.

Ohhhhh, That didn't register in my head as a size. Well, then, see what you can find for a bit stoker & go for it! Don't give a big tank another thought.

 
Coal_Miner_76
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Post by Coal_Miner_76 » Mon. Jan. 05, 2009 10:11 pm

Thanks for all the ideas! The raw run of mine coal is washed and crushed to minus 1 inch in a coal wash plant at the mine. The ash and sulfur is very low after the coal is crushed and then washed. The coal is not coated in oil. I plan on building a 3 car garage with an apartment above the 3 car garage and a few years down the road build a home next to the garage. Many of the comments recommend placing the boiler outside. What about building a separate room in the garage to place the boiler, and building a coal storage bin on the other side of the foundation with an access window or coal chute from the coal bin to the boiler room? Just an idea, I've never done anything like this. I'm building the entire home so lets get creative. Keep the comments coming!

Thanks: Parker


 
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rockwood
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Coal Size/Type: Lump and stoker + Blaschak-stove size

Post by rockwood » Wed. Jan. 07, 2009 2:32 pm

Coal_Miner_76 wrote:Thanks for all the ideas! Many of the comments recommend placing the boiler outside. What about building a separate room in the garage to place the boiler, and building a coal storage bin on the other side of the foundation with an access window or coal chute from the coal bin to the boiler room?

Thanks: Parker
I think you're on the right track. If I were building a new home(on a large property like you have)I would have a boiler (with automatic stoker) in a separate structure near the house to keep the coal dust, ash, etc. away from the house. I would use in floor radiant heating in the house as was mentioned earlier.
Since you get free coal you should heat your domestic water as well as heat the house.
This link shows what another member of this forum has set up.AHS S130 Installation by Maccoon

 
grizzer
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: hearthstone
Coal Size/Type: lump coal bitumous
Other Heating: wood

Post by grizzer » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 2:51 am

OK coal miner 76 my name is Lonnie I live just east of parker Colorado I have heated with bit coal for several seasons now and love it it burns longer puts outore heat and lasts longer between stokings my pH num is 7206355342 I have a hearthstone soapstone wood burning stove and when first started using coal had few obs to overcome it is a airtight stove but has a intake from bottom so works very well I did build a coal basket for it and it allows the coal to set above the air intake and ash to drop into ash pan below. This year having trouble getting coal from paonia construction com and am wondering about coal availability but it is much cheaper than wood and any other form of heat also I am heating about thirty five hundred square feet upstairs on less than four tons of lump coal a year please call so we may talk e mail is [email protected] look forward Lonnie. Also reading your comments I am a licensed general contractor retired but would definitely like to help you design something to fit your needs I have resources to call on and exp to rely on am positive we can design a system that will work if wanted with lump coal hopper design has to be much different because of the vaulitillaty of the coal but have designed a couple units in aspen that once are fired up pretty much manage heat output amounts of coal and demand for heat I have put many hours of the in research and would be willing to help out yo build a viable system that can pass epa standards as well the stove I use is as said converted it will produce entire nights heat without adding during night and still restoke in morning and do so with very light smoke from stack once rolling you get no smoke out of stack but can smell coal oder if standing down wind let's talk it sounds like a fun in trusting project. And also I am retired and free I am a partial para vary capable car acc injury spinal cord few years back but enjoy doing these types of things.

 
titleist1
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Post by titleist1 » Sat. Oct. 11, 2014 10:09 am

Hi Grizzer, welcome to the forum! Good to get another westerner's experience with bit coal on here. Coal miner hasn't visited since 2009 so you probably won't get a response from him.

Stick around though and join the fun!

 
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LoschStoker
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Post by LoschStoker » Fri. Oct. 24, 2014 10:10 pm

This furnace/boiler is designed to burn crappy coal, the owner of the co. had a different name but I don't remember what he called it.
I'm thinking it's in the 6000- 7000 BTU range.
Their web site http://maertensmfg.com/ doesn't show any pics.

http://www.farmshow.com/a_article.php?s ... nav_next=1
(You can only look at this 3 times then you have to sign up)
You can call this guy and see what he says.


 
franco b
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Post by franco b » Fri. Oct. 24, 2014 11:01 pm

I would like to add that bit coal is subject to spontaneous combustion in storage. Proper storage should be investigated.

I do remember that steam ships took special precautions. Joseph Conrad wrote a story of a hard luck ship that lost a battle with a coal fire and the battleship Maine is now thought to be the victim of a coal explosion.

 
dancasey
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Stoker Coal Boiler: flame king 220
Coal Size/Type: stoker

Post by dancasey » Thu. Nov. 13, 2014 1:00 am

I live in WY, and I use a model 220 flame king stoker boiler. I think the technology of the Flame King must be from the 50"s, but it is heavy duty and solid design. Prior to that it was made by King Coal. I have radiant hot water floor heat. I have wood floors with some tile. I understand wood floors are not the best for efficiency of radiant heat, but I love wood floor. Some types of wood can have trouble with radiant heat, be careful. I have oak and fir. I have heard of people using aluminum heat distrution plates on the under side of the wood floors to help with the heat distribution. Also make sure you have great insulation to trap the heat. The tile is awesome with conducting and holding the heat. I should have thought about running the radiant piping in the shower tile walls. Hire a experienced radiant in floor heat specialist. I have a 3300 sq ft home and also use the coal for domestic hot water also. I burn about 8-10 tons of Bituminous a year. I also live in a high wind area. Flame King went out of business a few years ago. I have been using this for about 9 years. The stoker has paid for itself with the saving of not using propane. I and not totally happy with the Flame king since I had some issues with smoke. But I have a custom homemade coal bin and not the most optimal chimney design. So I am also interested for any recommendation on a modern bituminous coal. I can run 2 to 3 days unattended. Shutting down the stoker is a bit like shutting down a nuclear power plant. It takes a while to run the auger dry, then cool down the boiler and switch to propane. I have a backup propane boiler with I use in the summer of domestic hot water. From what I have learned in this form I am consider redesigning and relocating my coal room. I might consider a modern bituminous coal stoker boiler. Please make suggestions!

 
Max2012
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Post by Max2012 » Sun. Aug. 26, 2018 1:25 pm

Parker,

This a very old Post, yet very interesting ... wondering how things worked out for you. I used to live in Coal Creek Canyon near Wonderview off of Highway 93 between Golden and Boulder. We heated with Bituminous using a Hand-Fed Travis/Avalon Wood/Coal stove, we loved it. Wow, 10 tons from the employer, that's awesome.

I love Steamboat, taught my children to ski and fish there ... wished I could have lived there ... big, beautiful valley views, etc and lots of friendly folks.

The house was 2-1/2 story with vaulted ceiling, we used ceiling fans to distribute the heat on the upper level and another wood stove to heat the lower level ... it was quite a bit of work, of course, we didn't mind.

We burned about 1 to 1-1/2 tons of coal at the time and I forget how much firewood, not to much really, mostly just to get the fire going. We sourced our coal from a Brighton, CO Supplier(now out of business) that sourced out of Utah ... I called our old Supplier up recently an he provided me with the contact for Coal Supplier in Utah who has quit the business as well but provided me with some Contact information for possible Suppliers in Utah. I was able to find a Supplier in Carbon County, Utah ... so being that I still travel back to Colorado each year for family visits, I'm planning to tow my trailer and pick up Coal on the way back home passing through Utah. I figure I can haul about 4 tons which should get me through the fall/winter/spring months with enough left over to begin building an inventory for the next year. The one thing about Bituminous was the Klinkers, but not really a big deal, just needed to clean them out when observed. We cleaned and fed the stove twice a day 85-90% of the time, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon/evening upon returning from work and the house was sometimes chilly but mostly comfortable.

We live now in Oregon near the Pacific Coast south of Tillamook ... nearing retirement and we are renovating an old manufactured home dollar by dollar and looking to install another stove, coal only ... wanted to go with Anthracite Automatic Stove as to allow for more time to renovate ... but having it shipped is proving proving to be cost prohibitive, so now looking into going with Bituminous and a Hand-Fed stove again. Working on finding a best fit stove for our needs.

Hope to hear from you and that the building of your new Home was successful and you are heating it as you suggested,

Max

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