Amount of bit used

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Coalblooded
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Post by Coalblooded »

I have been burning bit for this heating season and started wondering. I use a 10qt bucket for reloading and the furnace gets to 6-700 degrees for a few minutes then drops to 4-450.

I hear of people putting “bucketS” of coal in while reloading and iv been too afraid to try more since my furnace gets so warm.

While sitting here reading i thought, does bit coal burn off at the same rate (givin the same air flow and temp) in 10qts as it would for “bucketS”?

I wanted to ask before i just huck in 5 gallons worth of coal and have to shut it down out of overfire.
The coal i have now is lump 2-4 inches that i separated myself so probably 12 lbs in 10qts. I have added a pic of the firebox and coal

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larryfoster
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Post by larryfoster »

I may be misunderstanding your question.
Are you asking if your fire will get too hot if you put a lot of coal in?

Tonight, for example, I put 5 or 6 shovels in to fill my chamber up to the bricks.
Guessing my shovel holds 7-9 lbs. of coal.

If that's not what you were asking, I'll respond like Emily Latella from Saturday Night Live.
"Never mind"

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carlherrnstein
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Post by carlherrnstein »

You have to "bank" the coal for extended burns.

Coalblooded
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Post by Coalblooded »

I do bank coal but when i start the day its little by little to get a deep bed of coals going.

Yeah that was my question, if you put in say 20lbs vs 50lbs would the initial volatile burn be the same?

My problem is the morning routine of filling it and heading off to work. I would like it to be enough to last 5 or so hours. Right now i can inly add some and bank a little just enough to get the house up to temp. it starts to cool down drastically before the ol lady gets up n going. She does a lot of late night work and being up earlier for her would be last resort

fig
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Post by fig »

When I was burning bit in my warm morning it was very smoky and it that’s where the danger was for me. It would smother the flame if I added too much then smoke filled the stove, stovepipe and chimney. When it re ignites all that smoke would ignite as well. That gets the adrenaline going. Bitumenous is tricky like that. At least the stuff I had was. I wasn’t getting chunks as large as you have. Mine were like 1” to 1.5” with tons of fines. After cleaning I would literally have half as much coal as I started with.

I got better at it and towards the end I was just dumping 7 gallon buckets in at a time with the odd flame out. I got better at flame outs too. Sometimes I would ignite the smoke before it built up with some lit newspaper. I had to catch it pretty early to do that though or it would shoot flames 6 feet out the door. Whatever you do if you have a flame out, don’t keep your head or body parts around the door when opening it and have a firm hold on that door. If it ignites it will blow the door out of your hands.

Like I said maybe your bit isn’t as smoky as mine and you may not have these situations. Just experiment and be prepared. Keep a few buckets of ash on hand in case you have a runaway. You can dump it in the firebox and stop it. I had a few of those too. Once bit starts to run away it’s slow to stop by just closing all the airways. Good to be ready for it. The first time it happened I wasn’t. Top of the stove turned cherry red and the stove pipe was translucent. I could see the flames going through it. My stovepipe was about 15” from the floor joists and they were too hot to touch. This lasted for 10 or 15 minutes before total shutdown finally brought it under control. I didn’t have a barometric damper at the time either. I did afterwards. I’m sure that would have help immensely. Not trying to scare you just sharing my experience. The bit I have is pretty volatile and being small and dense doesn’t help. Bit from different regions behave much differently.

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oros35
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Post by oros35 »

Hard to tell from your picture but I'm not sure your bank is high enough. I've got a big firebox so it would be easier for me, but when I bank my fire, one side has coals and the other side I can see the grates (or almost see). I'm essentially feeding front to back not top to bottom. I load once a day or twice if if highs are in the 20's.

Not sure if that would work at all for you but just something to try.

fig
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Post by fig »

I would try to bank it so the smoke has to travel over the top of the flames to exit the flue. this helps burn off the smoke/volatiles. Some stoves have secondary burn systems that change the flow path of the exhaust.


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Post by Coalblooded »

I tried banking , back to front, and having the hot coals in the front, which would be over fire for the smoke. all of the coal just ignites in about 20 min. Maybe i need to rake the coals completely from the back and load it then? I think my problem is everything igniting that i put in.

fig
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Post by fig »

If you don’t have any trouble with it filling with smoke and back puffing on you, then try it. Just make sure you have good air control so it doesn’t runaway on you.
I would definitely experiment when I could be home to monitor it.
Do you have a barometric damper? I highly recommend it. I even use a manual pipe damper, two in fact. I have enormous daft in my chimney. If you do this make sur the manual pipe damper is between the stove and the barometric damper.

What kind of stove is it?

Coalblooded
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Post by Coalblooded »

My furnace is on an enclosed porch with about 12 foot of flue. My draft isnt anything wild like i see here and is easily controlled with my spinner knob. Once the temps arent over 45 during the day ill try to load more in at once. Ill keep a 5 gallon bucket of ashes ready. I also have 2 windows that i open when the temp climbs too high to have colder air circulating through the furnace. The first thing im going to try is loading up nothing but big chunks. I have a bin of softball and bigger sizes. Seems like the smaller the hotter, probably because im just adding more volume of smaller.

I have also figured out if i try to load up a lot and cut air back to control the burn rate it doesnt get as warm, BUT it layers so much soot in the flue id have to clean it every two days. If i leave the spinner open all the way it has minimal soot.

Thanks for thr info and one of these days ill have it dialed in nice

Coalblooded
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Post by Coalblooded »

Jensen 24a without the forced draft on it. I know it isnt the best for coal but it keeps the house hot when you want it to. Sort of like a hotblast but the grates are different. There isnt an auto door draft on it. I use some magnets to hold the flap open a few millimeters and it does good

The picture shows the furnace

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Dieselpowerf350
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Post by Dieselpowerf350 »

I’m keeping an eye on this thread too. I do have a Hotblast. I have a little over a ton of bit coal that I can only use when burning with wood, before I switch to anthracite. I will add 1-2 softball pieces of this bit coal on top of the wood and it does good that way. This bit coal is just like yours it wants to ignite as soon as you throw it in.

I bought some Kentucky bit coal 3 years ago and I could load it up with about 60# to the top of the brick. Very little smoke and it would burn kinda like anthracite. I would get about 16-18 hours out of a load.

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Post by Coalblooded »

I have tested a little bit, still kind of warm here, and i have a few results. I doubled the amount of coal but decreased the bottom flow air down to just a sliver, enough to cool the grates. I kept the door flap at about 1/8th inch gap and kept a nice control burn going. Above the door remained about 450 for 3 hours before falling to 300 for the next 2 hours. I closed the above fire air and opened the bottom flow and the stove heated up to 400 for an hour. One thing i havnt checked is the soot build up but the stack was burning white for the first 45 min and almost clear after that.

Once it gets colder outside i might try even more and see if i can moderate the starting temp and get a longer burn. I would let the test go longer but at 300 degrees my furnace air isnt very warm when it starts up. The stove isnt warm enough to keep the circulation fan running to warm the air in the duct work(that is under the house)

Hope this helps someone else that is trying to dial in their stove/furnace.

As always if there are concerns for safety burning this way dont be shy, i am learning

Ps. I loaded the stove on a hot wood fire that was about 3/4 burned down. 3-4 inches of coals and about a 3x3x10 piece remained burning

fig
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Post by fig »

If you get tired of starting wood fires you can use charcoal. I use a coffee can with both ends cut out. Sit it on the front of the grate. I fill it with charcoal and then cover the top with something. Then I load up the firebox with coal around it. Pull the cover, squirt some starter on the charcoal and light. Once the charcoal takes off I remove the can with some pliers. The charcoal will burn down and light the coal. Just have to keep an eye on it until it settles down. I don’t have access to wood so that’s why I use this method. I think it’s faster then wood too.

Once the volatiles burn off you shouldn’t need much over fire air from the door vent if any. Just use the primary air on ash drawer to control the heat output.

Coalblooded
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Post by Coalblooded »

I use wood every couple mornings to self clean the flue lol. Also my property is almost all trees and have plenty of access to seasoned firewood. I burn coal to not use my free time cutting and splitting wood

I will do some testing on the overfire air timing. Since i havnt ever put that much in at one time i was making sure it was good n ready


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