Alaska 140 auger with CoalTrol

Tedward · By: **Tedward** On: Sat Apr 04, 2009 8:44 pm

This is my 1st season heating with coal. Keeping the house at 69-70 deg, I consumed about 3 ton for a 2375Sqft house. The CoalTrol is perfect for the Alaska 140 auger. I have the min setting at 5 and the max setting at 47. I use an Alaska powerventer and their Hilki coil to heat hot water. When this stove fires in cold weather it provides almost endless hot water. In-order to keep the water temperature to 140deg I installed a Watts 1170 hot water mixing valve to cool it by building an induct hot water radiant fined tube to cool the water down into the cold side of the mixing valve before returning to the hot water heater.
I want to thank Paul from CoalTrol for his support. I hope they make auto light for this unit.
I was looking at emails and Paul asked for details of the operation. To date:
Started with min/max setting at 8 and 72 with draft at .02 inchs of water. At 72 the discharge air plenum was 160 deg (similar to the oil burner) and easily and quickly heated the house.
I durning the coldest windyest months set the max to 56 and found house temp easily maintained the 69 deg setting, while not using a lot of coal.(fill hopper every 3.5 days) Discharge water temp 180deg (thats why the watts 1170 mixing valve and the radiant fin tube inserted in the cold air return duct to return it to 140 to the hot water heater) (family burn safety).
As spring warms, I'm adjusting the min and currently have the min at 5 (will try 4)with draft at .02 inchs of water and when not calling for heat can lay my hand on the door glass as it only feels warm. (fill hopper 7-9 days) depending on how cold the nights are.
The Hilki coil performance depends on the fire rate of the stove. It at least on the low burn setting maintains the 120deg set point and durning higher fire adds longer hotter water, while not using electric. bottom line higher stove rate means lower electric use.

Tedward · By: **Tedward** On: Sun Nov 14, 2010 8:13 pm

Tedward wrote:This is my 1st season heating with coal. Keeping the house at 69-70 deg, I consumed about 3 ton for a 2375Sqft house. The CoalTrol is perfect for the Alaska 140 auger. I have the min setting at 5 and the max setting at 47. I use an Alaska powerventer and their Hilki coil to heat hot water. When this stove fires in cold weather it provides almost endless hot water. In-order to keep the water temperature to 140deg I installed a Watts 1170 hot water mixing valve to cool it by building an induct hot water radiant fined tube to cool the water down into the cold side of the mixing valve before returning to the hot water heater.
I want to thank Paul from CoalTrol for his support. I hope they make auto light for this unit.
I was looking at emails and Paul asked for details of the operation. To date:
Started with min/max setting at 8 and 72 with draft at .02 inchs of water. At 72 the discharge air plenum was 160 deg (similar to the oil burner) and easily and quickly heated the house.
I durning the coldest windyest months set the max to 56 and found house temp easily maintained the 69 deg setting, while not using a lot of coal.(fill hopper every 3.5 days) Discharge water temp 180deg (thats why the watts 1170 mixing valve and the radiant fin tube inserted in the cold air return duct to return it to 140 to the hot water heater) (family burn safety).
As spring warms, I'm adjusting the min and currently have the min at 5 (will try 4)with draft at .02 inchs of water and when not calling for heat can lay my hand on the door glass as it only feels warm. (fill hopper 7-9 days) depending on how cold the nights are.
The Hilki coil performance depends on the fire rate of the stove. It at least on the low burn setting maintains the 120deg set point and durning higher fire adds longer hotter water, while not using electric. bottom line higher stove rate means lower electric use.

This is my 3 season with the Alaska140 and the CoalTrol. Both continue to operate flawlessly. I really like the burn with the Alaska. It just completely burns the coal, no unburnt coal yet... also I tried Blashak coal vs Stockton. I attached a picture of the burn. note the color of the spent coal. The Blashak is the lighter color to the left of the picture. and the Stockton is the more red color towards the front of the picture. For me all I can say is the Blashak burns cleaner,longer and hotter, with less ash. Almost if the Alaska was meant to burn it.

butchs37 · By: **butchs37** On: Mon Nov 15, 2010 5:59 am

Tedward, How high do your ashes build up before they fall off the ash ring? Also do you have trouble with the ashes missing the ash pan when they do fall off?

Tedward · By: **Tedward** On: Sun Jan 16, 2011 9:27 pm

The ashes build up on the ring, several inches when burning on low fire. As the CoalTrol calls for heat, more coal is augered into the burn area and knocks down the build up. The ash pan could be a bit wider to better catch the ashes that fall to the side. I find that by the time the ashes fall they are cold. I pull the ash pan and use a vacuum (steel drum) (fine dust filter) to vac the excess ash. I also have two pans so the swap and clean is very easy. I put my ashes in a large plastic garbage bag (the pan fits in the bag so I can close the bag and keep the dust inside while dumping the pan ash in the bag) and dump it in the weekly trash. Like I noted my ashes are always not burning and are not even hot enough to melt the plastic bag. I spend about 10 minutes every two days on the coldest days (weekly when it gets in the upper 30's) to refill the coal and do the ash removal.. My daughter even supports the process. I think it's because my family likes the constant warm heat. With the extra cold this year, I'm on target to burn about 650.00 worth of coal this to stay very warm.....

Tedward · By: **Tedward** On: Thu Dec 20, 2012 6:17 pm

This is my 4 year using the Alaska 140 and the Coaltrol combination. Last season with the warmer winter we burned about 2.5 ton of Blashack anthracite. By now I saved thousands of dollars by not using oil. Located the deeper parameters of the Coaltrol and changed one setting to consider a more drafter than a "airtight" house. The result made the stove to react faster to temperature changes producing a even better more even house temperature. (+- 1 deg). Again we are in our bare feet and staying poverty warm

One item in the hot water construction. I used only copper, stainless steel and brass fittings and piping. This prevented any internal piping corrosion.

mdrelyea · By: **mdrelyea** On: Sun Dec 23, 2012 7:01 pm

I've also got an Alaska 140 auger. I love it! I don't have the DHW coil though. I've burned blackshak and this year I'm burning Reading. Both seem to work just fine. Never have any unburnt coal at all. I also burned a ton of wood pellets in it last year. They worked great too.

I'm curious about the coaltrol, but I think it's mostly the gee-wiz factor that I like about it. Did you ever run your 140 without it? What advantages does the coaltrol bring? I can already maintain my house temp to within 1 degree and I burn about 13 lbs of coal /day when it's idling.

Tedward · By: **Tedward** On: Sun Dec 23, 2012 8:30 pm

Hi mdrelyea,
Yes I used the stock controller that came with my 140. I quickly discovered that I could not regulate the house temperature as the outside temp changed. So it would get too hot during the day and to cool at night. I could never really get the dialing the percentage controls to not have my family complain it was to cool or hot.

The Coaltrol took care of that. I have the basic unit and i use it to control the combustion fan and auger run. The duct circulating fan is on continuously and is regulated by the stock speed control supplied with the 140. My family has allergy issues and is the reason why the continous fan run. I have a Aprilaire electrostatic filter installed in the cold air return duct. It really helps them.

The Coaltrol has a programmable weekday and weekend time of day temp control and allows a min / max burn rate, as well as many other parameters to control the 140.
I have the min burn rate set at 5 with a draft at .025 draft pull. And the max set at 38. At the 5 setting the Coaltrol burns coal so slow, I can put my hand on the metal just above the window door and it is only just warm to the touch. At the 38 setting the 140 will pump 100 degree air into the force air plenum.

So with all that said, all I do is set the desired temp(69) and forget about it.. So all I have to do is fill the coal bin and empty the ashtray. It really makes my life easy.

I really like the Hilkey coil. Not only does supply hot water to the hot water heater reducing the amount of electricity use but it also really preheats the water to ensure the electric hot water heater doesn't work as much. In fact it made so much hot water I had to insert a hot water Baseboard Radiant Coil in the cold air return duct to wick off the excess heat. So essentially I preheat cold air return air.
So for us the Coaltrol is a real time and comfort saver. We really love the constant steady warm heat all Winter-long.

Tedward · By: **Tedward** On: Sun Dec 23, 2012 9:11 pm

Hi 2001Sierra,
The Aprilaire is a 5000 model. It is several years old now but is still working great and filter replacement parts are available on line. I have it inserted ini the cold air return, filtering the air before it goes into the furnace or the Alaska 140. It is a two stage unit with a wire grid that uses electronegativity to ionize the air causing dust to attract to the filters. I also have a Aprilaire 568 humidifier to control the moisture in the air. No dry mouth during sleep time..

Tedward · By: **Tedward** On: Sun Dec 23, 2012 9:18 pm

Aprilaire set up on return air duct.

Alaska 140 auger with CoalTrol

Alaska 140 auger with CoalTrol

Re: Alaska 140 auger with CoalTrol

Re: Alaska 140 auger with CoalTrol

Re: Alaska 140 auger with CoalTrol

Re: Alaska 140 auger with CoalTrol

Re: Alaska 140 auger with CoalTrol

Re: Alaska 140 auger with CoalTrol

Re: Alaska 140 auger with CoalTrol

Re: Alaska 140 auger with CoalTrol