Anthracite Ash

lzaharis wrote:
I would hold off on that as the ash has a lot of heavy metals and it will leach into the ground. My two cents.

The was another thread already discussing this. Don't have the time to look for it but to somewhat quote a poster in that thread.... he explained it much better

So does dirt and everthing else. Any toxins you would introducing wouldn't amount to anything. He also went on to say that adding ash to the garden isn't going to help, nor will will it harm it. It's mostly made of inert subtances.

Finally, most of the old timers in this area swear by it especially for the tomatoe plants.

Good? Bad? I really have no idea but my money is on neither and it doesn't provide any benefit nor is it harmful. On the other hand if you had a couple hundred thousand tones of it piled in one area it very possible those toxins could be harmful.

Just an opinon, not cold hard facts.

hi,could anyone tell me does a stoker boiler burn coa more efficiently than my keystoker koker would? gone from home sometimes more than 48 hours and hopper holds enough coal but ash pan would overfill if not changed.was just wondering if the boiler would produce less ash/burn less coal than my stove does! thanks! Rich

The ash is my bigest problem, I easly could go buy coal in coal country by the ton, but what to do with the ash. Where I buy now by the 100lb bag they let me dump my ash.(LUTZ in Skippack Pa) Any coal yards in coal country let you dump your ash if you buy from them?
Ray

You're probably going to create just as much ash however the large boilers have a very large amount of room. I believe the Kestokers use a smaller tub but ours is a bushel tub and even if that becomes overfilled there is lot of room for it to overflow. It's not just a little pan typical of many small stokers.

acesover wrote:Any coal yards in coal country let you dump your ash if you buy from them?

Probably not, check with you local municipality or even the neighbors. The EPA considers coal ash clean fill. The ashes here are picked up by the borough, they take them to another local municipality where they have a place for dumping ashes and yard waste.

acesover wrote:The ash is my bigest problem, I easly could go buy coal in coal country by the ton, but what to do with the ash. Where I buy now by the 100lb bag they let me dump my ash.(LUTZ in Skippack Pa) Any coal yards in coal country let you dump your ash if you buy from them?
Ray

No. You don't get to dump the ashes at the coal yard. Some towns still (at least I think they still do) have an ash pickup day when you set the ash tubs to the curb like your garbage cans and someone comes around and picks them up. Another way to get rid of them is the townships will have a pile to dump on that gets mixed with salt for use on the roads in the winter. I have plenty of place to dump on my property but I take them to the township because they really want them for winter. They will take all they can get.

stokin-railroad wrote:hi,could anyone tell me does a stoker boiler burn coa more efficiently than my keystoker koker would? gone from home sometimes more than 48 hours and hopper holds enough coal but ash pan would overfill if not changed.was just wondering if the boiler would produce less ash/burn less coal than my stove does! thanks! Rich

You may have a very high ash content coal. Changing coal source may make a difference. Better or worse. Other than that I guess they should have made the stove with a larger ash pan.

Hello everybody,
hope everybody is nice and toasty. I know I have been this year. My wife loves it as well. Her mother always used to keep the heat at like 65 and 60 at night. Now she is spoiled with 74 on average. When it gets down to 70 she starts complaining. Its getting cold in here lol. Anyways I know I saw stuff about uses for coal ash previously, but I am not looking to fill in any holes or anything to that matter. I know I saw somebody had posted a recipe for making concrete. something like 50 50. I was wondering if anybody had any knowledge about making this. I am looking to make these blocks that a few people have talked about. Has anybody done this? I think it will be good because I have been dumping my ash behind my shed. The last load I brought out I noticed the previous pile was hard as a rock from the rain. If I can figure out how to do it I figure I could start saving it and making blocks. Thanks

Tom

Berlin wrote:"I would hold off on that as the ash has a lot of heavy metals and it will leach into the ground"

stop with the misinformation. it is generally only slightly more concentrated than the soil in general. what, exactly do you think the dirt that you stand on contains?

Worm POOP

Howudoin2427 wrote:I know I saw somebody had posted a recipe for making concrete. something like 50 50. I was wondering if anybody had any knowledge about making this. I am looking to make these blocks that a few people have talked about. Has anybody done this?

IIRC Yanche posted the formula, I think he called it soil cement and it was 50/50.

As I was told, coal as is very good for you soil for plants, due to metal and acid content, BUT do not use in a vegetable garden, or in any garden that you will eat what your producing.

copied from ehow.com

The proportion of fly ash used in concrete ranges from 15 percent up to 50 percent. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the most common ratio is 1 to 1 ½ pounds of fly ash for each pound of cement. The higher the volume of fly ash in the mixture, the longer the mixture takes to set. The concrete continues to get stronger for up to 90 days after it sets. For grout, the proportions are typically 1 part cement to 3 parts fly ash.

Read more: Coal Fly Ash in Making Cement, Grout and Concrete | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_12139773_coal-fly-ash-ma ... z2AsNKYG5M

Just remember there is a significant difference between "fly" ash and "bottom" ash. The formula that "birman07" suggests is for "fly" ash something our residential heating systems produce very little of. "Fly" ash is what accumulates in our flue pipes. In industrial coal burning like electric power plants they have lots of it, we don't. Our "bottom" ash is more useful for replacing the stone or sand aggregate in concrete. Concrete is a mix of aggregate (stone and sand) plus Portland cement.

I grew up in a coal burning family, one that burned coal since the late 1800's. There were outbuildings built of hand made solid blocks. These were coal ash blocks. But those that I have cut apart have lots of unburnt coal in them. Coal the size of today's rice coal. I suspect in the hand fired stoves of the day and later the central heating boilers the small pieces of coal were undesirable and screened out. They were then mixed with the bottom ash for the aggregate in concrete. In my opinion, today's residential Antracite coal bottom ash is only useful as a base fill or ground leveling fill under conventional Portland concrete.