Does it seem reasonable to burn this much coal? Opinions?

From an efm 520 user in Allentown, PA:

"We burned 3 ton from September to December, another 3 tons
from December to January. Now were on the next 3 tons....perhaps it is the
house, a 5 bedroom row (home), all new windows but home lacks insulation."

Remember that we used 9 tons to heat the entire efm warehouse with all glass walls, 35 foot ceiling, and NO insulation anywhere.

Without knowing more about the home and heating system it is tough to know if that consumption rate is reasonable. If it is a very large home with lots of radiation on uninsulated walls, uninsulated piping, heavy DHW usage, boiler that needs cleaning, and a less than ideal piping/control setup...it will burn a lot if coal. Add wind exposure with a leaky structure and it gets even worse.

Has the homeowner had an EFM dealer look at the install?

-Rob

Row home? Assuming they have tenants? I showed up at rental once and they had the windows open in the middle of the winter. 5 bedrooms is pretty big house, probably in the 3000 sq ft. range.

The average usage I've seen over the years is about 5 tons per 2000 sq. foot but that figure is going to vary widely. I had one customer in an old farmhouse presumably with no insulation and really old single pane windows. House was maybe 1500 to 2000 sq. ft. and they went through about 20 to 25 ton a year. I've seen people in newer homes with good insulation, new windows and 6 inch walls use as little as 3 tons in same size house.

Without the answers as to what the demand is, can you imagine oil, propane or NG costs. If the insulation and windows are substandard, thank yourself for choosing coal in the first place, otherwise 12 tons will look like a very affordable year for you.
Boiler setup? is there a heat baffle hanging in the back of that boiler? Cleaned lately? Baro working? excessive draft?

If it is a rental unit, alot of people don't care. Windows open in the winter, heat turned up so high they wear their tank tops and underwear, junk blocking radiators, if they don't pay for their own heat, anything is possable. My father told his tenants to keep the windows closed, they still had them open, funny thing the circulator pump had to work so hard that it triped the breaker off, WONDER HOW THAT WOULD HAPPEN . If you say you need to up the rent because of the cost of heat they

I live in a half double 3 bedroom, 3 level including the basement. No insulation, very poor and old windows. About 1500 sq ft. I burn about 5 ton rice a year. I keep thermo set between 64 and 68 during winter and obviously all the way down during summer. I only need to heat my water during summer, don't need heat unless we have a cold day here and there. Im in Minersville, PA.

If you would have burned about 500 gallons of oil during each those same periods I'd say your coal usage is right on track.

Remember that we used 9 tons to heat the entire efm warehouse with all glass walls, 35 foot ceiling, and NO insulation anywhere.[/quote]



But did you heat it all 24hrs a day or just during the 8 hr work day, and maybe 68-70 degrees for the wholebuilding?

I forgot to mention that the owners live in the home and it's about 1800 sq. ft. total. There is no draft reducer installed and the feed setting was 3 when the coal man looked at it.

I would say something is wrong unless they have thermo set really high all the time and use alot of hot water. Like I said, I burn about 5 tons a year with an efm ap520-1. And I'm about the same square footage.

stoker-man wrote:I forgot to mention that the owners live in the home and it's about 1800 sq. ft. total. There is no draft reducer installed and the feed setting was 3 when the coal man looked at it.

Draft Reducer=Barodamper?

So if they have a nice high chimney with lots of draft it could burn through alot of coal.
There was a guy posted on here a couple years ago about his 520 using excessive coal.

I used about 9 ton last year heating 4600 feet.

Scott, we kept the building about 60 all the time except weekends. The stoker ran at least 14 hours a day during the week, maybe more.

Sounds like a well tuned 520 aught to heat my 30x80 greenhouse just fine then, Thats only 2400 sf of poorly insulated space. Think it would run as efficient as a 700?

stoker-man wrote:Scott, we kept the building about 60 all the time except weekends. The stoker ran at least 14 hours a day during the week, maybe more.

Assuming you were running it at 10 teeth that is about one ton per week. How did you get through the winter on nine tons?

Scott, I can't see a 520 running wide open being more efficient than a 700 at the same feed rate. A 700 has more surface area for heat exchange.

-Rob

quality of the coal ?? what does the ash look like ? and how much ash ? could be a lot of factors, hi low temps set on,aquastat just to name a few

Jeff