Unburned Coal In My S130 Ashpan

AA130FIREMAN wrote:Instead of trying to adjust the ash temperature, might you want to try other brands of coal. Harmony seems to give less unburned coal and ashes in my axeman than others I have burned, still a tiny bit of unburned, I have been running all summer up to now and not changed a thing.

Mine is Blaschak, or so I was told. The other two nearby (within 60 miles) sources I have are both offering Reading right now.

dchartt wrote:is it necessary to seal up the bottom of the coalgun? i have my ends sitting on steel plates and fire caulked the ends and sides except where the ash doors are

I didn't make any effort to seal mine at the bottom.

Per AHS (Darren) the boiler is designed to run with; or, without the ash pan doors installed---do not attempt sealing them. Airflow must updraft through these doors and over the coal fire bed. How do I know? My original S130 arrived with a damaged door. AHS reassured me the doors are installed for cosmetic reasons only. The boiler will operate just fine with; or, without the doors installed.

BTW: I found my 260's SV set at 140F as delivered from the factory. I've lowered the SV to 120F to see if this helps with puff-backs. I'll give her some time and see how things go...

As others have noted the ASH will not operate with the base sealed--the openings in the base are the oxygen supply for the boiler.

When I visited the old AHS factory in 2007 they had a large AHS Boiler (500 or 1000) heating one of the buildings. It has been mounted over an open pit that opened to the outside and could be accessed with a skid steer to remove the ash.

The cash price for #2 fuel oil is $3.67 a gal.
The cash price for 4 cups of Blaschak coal is 21¢
I know it looks bad to see that beautiful shinny stuff in the ash pan but we've all saved well over $250 this heating season.
When the weather turns colder the S-130 will straighten up and plow straight rows burning every precious cup of coal.
She's a thoroughbred penned up right now. Just wait until she gets a little room to run.

And now for some good news! AHS was right. With the coming of the colder weather my problem with unburned and partially burned coal appears to be a thing of the past. Efficiency is way up also.

Yanche wrote:How are you measuring your efficiency?

Pounds of coal consumed per "degree day". Going down drastically.

2.27 lbs. per degree day in October.
1.98 lbs. per degree day in November.
Roughly 1.70 lbs. per degree day (so far) in December.

The consumption from DHW production is now a smaller portion of the total daily coal consumption.

Rob R. wrote:The consumption from DHW production is now a smaller portion of the total daily coal consumption.

Ah, I see! As the "degree days" portion of the coal usage begins to dominate in the picture of the overall demand for coal, the correlation of "lbs. burned" to "degree days" becomes more precise. Hot water demand is rather consistent on a monthly basis, and if hot water production was the dominant demand for my coal in October, then degree days were relatively insignificant (or less significant) and correlation to degree days was therefore poor for that month. In December the heat requirement for the coal is beginning to dominate over the hot water demand, so the correlation of coal consumed to degree days is becoming more significant.

I am having a lot less unburnt in my ashpan also, although the amount of coal wasted in milder weather is ridiculous, the coalgun in my mind is 89% unefficient unless it is freezing outside

Latest update: I'm not seeing any unburned or partially burned coal in my ash pan and I haven't for some time now. The S130 boiler is becoming quite efficient, even during these balmy January days. It seems that I'm currently using closer to about 1.5 lbs. of coal per degree day. For the past three days I'm only using on average about 35 lbs. per day. I went three full days without adding, and yesterday evening I added 106 lbs. to completely top off the hopper.

She' working great right now. I wonder if my earlier inefficiency and residual unburned/partially burned coal in the ashes issues were all related to initially firing it up without any pre-load of ashes?

What size is the S130 hopper? I know the S260 is a 400 # hopper and I add about a good half a hopper a day heating both my shop and house. I was going to just see how long it takes me to burn through 2.5 tons and divide the days out later. I would say I am burning a good 150-200 lbs on a cold day.

Mac

macdabs wrote:What size is the S130 hopper? I know the S260 is a 400 # hopper and I add about a good half a hopper a day heating both my shop and house. I was going to just see how long it takes me to burn through 2.5 tons and divide the days out later. I would say I am burning a good 150-200 lbs on a cold day.

Mac

The hopper holds 250 lbs. on the S130.