My experiences converting to coal

oops

sterling40man wrote:Thanks for the pics PR. I added an arrow to your pic of the small blower. Is this the oil hole your talking about? I didn't think we had to oil it. As far as the bushings go.......are you going to use 3'n'1 oil? Thanks.

Yes, that's the hole. I use 3n1 electric motor oil (20wt non-detergent) on the motors and 30wt non-detergent on the bushings and pivot points.

PR, I just noticed that you still have the screw in the gear box.....you know.....the screw that had a post it note attached that said "remove after installation".......or did you put it back in after summer shutdown?

sterling40man wrote:PR, I just noticed that you still have the screw in the gear box.....you know.....the screw that had a post it note attached that said "remove after installation".......or did you put it back in after summer shutdown?

I thought they meant "remove and reinstall". Isn't this just a hole to check the level?

PRengert wrote:I thought they meant "remove and reinstall". Isn't this just a hole to check the level?

It's the check level and fill hole. From what I gather........it's suppose to be off when the boiler is running. I took mine off.

Well, you learn something new every day. Apparently, leaving the screw in causes the gearbox to ooze oil!

The hole is probably a vent.

PRengert wrote: I have the air maxed out and with max (meaning 2" of ash at the end of the grate) coal feed I would guess 80-90K btu/h is what I am getting based on my old oil boiler netting out at 86K btu. Probably burning about 80 pounds/day in cold weather.

Given the nominal btu content of anthracite is 12-13,000 btu/lb, isn't your btu input only about 42,000 btu/hr?
(12,500 btu/lb x 80 lb/day) / 24 hr/day = 41,666 btu/hr

RICHARD2 wrote:

PRengert wrote: I have the air maxed out and with max (meaning 2" of ash at the end of the grate) coal feed I would guess 80-90K btu/h is what I am getting based on my old oil boiler netting out at 86K btu. Probably burning about 80 pounds/day in cold weather.

Given the nominal btu content of anthracite is 12-13,000 btu/lb, isn't your btu input only about 42,000 btu/hr?
(12,500 btu/lb x 80 lb/day) / 24 hr/day = 41,666 btu/hr

But if the house is comfortable then 42,000 BTU's per hour on average for the coldest months of the year is all of the heat that is necessary. Sounds about right to me for overall cold (January/February) weather conditions. 160 lbs. of coal per day should be needed on only the one or two coldest days of the winter.

It all depends...no two houses heat the same way.

I should have quoted the prior post which posited an 'unsolved mystery':

Rob R. wrote:
PRengert wrote:One mystery that I never solved is that the max output is nowhere near the 122K BTU that Keystoker rates it as.



What do you think the output actually is?

PRengert wrote: I would guess 80-90K btu/h is what I am getting based on my old oil boiler netting out at 86K btu. Probably burning about 80 pounds/day in cold weather.

Given that context, I noted that his input was only about 42,000 btu/hr --- that the output would be less than that is implied.

If 42,000 btu/hr is all the heat the house needs to be comfortable, fine. My comment was directed to the issue he raised regarding the boiler's rated output.

I would guess 80-90K btu/h is what I am getting based on my old oil boiler netting out at 86K btu. Probably burning about 80 pounds/day in cold weather.

Sorry for the confusion, the 80 pounds/day figure has nothing to do with my estimate of the max BTU output of the unit- it was an answer to another question.

When I run out of buck I am going to try rice and see what the difference it makes as far as unburned coal and max BTU output. I will report back.

So far the answer seems to be that rice gives more BTUs, the fire responds faster and produces less unburned in the ash and coal consumption seems to be less.