AHS S130 Coal Gun : First fire

Do you have a hold-fire timer installed?

markviii wrote:Do you have a hold-fire timer installed?

I'm not sure what that is. Is it a timer that opens up a zone intermittently whether heat is required or not? Please explain it.

It is a repeat cycle timer that periodically starts the stoker/fan to keep the fire alive, and responsive. AA includes a 1 hr timer with their boilers, and recommends 1 minute per hour as a starting point.

markviii wrote:It is a repeat cycle timer that periodically starts the stoker/fan to keep the fire alive, and responsive. AA includes a 1 hr timer with their boilers, and recommends 1 minute per hour as a starting point.

Thanks! I will inquire of AHS to see if they offer this option.

Before you buy new equipment, you may want to try holding the house at a constant temperature. You may use a little more coal, but so will running the boiler on a timer. Lastly, what were you using for a low-limit setting on the aquastat?

markviii wrote:Before you buy new equipment, you may want to try holding the house at a constant temperature. You may use a little more coal, but so will running the boiler on a timer. Lastly, what were you using for a low-limit setting on the aquastat?

I believe it was set up with a 10 degree differential, with the blower shutting off at 180 degrees and turning back on again at 170 degrees.

I had a suspicion that you were running the boiler on the cool side and that was limiting your draft...guess not, 180 should do the job just fine.

Here is how mine is setup.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255950536/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255424075/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255419867/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255428487/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255966240/

Combustion air supply "fan in a can" kicks on when the blower kicks on.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255445227/

About what I get in ash in 2 days, burning blackshak bagged.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255971074/

The low triggers the dump zone and so does the secondary backup set at 200F.
I tuned the low so that when the water temp gets to 160 it kicks on the blower and it usually runs about 5-10 minutes and by then the water temp is around 180F.

I can tell you that if you're going to reburn the extras put in thru the viewport and not in the hopper I caused my one and only out fire so far by doing just that and it created bridging in the neck of the hopper.

This fall, when I started the machine up without ashes on the ash sensor was registering temps that I had never seen in the 3 years I had used the AHS. It reached into the high 450F. I had never seen it get above 225F ever. Turns out that it takes a couple of days to have the coal burn down to the grate and get the asher functioning at lower temps.

The first time I lit her from the bottom, I had the same experience the first time I started it was reading like 600F, I called up AHS and they though it was wired wrong.

The second time I lit her by getting some cowboy coal and coal burning outdoors in a barbeque chimney right outside my walkout, then I just scooped some hot coals and dropped them into the viewport hole a few times and slowly kept mixing it like a slow stew. Worked great.

ValterBorges wrote:Here is how mine is setup.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255950536/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255424075/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255419867/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255428487/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255966240/

Combustion air supply "fan in a can" kicks on when the blower kicks on.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255445227/

About what I get in ash in 2 days, burning blackshak bagged.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67213576@N05/6255971074/

The low triggers the dump zone and so does the secondary backup set at 200F.
I tuned the low so that when the water temp gets to 160 it kicks on the blower and it usually runs about 5-10 minutes and by then the water temp is around 180F.

I can tell you that if you're going to reburn the extras put in thru the viewport and not in the hopper I caused my one and only out fire so far by doing just that and it created bridging in the neck of the hopper.

Thanks much Valter! Do you think that a low temperature dump zone that is set up to open and call for heat whenever the boiler gets down to 160 degrees would be of any help with my out-fire situation? I already have a high temperature dump zone that opens at 205 degrees.

The ash bucket was filled to nearly overflowing with un-burnt coal.

1. Was your bin empty?
2. What is your draft when the blower is on?
3. What is your draft when the blower is off?

All summer I ran mine on the lowest temp possible 135F and the ash temp sv set as low as 105.
Irene came and it stayed on for 3 days without any power.

Do you think that a low temperature dump zone that is set up to open and call for heat whenever the boiler gets down to 160 degrees

.

I guess if you were dumping the heat somewhere it would reduce your water temp and then kick on.

How about storing some in an indirect tank? or Do you have a pool, how about a heat exchanger?

Why doesn't your low kick on when your boiler gets bellow 160F?.
I know there is a couple different ways to wire the aquastat.

ValterBorges wrote:

Do you think that a low temperature dump zone that is set up to open and call for heat whenever the boiler gets down to 160 degrees

.

I guess if you were dumping the heat somewhere it would reduce your water temp and then kick on.

How about storing some in an indirect tank? or Do you have a pool, how about a heat exchanger?

Why doesn't your low kick on when your boiler gets bellow 160F?.
I know there is a couple different ways to wire the aquastat.

I don't have either an indirect tank or a pool.

I'm not sure what you mean by the question: "Why doesn't your low kick on when your boiler gets bellow 160F?"
Do you mean here opening up a zone valve and turning on the circulator when the boiler hits 160 degrees. I'm confused.

If I decide to let it sit cold until this weekend before I fire it up again, will I need to remove the coal from the hopper and the fire chamber, or will it be OK to leave the coal in it for a few days?

Additional info on my out-fire. When I got home and found it cold and with no fire, the blower was continually running until I shut off the "main" switch . I'm assuming the fire was perhaps somehow lost before the water temperature inside the boiler fell to where the blower was called upon to start up (as otherwise the blower should have revived the fire). Is that even possible?

Here is what I'm thinking based on what i hear.

If your hopper started out full and If your ash bin was full with unburned it's because the motor was kicking on and frequently to get that much in a day.
If the temperature in the ash was going down and the sv is set high and the difference between your high and low is small then it's short cycling and just a small amount of blowing is cooling enough to hit the sv-hysterisis and causing you to dump coal before its burned, if this happens too frequently then your hopper ends up empty and your bin full of unburned.

If you have a high and a low wired up then i would try to tweaked them so the the blower goes on when the water temp reaches 160F and shuts off around 180F and turn the sv down to 120F when it's 50-60 outside.

Try to get 2-4 in of WC in a manometer without the blower and 4-6 in with the blower on.

Make sure the baro damper is maintaining the 2-4 and if you have high wind it opens up.

Make sure you have ample combustion air supply especially in a well sealed house so you don't have negative pressure and end up with gases in your house.

If you have whole house fan or bath room fans make sure when you turn those and if you forget one on it's sucking air down your chimney.

Set up some CO detectors also.