Vigilant II is just humming along!!!

spiker wrote:I'm sure Northern NY is a challenge. Rob, do you burn 90# /day?

Yes, and then some. I burned about 70 lbs last night, and will probably finish the day at 120 or 130 lbs. Maybe a little more tomorrow with the subzero temperatures.

Keep in mind that these quantities aren't going through a stove; I run a stoker boiler and keep the basement, first, and second floors at 72, 72, and 70 degrees...the boiler also produces our domestic hot water.

Location plus the houses' insulation/air tightness are also very important to consider. A small drafty house can be much more harder to heat and is less confortable, in the same location than a larger house having a good insulation.
The less expensive BTU are the one you don't use. And we must remember that with all the climate changes all around the world ( believe it or not) , having a well insulated house is one of the best investment to do ; less heating during the Winter and less cooling during the Summer time.
I know it's much harder and expensive to improve the insulation on a big and older house than when building a new house but the savings and confort worth it. The insulation job can be made step by step like many owners do.
Just my opinion!
P/S with 90Lbs I heat few days in a 2,200 Sf house in Québec

nortcan wrote:Location plus the houses' insulation/air tightness are also very important to consider.

I couldn't agree more. If you take a house from the city and drop it in the middle 50 acres of open fields, the fuel consumption will rise sharply just from the increased wind exposure.

nortcan wrote:The insulation job can be made step by step like many owners do.

I am on step 3. The house has been insulated with blown-in cellulose (walls & attic), I went on draft patrol and caulked/sealed any air leaks I could find, and now I am inspecting the windows and replacing the worst offenders. In my experience, reducing infiltration has a much faster payback than added insulation.

Yes Rob I agree with that,
just fixing the air infiltrations all around the house is one of the best thing to start with and is an easy unexpensive job.

Nortcan does your anthracite come from PA? What is it costing you /ton at that distance from the source?

spiker wrote:Nortcan does your anthracite come from PA? What is it costing you /ton at that distance?

I burn nut ant from Blaschak, bagged delivered to my house and cost me oop sorry, I must go back in the invoice files but will be back with the price.
Ok, I just look in my daily notes book and have it =
$9.30 /40 Lbs bag (includes the 2 taxes we have in Qc and delivery), Last year = 162 days = 84 bags = 1.68 T = $781.20

$ 465 /ton, that shipping does cost you. $310 / ton for me this year in RI.

You are burning very efficiently to need less than 2 tons that far north. You are averaging 21 #/ day. Amazing.

spiker wrote:$ 465 /ton, that shipping does cost you. $310 / ton for me this year in RI.

You are burning very efficiently to need less than 2 tons that far north. You are averaging 21 #/ day. Amazing.

spike, you' r about the right numbers.
This year I started earlier to burn. The bride couldn't wait any longer so the numbers can be different cause the Bride is a new heating school for me.
Having 2 stoves in the house is an other thing to manage for the all around the house heat transfert. But it looks good for now.

Well the temps are to drop some up here in the Lake Champlain Valley. I just recharged the Vigilant II. I have not sliced under the grates in quite a while.
When I open the ash door, if I see a full red glow in the pan, I pretty much know there's plenty of air getting to the fire. If say a section of the ash pan is not illuminated, I shake some more and check for a complete glow, repeat if necessary. I am paying more attention to clearing the front fettle and grate of dead ash.
I think this helps maintain a consistent even burn. I am easily cruising at 600-650 F!

Matt

spiker wrote:

At those temperatures, the Vigilant in your house,will be doing a whole lot more than humming along ... it'll be screaming Count on the oil burner to help it along - that's my bet! Keep the griddle in the low 700s and that'll be all it can give you. I put nearly 90 Lbs of coal a day thru running it like this. Have fun and hang onto your hat

Wow, that's a lot hotter than I want to run my stove. And 90 # a day! I don't think I break 500 F / 50# in the worst weather. How big is your house?

The point that the manual suggests to measure the stove temperature is on a cast iron griddle that's immediately above the fire.

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The exhaust gasses hang out there and must go down a few inches to exit from the left or right sides of the stove, travel across the back of the stove before it can vent out the chimney pipe. Look at the top of the picture below and you'll see one side exit that the blue flames are headed to.

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Recommended max operating temperature is 700. I've measured the side shelfs (stove's "shoulders") of the stove which would be where the exhaust enters the side chambers and it's around 550 in the middle. Yes, pushing thru 90 lbs a day is a maximum. If you do the math, it's about right considering 13,000 BTU per pound of coal.

13,000 * 90= 1,170,000 as a daily max.
Divide that by 24 hours for an hourly output from 90 lbs of coal: 1,170,000/24 = 48,750 BTU per hour.
For this sized stove, 50,000 BTU/hr. per Vermont Casting's literature, that's three refills and maybe just as many shakedowns depending on the ash content. Like you, I don't slice beneath/between the grates like nortcan does in his videos. Only when I feel there might be chruchy ash or clinkers holding ash back.

I'm putting the max heat from the Vigilant II into a ~ 3,100 ft^2 12 yr. old colonial. Heat moves around well enough w/o fans and gets to the second floor by a straight shot(one header in the stove room) across the ceiling into a large 17' high foyer that feeds all bedrooms. The far side of the house does get chilly (~60+) but we don't hang there much and prefer to "roost" in the stove room where it stays in the low 70s. Still, when it falls and stays in the low 20s and lower, my oil furnace runs. I use about 150 gal a year so I could use a stove big enough to put another 3/4 ton thru in the cold periods of winter.

The Vigilant II is very good at extracting heat from the fire and putting it into your space. Nortcan has a very efficient house and a well thought out system to distribute it evenly. Follow his threads on the modifications he needed to make and how his house is set up with an air handler and air to air heat exchanger. Now there's some follow through and employed technology doing the job

EDIT: My explaination above about max burn - using 90 lbs/day - only occurs when it's really cold outside. For NJ, that would be below 20 and into the single digits. I did not make this clear. The Vigilant controls air the air inlet thermostatically so it will only consume 90 lbs a day if it can shed the heat fast enough and on those days it does. I try to hold the temperature of the stovetop as shown, around 700 under those heating conditions.

The Vigilant II is very good at extracting heat from the fire and putting it into your space. Nortcan has a very efficient house and a well thought out system to distribute it evenly. Follow his threads on the modifications he needed to make and how his house is set up with an air handler and air to air heat exchanger. Now there's some follow through and employed technology doing the job

I have to check out Nortcan's post more thoroughly. I have seen his videos which are excellent, and I know he has put much effort and thought to improving his
stove and heat transfer system.

I am burning about 40-50 lbs. per day... but the house is only 2100 square feet. By my calculation, that's about 27,100 BTUs per hour or just a little over 2 lbs per hour. After recharging, it does take sometime for the stove to climb back to 650F +, so it is not always operating at that temp.

The two Ecofans adequately distribute heat away from
the stove-top and assisted by quiet doorway fans kick the heat further into the adjacent rooms and up to the second floor. The house is warm.

Matt

VigII, like always very nice photos, the "inside the stove blues" is a really superb one.

VigIIPeaBurner wrote:

nortcan wrote:VigII, like always very nice photos, the "inside the stove blues" is a really superb one.

merci mon ami

Always good to read some French on the forum. It makes me feel like at home here.

nortcan wrote:

VigIIPeaBurner wrote:

nortcan wrote:VigII, like always very nice photos, the "inside the stove blues" is a really superb one.

merci mon ami

Always good to read some French on the forum. It makes me feel like at home here.

Hello Pierre,

I did study in France many decades ago... unfortunately, I have lost the touch!