LL110k Boiler

The new boiler has been running now for almost 12 hours. I even showered tonight with hot water made by me and not the electric company. I am running at 1.5 minutes on and 5 minutes off. The Blaschaks coal is running good. I also picked up a half ton from Casey/Kassa. I hope that it burns as well as the Blaschaks. Well its time for sleep now. been up for to long...........

Did you install it yourself?

Yes I did all the work on the boiler. My friend helped me install the new baseboard.

If oil is already more expensive than electricity ( in Hamlin ) there is no reason to have that oil gun as an option, it's just a waste of money, in the old days, even when oil was cheaper than electric, some boilers had electric heating elements !

CoalUserWannabe wrote:If oil is already more expensive than electricity ( in Hamlin ) there is no reason to have that oil gun as an option, it's just a waste of money, in the old days, even when oil was cheaper than electric, some boilers had electric heating elements !

Regardless of what is more expensive, oil, gas or electricity, it's a backup heat source for when you will not be around to feed the hopper or empty
the ashpans for days or weeks.

You can't let your house and pipes freeze because you have to go on a business trip or go on vacation..

Nice job on the install,

Greg L

CoalUserWannabe wrote:If oil is already more expensive than electricity ( in Hamlin ) there is no reason to have that oil gun as an option, it's just a waste of money, in the old days, even when oil was cheaper than electric, some boilers had electric heating elements !

The oil gun came with the boiler as a package. And there was not much difference in price to not get the oil burner option. If we had natural gas lines up here i would of gotten that for back up instead. Besides I am keeping my DS Basement model #3 for back up as well.

Thank you for the compliment Greg. This is a first for me. If I had more money I would have done it a little differently. But as it is now its woking and heating my house nicely. And the hot water is a blessing. I can't wait to see how much the electric bill drops.

LsFarm wrote:
Regardless of what is more expensive, oil, gas or electricity, it's a backup heat source for when you will not be around to feed the hopper or empty
the ashpans for days or weeks.

You can't let your house and pipes freeze because you have to go on a business trip or go on vacation..

Nice job on the install,

Greg L

Well, then you have to have an oil tank outside as well, and you have to have electricity to fire up your oil gun, Oil tank + Oil = Space needed + cost of tank + possibility of contamination in case of a leak.

Instead, buy few electric base board heaters, and you are set ( they are really inexpensive )

No one listens to me anyway.

I am going for a beer, you guys drive me to drink !

CoaluserWannabe.

If you are starting out with an empty box, or building a new home, I can agree with you, but that's not the market for the LL110 boiler.

The market for the LL110 boiler is the home with an old, inefficient oil boiler, or an old leaking or otherwise damaged oil fired boiler.
The homeowner can add the new coal boiler with an oil burner backup, during the summer he can use oil for DHW, instead of coal, and
he doesn't have to do any retrofitting of the house for electric baseboards.

Adding electric baseboards to a home that already has hot water baseboards would be a nightmare. Even if the home didn't have
hydronic baseboards, increasing the electric service to a size that would support electric baseboard heat, and then wiring all the baseboards
would be a very costly proposition, permits, cost of copper wiring..cost of baseboard heaters..

The LL boiler comes with the oil burner, it can be changed to a NG burner or Propane burner for a small fee. It's all marketing for the existing
home with an older hot water heat system with an old boiler.

Greg L

No one listens to me anyway.

I am going for a beer, you guys drive me to drink !

Hmm, in the cold weather I have to generate about 200,000BTU (real). Rounding off that's about 50KW. Yes, you are a real genius, enjoy your beer. I could give you a clue as to why nobody listens to you.

Congratulations! You've made some very good decisions and now they are paying off. Yippeeee!


The install looks good, but hard to see all the details. I just want to make sure you have a high pressure relief valve in there. It'd be a silly thing to forget! And, I assume there is a mixing valve for the domestic hot water? That mixing valve should be six inches lower than the coil. If it is higher than the coil you may get temperatures that drift. Also, in the hot line before the mixing valve should be a domestic water high pressure relief. I don't personally believe that relief valve is all so important, but around here it is the law. (but so is a low water cut off but you don't see those outside of Maine either)

Freddy, The pressure relief valve is on the far side of the photo. Its hard to see and my cheap camera can not focus in that well at short distances. I will need to move the placement of the mixing valve. It is almost in line with the coil, but as it is now im using my old water heater as a holding tank. So far the hot water is good. No scalding hot water to any faucet. But I will take your advice into consideration.

coalnewbie wrote:Hmm, in the cold weather I have to generate about 200,000BTU (real). Rounding off that's about 50KW. Yes, you are a real genius, enjoy your beer. I could give you a clue as to why nobody listens to you.

I may not be the genius, but it would be nice to know how you can generate 200,000 BTU when your boiler is only 110,000 BTU

Just keep in mind, back up options aren't usually intented as full functions, one example is the donut spare tire, it's good for backup, but not for main use.
And I do agree with the expense of permanently installed electric base board heaters, but I actulally meant for the portable plug in ones, they make great backup options, for far less money.

Take a look at the list of coal burning appliances coalnewbie has listed in his signature.. I'd say he can make over 300,000btu if desired.

I don't like plug in electric heaters in rooms not occupied by someone, it's not a safe backup to leave heating the house for days while you are on
a business trip or vacation. Most plug in heaters are surprisingly cheap once you open them up. I used to use one to suplement my heat in my
bathroom.. it started acting up one day, and once I opened it up I realized how cheap they are.

Greg L.

I may not be the genius, but it would be nice to know how you can generate 200,000 BTU when your boiler is only 110,000 BTU

My profile gives a list of stoves so this is how you calculate it 1 +1 =2. Hang on sport you will get the hang of it. So in the house AnthraKings (110K) 2 and a DVC (75,000BTU). Those are listed ratings which you never believe and that is why I use the word true. Stove manufacturers all have some mumbo jumbo system of calculating input BTUs. When you understand that one you are smarter than I.