newbie stoker questions

Well I am going to work on the scranton stoker that my bro is giving me. I am not getting any paper work with it so im sure what size I am suppost to use. It looks like there is still buck in the auger. Also I am nervis that this thing is going to burn more in coal then I spend natural gas. So how much will a stoker comminly burn. Thanks for the info.

dharvey wrote:Also I am nervis that this thing is going to burn more in coal then I spend natural gas. So how much will a stoker comminly burn. Thanks for the info.

How much coal you burn completely depends on how many btu's the house requires. How many therm's of natural gas do you normally burn per winter? If you can dig up that number we can give you a ballpark estimate of coal consumption.

As far as I know the Simplex units burn buck, but the easiest way is to measure the ID of the auger pipe. If it is 2.5" buck should be fine.

That is a question that can't be answered without more info on your setup, house details, current heating system, BTU rating, heat loss calculation, etc...only then maybe an educated guess.

Every heating situation is different, and cannot be determined exactly and what works in one home would be different in another. Some people burn 1 ton and others maybe 5-10ton depending on their homes.

ok i have my ugi bill here for this month. The bill says my average is 117ccf a mouth, and the yearly is 1,414 ccf. i guess thats the therms not real sure. I have a nat gas furance 225000 btu. steam radiotors, no insulation, built in the 1890s in northeast pa. not sure about the heat loss calc.1000 to 1200 sqf

If you take your last bill and divide the $$ by the number of therms, what do you get for a cost per therm?

dharvey wrote: I have a nat gas furance 225000 btu. steam radiotors, no insulation, built in the 1890s in northeast pa. not sure about the heat loss calc.1000 to 1200 sqf

If you have a steam system, that changes everything. You have to ensure the coal boiler is large enough for the amount of radiators you have. Plus you can't just add in a second boiler like you can with hot water...the boilers would have to be arranged so that both have the same waterline, they would have to be piped into a common header, etc.

7 tons of coal (anthracite) would be my initial stab at BTU equivalence, but that would assume that all of your NG is used only for heat. If it is also used for hot water and cooking, then something less than 7 tons of coal would be required for heat alone. If you also cook and heat your water with NG, my guess would then be 5 tons annually for home heating.

dharvey wrote:ok i have my ugi bill here for this month. The bill says my average is 117ccf a mouth, and the yearly is 1,414 ccf. i guess thats the therms not real sure. I have a nat gas furance 225000 btu. steam radiotors, no insulation, built in the 1890s in northeast pa. not sure about the heat loss calc.1000 to 1200 sqf

CCF represents the cubic volume of gas, measured in hundreds of cubic feet. Therms represents the heat content, measure in hundreds of thousands of btu's. For natural gas the two numbers are very close. Depending upon variations in the heat content of the gas, I think you usually can multiply CCF by a factor between 1.02 and 1.03 to get therms.

Mike

Rob R. wrote:If you have a steam system, that changes everything. You have to ensure the coal boiler is large enough for the amount of radiators you have.

I'd like to basically agree with Rob, but hijack his post for a second to refer you to a recent discussion of coal-fired steam boiler sizing on another thread - see where to buy a 300,000 BTU coal fired steam boiler stoker (page 2).

"I see people measuring their installed radiation, adding a small pick-up factor and then deciding what boiler to buy based on the ratings on the manufacturer websites. I agree with you that many of those ratings are higher than the unit is actually likely to perform, and that's part of why I'd be more comfortable with specifying more excess capacity. I've seen all kind of weird stuff happen when stokers of different designs get pushed close to their maximum output. For example, I had a flat plate stoker that picked a deep cold spell to let me know my recent coal delivery was more prone to clinker formation - due to plowing, etc., I had to baby it when I needed it to really go. Likewise, even EFM's can come up short at the top end if your coal has too large of a % of undersized pieces, but you may not find that out until you need that output. Making steam by coal, I'm much more comfortable building in excess capacity to provide protection against such factors, not to mention the boiler needs cleaning/DHW needs/future expansion/etc. factors that might lead you want to keep some capacity in reserve. And I know I'm repeating myself, but I believe I'd get the same heat with less coal using a bigger boiler running at 2/3 of its capacity vs. a smaller boiler running flat out (at least if the bigger boiler has a bigger heat exchanger)."

Mike

ok just got back and have the unit pulled apart and ready for transportation. I did notice some rot i guess it would be on the pot when i pulled it out. is there a way to get replacment parts for this unit or mabe just the pot. also how do i know what the btu is on this unit. i have zero paper work on it. i know that it has a 4inch stack and a 8 inch chiminy pipe. if that helps at all. Also the house it was pulled out of is much bigger than mine. again no specfics on the btu though

We REALLY need photos to be able to help you.. your stoker, firepot and boiler are not a common make, maybe someone has good used parts around, and would recognise them if they had a photo to compare to..

Welcome to the forum..

Greg L

ok i am going to try to load up some photos. hope this goes well

i have more pictures if they are needed

some more

Looks like the pot rings are toasted on one side, the entire set probably needs to be replaced. Call the number on this page: http://abvanwert.com/

I think the Simplex units shared some parts with Van Wert's. Arnie should be able to fill you in.