Suggestions for my new Boiler Building?

Planning on building an out building for a Boiler and Bin with a 15-20ft masonry chimney. 150 ft away from the house. Maybe 16x16, tall enough to get a front end loader in to fill the bin, hinged or roll up main door with a small walk in door. Probably Insulated as well.

SO, If you have done this or have thought of something you should have done differently, nows the time to speak up!

Thoughts and suggestions appreciated, Chime in.

Bk

Make a floorplan. make 'to scale' miniature stoker-boilers, with doors for the ashpan and boiler cleanouts.. make a minature of the coal hopper.. then postion the pieces around to see what you think will work the best..

Measure the height of your tractor,, when dumping coal into a hopper,, and add plenty of extra.. there is no 'uglier' sound that that of a truss or rafter board cracking in two. [don't ask how I know that sound]

I'd suggest making a swing out 'chute' that is like a bottom-hinged door, that when open is a very wide chute, dumping into the coal hopper.. You open the chute/door, it's stopped by chains at the right angle.. you drive up to the chute with a loader-bucket of coal and dump it in,, most or at least a lot of the dust stays outside the building, if you seal off the hopper on the inside, allmost all of the dust will stay outside., then push or pull the door/chute closed untill the next loading.. just provide rain/freezing rain protection, to keep the hopper full of coal dry, and you are good to go.

I'd look into the idea of a conveyor for the ash pans.. leading to a door in the base of a wall.. have tracks with low carts on the tracks.. set the ashpans on the carts,, and roll them to the low door, and outside,, THEN empty the ashpans into the front end loader bucket,, and take to the next hole in the farm road to fill..

Provide a location for your remote generator, and bury power lines to the house when you bury your insulated Pex-Al-Pex tubing package. This will keep the noise, and smells of your backup genset from annoying you inside the house.

Bury extra control wires for relays, pumps, temp sensors etc.. wireless stuff is not all that reliable at 150'..

Provide windows with screens for warmer months to keep the room temperatures under controll, or install a cedar 'dry sauna' in the corner.

OK, my brain is tired..

Greg L.

Insulated concrete forms...
http://www.forms.org/index.cfm/buildingicf

BK,

Already I see a problem. You state 16x16 insulated......way too small.

I'm thinking 32x32 with a 12' overhead roll up door. Insulated slab as a dump zone or to at least warm the floor when you venture out to the man cave to tend the boiler. Flat screen on the wall, fridge in the corner. Maybe a pool table ?? Where are you putting the still ??? What better way to disguise a still than to surround it with the coal in a hopper ??? Just keep burning year round to mask the smell. Don't forget to allow enough turn around room for the delivery trucks. And adequate parking for the guys to come over to "look at the boiler" and sample the fare.................

I would allow a minimum of 6' all the way around the boiler for maintenance. I do like Greg's idea of a track system for the ash pans. Either that or allow for a pit and screw or paddle system to remove the ashes directly out side.


I'm sure I'll think of more tomorrow.



Rick

I put my boiler in the garage.
Put some effort in the insulation and installation of the pipes to and from the house, this is obvious, but do this right, other mistakes can be corrected later.

Hi Bill, since you have other outbuildings, there is no need for tractor storage in the boiler building,, unless you want heated storage for one of the tractors.

The 'chute' I was describing would open to the outside.. I didn't make that clear. I'd build the coal hopper into the side or corner of the building, and make a wide chute so that you load the coal from the outside, the hopper could be sealed on the inside, keeping the dust from the loading confined to the inside of the hopper.

If this will be your only heated outbuilding for awhile, you want to be able to keep the coal dust and flyash off the tractors, tools etc that will inevitably congregate in the heat.

The idea of pex in the floor as a heat dump is a great idea..

Greg L

I do like Greg's idea of a track system for the ash pans.

I don't need another still but this idea I will take to the bank.

bksaun wrote:Planning on building an out building for a Boiler and Bin with a 15-20ft masonry chimney. 150 ft away from the house. Maybe 16x16, tall enough to get a front end loader in to fill the bin, hinged or roll up main door with a small walk in door. Probably Insulated as well.

SO, If you have done this or have thought of something you should have done differently, nows the time to speak up!

Thoughts and suggestions appreciated, Chime in.

Bk

Take half of building make feed bin 4 H x 8 L x 16 W = 12.8 tons of coal if you go 6 x 8 x 16= 19.2 tons of coal make sure you put a entrance into the bin for maintenance on auger or to replace one. A 55 gal drum to feed from inside bin makes it easier to move to get to auger with out shoveling tons of coal out of the way. Or a dog house at end of bin auger but you will have to shovel coal out of way to get to it . A guillotine type door will work to get inside the bin make sure shed walls can hold the pressure from all the coal

Consider making the bin portion of your building out of masonry block. Much stronger and durable. Pitch the concrete floor of the bin to drain water where you want it to go. I'd design it so the bin had one exterior wall of block. A wall that's just hand stacked block. That way you get full access to the bin with your loader by just removing the block. It's surprising how well just stacked 12" hollow core block will hold back one side of a block bin. Makes cleaning the fines out of the bin easier. I think designing a bin with a removable side or portion of a side is easier than designing a water proof removable roof section. If you are concerned about the stacked block wall blowing out, just design it with a removable wire cable to hold the wall in when the bin is full. Fill the empty bin a stacked row of block at a time. Makes easy loader access.

Think about how you are going to keep the wild animal pests out, birds, rodents, etc. Good luck and post what you decide to do.

Put a refrigerator in your boiler building. That way you wont have to walk back to the house for a beer.

I made a 10' by 12 ' addition on my garage. Half of it is a coal bin that holds 6 or 7 ton. A three foot section of roof lifts off once a year for filling. Pex underground piping. Make sure to take condensation into account with the underground pipe. If you're not paying attention the insulation will eventually get soaked and be useless. I put a pump at the low spot of my pipe. After getting tired of pumping condensate each week I sealed both ends of the pipe. After a month or two the condensation stopped.

Are you hooking to another heat source? Why so far away from main house? Don't go cheap on underground pex, I used Central Boiler pex that is foam not wrapped insulation. Like what others mention go bigger on building, keep bin closes to hopper. Keep in mine auger height and length too.

Follow his progress in the newer thread: Hybrid Boiler Project

Rob R. wrote:Follow his progress in the newer thread: Hybrid Boiler Project

Yanche wrote:Consider making the bin portion of your building out of masonry block. Much stronger and durable. Pitch the concrete floor of the bin to drain water where you want it to go. I'd design it so the bin had one exterior wall of block. A wall that's just hand stacked block. That way you get full access to the bin with your loader by just removing the block. It's surprising how well just stacked 12" hollow core block will hold back one side of a block bin. Makes cleaning the fines out of the bin easier. I think designing a bin with a removable side or portion of a side is easier than designing a water proof removable roof section. If you are concerned about the stacked block wall blowing out, just design it with a removable wire cable to hold the wall in when the bin is full. Fill the empty bin a stacked row of block at a time. Makes easy loader access.

Think about how you are going to keep the wild animal pests out, birds, rodents, etc. Good luck and post what you decide to do.

Burning KY bit he will have lots of fines and dirt won't be able to avoid it plus the coal will be dry don't believe they wash there coal at the mine .
concrete pad already poured don't think a drain was installed . Block is a good idea for bin but if he wants to keep cost down using plywood or osb for walls with 2x4's or 2x6's for frame and tap cons screws into floor for bin frame will work fine .