New to the coal pile.

Hello all,
Very nice forum you guys have here! After 30+ years of killin' trees I'm ready to try coal.
I live east of the river in Ct., Sorta hope to hear from a few stoker boiler guys if there are any out this way.
Not a master plumber by a long streach but I would love to do a nice clean and neat install on my own.
My home is an old two-story. Heat and DHW for two and the dog. We work a lot so no need for crankin' the heat at all. Just need the long burn time that wood won't do.
How much coal should i expect to use ? Last year we burned 7 cords of oak. No DHW though

Great to see a big group heating with fuel from the USA !
Dave

Wild guess: 4.5 to 5 tons.

22.7 MBTU per cord oak *7 = 158.9 MBTU / 26 MBTU per ton anthracite coal @ 85% EF = 6.11 Tons

Valter, did you consider that wood burning is generally accomplished at about 50% efficiency overall, and coal burning is generally done at about 65% efficiency overall. Boilers are only capable of achieving in the range of 85% or so efficient when they are a few minutes or more into a firing cycle. They are far more inefficient than that when at idle. Clear down to about 25% if the idle period is long enough.

I'll correct my initial guess to 5 to 5.5 tons.

As soon as I posted I was trying to figure out how you came up with it and realized that I had not taken into account the wood boiler efficiency.

I was just re-examing the formula and at 85% with newer outdoor wood boilers it's 5.1.

22.7 MBTU per cord oak * .85 EFF * 7 = 135.06 MBTU / 26 MBTU per ton anthracite coal @ 85% EF = 5.19 Tons

The storage requirement is also considerably less 204 cubic feet vs 1,148 cubic feet.

Hi Dave

First off welcome.

I see you have the absolute best Hard Coal Stoker / Boiler on the market (I am very biased!!! )

You will love it...

I have a very similar setup, OLD 2 story home 1890's. Keep it at 71 degrees. An average burning season Oct 10 to May 20's I burn about 6 to 7 tons. the colder it is the closer to 7 tons etc..

Thanks for the input. The 6-8 ton estimates make me feel like this is justifiable. Most of the wood burners I know burn home-grown and cut,so they think I've gone off the deep end to try coal! I do think you guys are on the right path.

Thanks Dave !

Hey Dave - Did you burn any fuel to pick up the load when the wood burned out? If so, how much?

A coal boiler will carry the full load, and provide DHW if desired.

Good to see another "east of the River" Ct resident on board...we're catching up.

Re. Supplement to wood.
The short story Rob, is no. But we do have oil for leaving the house with no wood for say a week to go on vacation. Also our DHW is oil fired too. We burn about 300 gal. a year.
So if i can make the house nice and toasty for the dog.Not lug 7 or 8 cords of wood in, wave to my buddy John as he drives by in his oil truck I will be happy.
The best part, I'm not helping to finance ammo used on our troops. Love that !
Ed,glad to hear from a fellow coal nut in the east . Not to many I guess ? Are you a long time coal burner ?

Thanks all again. Dave

Hey Dave, Welcome to the forum. I was a long time wood burner as well. My house was never toasty and I still went through 900 gallons of oil. Even if you cut the wood off your own lot there is still a cost in fuel burned to drop, split and move it. The time saved in coal is also a nice benefit. I would cut and split for most weekends from august through September. You have to figure that into the overall cost as well. A good boiler will keep your house consistently warm and an endless supply of hot water. Good luck and keep us posted.
NWB

Even though I had an oil boiler installed in 1977 when I built my house, I used wood exclusively for almost 35 years. This is my 3rd year using coal in the 3-4 months of hard Winter. It's easier than lugging a Garden Way cart of wood each day. I use about 2 tons a year.

Wow ! 2 ton..... Now that would be great. I would have to demo the old farm-house and build new to hit them numbers ! Have to admit you are making me a little envious.

Dave

Dave 1234 wrote:Ed,glad to hear from a fellow coal nut in the east . Not to many I guess ? Are you a long time coal burner ?

Thanks all again. Dave

.Since '07..not long time to most PA folks but we try to play catch up and have fun doin it. My machine shop is now a coal heated enity as well.