Craigs List Ad for Free Coal 2-5-2013

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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Tue. Feb. 05, 2013 5:40 am

You people in Southern Maine might catch it:


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4Mainer
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Post by 4Mainer » Mon. Feb. 11, 2013 9:51 pm

I did catch it! The guy had about 400#'s of nut anthracite in a concrete floor coal bin in his basement. He also gave me this sweet coal shovel! Burning the coal right now. Can't seem to keep the heat down on my boiler. It keeps overheating to the dump zone. Have opened the baro damper all the way, no change, still rises to 200F and goes to the dump zone(1st floor).
Not sure if I should add more coal or add some pea coal. I'm still a rookie, thought I would experiment with just nut coal.

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Tue. Feb. 12, 2013 4:00 am

Glad you got it! Even more glad you have the chance to play with coal. There IS a learning curve. I hope you get to see that it's a good thing before the 400# runs out.

Too much heat? Isn't that a good thing? Heeheeee!

OK, seriously..... Got a CO detector? if not, stop using the coal! That said, you should be able to control it and the overheat would be an occasional thing. Usually over heat it from too much incoming air. Coal demands good air control. If your door gaskets are leaky or if the doors simply don't close tight, there's most of the problem. The next part is that coal demands accurate draft. It's pretty much mandatory that you use a draft gauge (manometer) to set the barometric damper. A Dwyer #5 is perfect. NOT a #7. Google it & you can buy one from the factory cheap as anywhere. You might have to phone them for #5. Next, coal stoves & boilers like a particular size coal. I'm going to guess you'd run better with nut size. Oops...sorry, I thought you got stove size. Perhaps your boiler would like pea size. But yes, you are thinking correctly to perhaps cover the stove size coal with pea size, that will slow down the air.

Comparing to wood, the only downside, if it's a downside, is that coal makes way more ash. For me, not much of a downside. If you boiler is where you have to carry ash up stairs, down the hall, through the loving room, through the kitchen, out through the entryway, through the garage, around the house and 1,000 feet to a dump place....well... then it might be a downside.

Welcome to the Forum and best of luck to you. Stop back anytime.

Fred

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Tue. Feb. 12, 2013 6:55 pm

Freddy wrote:A Dwyer #5 is perfect.
I think Freddy meant this one 8-)
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4Mainer wrote:It keeps overheating to the dump zone. Have opened the baro damper all the way, no change, still rises to 200F and goes to the dump zone(1st floor).
Opening the baro won't help very much. Close your primary combustion air feed some (air that comes in under the grates). It should throttle back for you unless, like Freddy said, you have door gaskets not sealing well.

Bigger coal will burn hotter/faster if you demand it to. Smaller coal will idle easier. At least thats what I've observed in my experiences so far. :D

Good Luck and Welcome partner 8-)


 
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dcrane
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Post by dcrane » Tue. Feb. 12, 2013 9:34 pm

wow, nice catch on the coal! Free is a wonderful price :P

OneDollar from this forum caught an item for me ive been praying to god for every night... made all my efforts to help others all worthwhile here and its nice to see others helping people catch some good stuff too! GG Fred!

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Wed. Feb. 13, 2013 7:34 am

[quote="Lightning"]
I think Freddy meant this one 8-)

Ohhh man! Yes, Thank you for catching my error. The #25 is the one, the #27 is of no use to coal burners.

Maybe the "2" on my keyboard isn't working, Yaaaa, that's it, blame the keyboard. Oh, wait! The "2" just worked.... gotta find a different excuse....something better than "Fred made a mistake". How about "When I'm stupid, I'm stupid for a long time"? Nope...I'm going to go with intermittent keyboard, OK, OK, that sounds good. ;)

 
2DeXtreMe
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Post by 2DeXtreMe » Wed. Feb. 13, 2013 10:59 pm

How about a free stove?
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4Mainer
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Post by 4Mainer » Tue. Dec. 10, 2013 5:29 pm

OK, seriously..... Got a CO detector? if not, stop using the coal! That said, you should be able to control it and the overheat would be an occasional thing.
Fred, I just wanted to say thank you for your nugget of advice. When I switched from wood to coal 3 weeks ago, the start up didn't go very well. I knew something was wrong with the draft, but it took me sometime to find that the clean out on my SS chimney had fallen off outside. While troubleshooting I was monitoring the digital CO detector it got as high as 420. Nevertheless, I had windows/doors open and was monitoring CO levels throughout the house. Eventually the old plugin CO detector alarmed.
I didn't close the windows until the CO levels were back down to 0. I recommend having multiple CO detectors and at least one should be a digital battery op, its mobile and digital provides the level of CO whether it alarms or not.

Tim


 
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009to090
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Post by 009to090 » Tue. Dec. 10, 2013 5:36 pm

Wow! Good story! And everyone was ok. Glad those CO detectors did their job. :up:
4Mainer wrote:
OK, seriously..... Got a CO detector? if not, stop using the coal! That said, you should be able to control it and the overheat would be an occasional thing.
Fred, I just wanted to say thank you for your nugget of advice. When I switched from wood to coal 3 weeks ago, the start up didn't go very well. I knew something was wrong with the draft, but it took me sometime to find that the clean out on my SS chimney had fallen off outside. While troubleshooting I was monitoring the digital CO detector it got as high as 420. Nevertheless, I had windows/doors open and was monitoring CO levels throughout the house. Eventually the old plugin CO detector alarmed.
I didn't close the windows until the CO levels were back down to 0. I recommend having multiple CO detectors and at least one should be a digital battery op, its mobile and digital provides the level of CO whether it alarms or not.

Tim

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Thu. Dec. 12, 2013 8:14 am

4Mainer wrote:the digital CO detector it got as high as 420.
Holy Moly!! That's "Hold your breath, run in, open the windows, get out" territory! Wow.... I'm glad things ended well. Close call!

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Thu. Dec. 12, 2013 8:49 am

400 ppm can be deadly around 3 hours for the average person.

 
4Mainer
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Post by 4Mainer » Thu. Dec. 12, 2013 3:41 pm

I had both CO detectors alarming (the 10yr old plugin & the 1 yr old batt op) ... I actually never saw the 420ppm - it was the MAX that my alarm recorded at some point during this whole fiasco. As it was climbing past 200ppm, I started opening windows, doors, I also had a fan blowing air & the dryer going (figuring it was pulling make up air low to the ground and kicking it outside.) And while I wasn't holding my breath, I wasn't stopping in the basement - it was verify the level and leave. I also moved the digital upstairs to see what I was happening on the 1st floor & of course, proceeded to open windows as well. Shortly thereafter I found the issue & cleared the air. No problems since.
Bottom line - shutdown your stove/boiler until you get a CO detector - can't save $$ or be warm if you're dead!
Digital is better, because it alerts you to the issue BEFORE it alarms and it provides ongoing MONITORING not just an alarm.
Battery op is mobile, but hardwired can be tied into your house smoke detector system that should be wired together, e.g. it will wake you up if there's an issue.

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