Low Heat ? Won't Get Above 140 Deg

I did a quick calc for my house. We had 60 degree days yesterday,....pretty cold! With the historical usage for the oil furnace it would have burned, at current prices, $48.00 worth of fuel oil I burned about $18.00 worth of coal!

Rob R. wrote:

Rick 386 wrote:I think he still had some room to increase the feed.

Last report said something like he had 2-3" ash before the end.

Rick

I went through this with a neighbor running a KA-6. When he tried increasing the feed beyond 9 turns he had terrible clinker problems...bad enough to cause the ashes to stick to the side rails and make the fire migrate backwards. I think his coal probably had something to do with it, but I still caution folks that need to run an inclined bed stoker HARD to monitor it frequently after making an adjustment.

OK Rob. That may be true on the Keystoker. But it seems like other stokers you can head toward that 1-2" of ash before reaching max heat.

I learned something new today. Geez it has been a while..........................

Rick

Wow everyone thanks for all the information. Here is todays update I got home today and the house had come up to 64deg with and outside temp of around 20Deg. My house has no insulation in the walls and very little in the attic. We did have new thermo windows installed last year. We do have the OLD cast iron 2inch pipes for the radiators and I have 13 of them in the house or Approx 3000 sq feet 2 story I do have a circulatory pump the helps push the water upstairs and through out the house.

When I got home the boiler was doing its 140 deg thing again but maybe I caught it right after a pull im not sure. I turned the t-stat down to 60 deg went back to the boiler in about 45 minutes and the water temp was about 170deg. I checked the fire bed and it still looked short so I adjusted it again to 9 or 10 im losing count. I then came at turned the t-stat up to 66 deg which caused a pull and I am waiting for an hour to see if the house temp moves any it is now at 63 Heck it went down 1 deg ?? . Will keep you posted as the evening wears on . Current temp outside 21deg CYA soon and THANKS to everyone !!

Yes, please do keep us updated! I think we have the answer. Ding, ding, ding. You may be able to improve performance some but that is one heck of a heating load.

Update,

Boiler seems to be holding with a water temp of 150-155 deg, I also verified rate feed of 10. Let me ask you do count from the front of the rod back down to the spring correct ? I made sure the rod was all the way back against the push bar mount and counted backwards from that point. The house is still holding at 63deg. I will update in another hour. And what is the ding ding ding mean , Am I doing something wrong and you figured it out for me CYA SOON

You have to much load and water in the large pipes that carry the water. You have room to increase the output of your boiler most likely, but Sting will say you need to balance the system and slow down the flow and give your boiler a fighting chance in these temps. The bypass loop will help also. I will let the hydronic guys in here continue this lesson but there are solutions.

Kevin

Sorry,....the ding, ding, ding means you have a huge heating load and keeping the temps up in super cold weather may not be possible as the system is plumbed now. The easiest thing you can do is put as much insulation in the attic as possible and get some electric radiant space heaters until the best system design can be determined. I'm wondering if going back to steam would be an option for the future??? How long have you had the coal boiler and what did you have before that?

With the boiler in front of you, turning the feed screw clockwise, righty tighty, all the way is max feed rate. Turning it 10 turns counterclockwise, lefty Lucy, is a feed rate of 10 turns back.

I'd call KEYSTOKER. Tell them you have the big steam pipes through out your house. If I remember correctly, on KEYSTOKER's web site, they give both, hot water, and steam capacities for each boiler model. I assumed there boilers can be either / or. Check it out.

I didn't read thru all 4 pages, so I apologize if this was already mentioned .....

But, one thing I noticed is, with your aquastat temps set at High 180, Low 160, diff 10 , when you reach 140° boiler water temp., the aquastat will lock out the circulator until the temp hits your low limit minus your differential - in other words, 150°. So, below 150, you have no water going to your radiators. No water = no heat.

Late Update Sorry

Went down and checked the KA6 last night and had fire being pushed off into the ash bucket thus I turned back the feed rate 1 turn and this morning it was a lil over an inch from the edge so I think at this time feed rate is good. The house rose up to 65 deg last night so I set the T-stat to 65 also to give the KA6 a rest for she has been running hard im sure. This morning was still at 65 deg so I turned the T-stat up to 68deg and within an hour the house temp had rose to 66deg. I think the warmer weather is helping as well. I hope to get home from work today and see the house at 68 deg and the KA6 holding at an idle with a water temp of 180-190deg . Will post the stats this evening . Thanks everyone for helping me along this little journey with my good ole KA6

Final Update,

Got home yesterday and found the house resting at my good ole temp of 69 deg just like its supposed to be. KA6 is running normal and all cycles and fire bed length seem to be in balance. I suspect that when it is all said and done the Artic blast or what ever you want to call it was to much for the ole KA6. This will be the first time that this ever happened and I pray the last.

I want to thank all of you on here for taking the time to assist me and guide me through this adventure. I knew right where to go when I was having issues and as always I was not let down. This is the BEST FORUM on the net for help and guidance for sure. Thanks again and may God bless all of you for helping people in need.

PS. Spring HURRY UP

I'd take Carbon's advice and begin thinking about an insulation upgrade. I'd start with the attic and work my way down. An infrared temp gauge would be helpful in finding the worst areas.

The trend is colder temps, better safe than sorry.