Considering Coal? How to Equate Coal to Your Present Fuel

Carbon12 wrote:Oil forced air furnace and electric hot water heater. Let me look more closely at your numbers. I e burned about 4 tons so far

I just revised my numbers a bit.

Scottscoaled wrote:Ok,,,, So some information would suggest that my Van Wert 400 is running at 55% efficiency. So how would the numbers stack up that way Larry?

Multiply all of the alternative fuel quantities as seen in the first post above by 0.733

I just double checked. I was mistaken. Oil furnace AFUE 81.5, so,... I guess my coal boiler is running around 80% efficiency more or less. Would have had 4, 185 gallon fill ups at this point. Have used about 4 tons of coal. It's not exactly the same but pretty close.

Carbon12 wrote:I just double checked. I was mistaken. Oil furnace AFUE 81.5

If the oil furnace truly holds to that value in the real world (doubtful), that should put you at about 67% efficient overall for the coal boiler by some calculations I made based upon admittedly scant and inferred data. You are still saving a whopper load over burning oil.

I've been following this and now my brain aches. Last time we had a winter like this 3500 galls of HO/kero. Todays cost about $17000. Coal bills this winter although still iffy about $3500. I refuse to think it any harder than that and if I'm off a little who cares. (exit stage left blowing into speaking tube and yelling) ----- hey Gale Mining, send me another TT load will ya.

About 666 KWh here for DHW shaved $100/month off the electric bill when I de energized the electric hot water heater. whatever the efficiency of the oil furnace, I'm achieving approximately a 1:1 ratio of oil deliveries to burning a ton of coal with a savings of about 66% or more when you factor in the electricity savings by not using the electric water heater. This gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside,...and out!

Carbon12 wrote:About 666 KWh here for DHW shaved $100/month off the electric bill when I de energized the electric hot water heater. whatever the efficiency of the oil furnace, I'm achieving approximately a 1:1 ratio of oil deliveries to burning a ton of coal with a savings of about 66% or more when you factor in the electricity savings by not using the electric water heater. This gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside,...and out!

Allow about 7.2 lbs. per day for your coal consumption due to DHW then.

I don't know how many bags of coal I have left, I guess I should count (started with 180, 40lb bags of Blaschak on 10/26).

Most of that was in my MKII, but now that I'm running the Crawford it's less coal (roughly 10 - 20%) for the same heat.

I have a 2450 sq ft two story colonial and so far this season I have burned only +/- 125 gallons of oil for DHW and maybe 7 days of heat.

I know the oil furnace & DHW consume on avg. 5 gal per day.

I'll go count coal and do some math...

..................

109 days have past since I lit the stove this season.

I have burned on avg 50 lbs per day @ .15 cents per lb for a cost of $7.40 a day to heat this house so far.

If I use a figure of 4 gal per day of oil @ $3.75 gal this would have cost $15 per day.

So, same as last year, 50% less expensive to heat with coal for my situation.

Next year, after really learning how to tune an anthracite only base burner, I expect savings to be at least 60% over oil heat.

I'll have more robust data when the heating season is over, the degree days are tallied up and the exact amount of coal burned has been determined. I REALLY wish we were at that point already!

franco b wrote:In modern stoves the Surdiac claims 84 percent and Franco Belge received a 93 percent figure from the German DIN government laboratory. No doubt these were at one specific firing rate and do not represent a range of rates where avarage efficiency would fall off.

It may be that efficient at turning coal into heat. To get these numbers from a stove you would need a stovepipe that barley exceeds room temperature. Do you really think that is going to happen?

coaledsweat wrote:

franco b wrote:In modern stoves the Surdiac claims 84 percent and Franco Belge received a 93 percent figure from the German DIN government laboratory. No doubt these were at one specific firing rate and do not represent a range of rates where avarage efficiency would fall off.

It may be that efficient at turning coal into heat. To get these numbers from a stove you would need a stovepipe that barley exceeds room temperature. Do you really think that is going to happen?

Running the smallest Franco Belge the smoke pipe was cold to the touch at low output. Straight up and out chimney.
With the middle size Franco stove burning a bright fire at about 25 pounds per day the smoke pipe can easily be held at shoulder height. Smoke pipe is also heat exchange area and at chimney top it probably is not much above room temperature.

coaledsweat wrote:

franco b wrote:In modern stoves the Surdiac claims 84 percent and Franco Belge received a 93 percent figure from the German DIN government laboratory. No doubt these were at one specific firing rate and do not represent a range of rates where avarage efficiency would fall off.

It may be that efficient at turning coal into heat. To get these numbers from a stove you would need a stovepipe that barley exceeds room temperature. Do you really think that is going to happen?

.....thats not totally accurate-
gas and propane appliances (boilers and furnaces) with 95% eff.ratings achieve exhaust gas temps of 155 degrees....
that would make for a very warm room

Rigar wrote:gas and propane appliances (boilers and furnaces) with 95% eff.ratings achieve exhaust gas temps of 155 degrees....

Gas and propane aren't really solid fuels. Do the appliances operate in the same fashion?

coaledsweat wrote:

Rigar wrote:gas and propane appliances (boilers and furnaces) with 95% eff.ratings achieve exhaust gas temps of 155 degrees....

Gas and propane aren't really solid fuels. Do the appliances operate in the same fashion?

....that all produce heat.
the AFLU rating every one speaks of simply rates the percentage of heat energy recovered(utlized) compared to the energy consumed

...btw-
is oil really a solid fuel???