Looking for Some Guidance ...

well, my pole barn is done. chimney to be put in next week, need to gather a few replacement parts for my Van Wert 600. I am looking for someone to come to my home, take a look at my setup and make suggestions on the best way to run my system plumbing wise. My home is well insulated, newer construction, and I want to hook my Van Wert to my current oil boiler as well as add a few zones for the new garage / old garage / above ground pool heater ... and use a zone for an indirect DHW heater. I am not a master plumber, but have no problem getting my hands dirty nights and weekends if someone point me in the right direction. I need someone to come up with a game plan that I can start working on. I would love to read all the books and become an expert on this stuff, but with 3 daughters and working like a dog, it is not going to happen. I also cannot wait another winter to get this thing up and running. Oil this past winter killed me.

If you have used someone or are someone who is knowledgeable in coal boilers and system design and set up, and would be interested in providing assistance, please provide some information. I live in the Poconos, PA .... about 10 miles south of the Pocono Raceway off rt 115. The town is Effort, PA. I am not looking for a freebie, and am willing to pay someone for their time. Obviously the closer the better. There is a huge amount of knowledge on this site, hopefullly some of it is close to my home town

Thanks in advance for the help...

Brad

anyone ?

I called my usual plumber, but his experience with coal is zero.

thanks,

Brad

Hang in there...traffic on the site is much lighter this time of year......It could take a little time for the right person near your location to see it.

Maybe it's a good idea to bump this topic if it falls off the first page of active posts.....

Congrats on making such a good decision regarding coal heat by the way!!

Brad, the Van Wert will get installed like any other boiler. Most of the piping work will be on your current system to accommodate the additional zones that you want. When that is being done, have the plumber add two tee's to the supply riser coming out of your current boiler...those can be used to tie in the coal unit.

Tell your plumber to pretend the Van Wert is an oil boiler and work up a proposal.

Also, feel free to post some pictures of your current boiler and we will offer suggestions.

B call Zigenfuss coal delivery in Palmerton I would think they can recommend a stoker installer as they are selling coal some 40 years that I know of .%70 826 3488 jack good luck . 570 826 3488

thanks for the replies so far guys ... much appreciated. keep them coming.

As Rob mentioned there is really not much difference between the coal boiler and any other boiler on the plumbing and control end of it. About the only big difference I can think of is you might want to add a timer which will run it a few minutes every hour or half hour. That is just to insure it stays lit which can be a problem especially in the Spring and Fall.

i guess one of my biggest questions is that the boiler is now in the pole barn .. the oil boiler is in the basement at the other end of the house .. approx 100' away .. I want to 3 zones off the new coal boiler as these are close .. one for new pole barn heat, one for old garage heat (both modine units) and one for a boilermate I use to heat a small above ground pool... and then run the main loop to the oil boiler to heat the house and DHW. can this be done or do I have to run all zones from the existing oil boiler .. that will mean a lot more plumbing to run.

I misunderstood what you wanted to do. Adding the new zones to the coal boiler is much simpler, since you will be doing fresh piping on that boiler anyway. Yes, you can add the extra zones to the coal boiler...and add one more for the house.

Were you planning on heating the new polebarn slab,or doing Modine units and the cast-off radiated heat from your unit inside the building? Also,Seems to me that all you'll need to do is do the 100' underground insulated Pex into your Home's existing Manifold,and an additional run to your pool. I'm no Hydronics Pro,but you shouldn't have a bad,complicated time of things at all.

HB .. I am planning on using the modine units in each garage for heat .. along with the heat generated by the boiler in the new garage. piping between boilers is all inside as all garages are attached to each other and to house. I would like to run 3 zones off the boiler near the boiler (1 for each garage modine, and one for the pool boilermate) , and then send the 1 1/4 line to the oil boiler for dhw and house heat. .. my house is only one zone ... hot air. oil boiler currently heats DHW.

Make sure you have a constant running circulator between the 2 boilers so the water in the oil boiler is always at peak temp. When the house zones & DHW demand heat you do not want to wait for 100' of water to "catch-up".

windyhill4.2 wrote:Make sure you have a constant running circulator between the 2 boilers so the water in the oil boiler is always at peak temp. When the house zones & DHW demand heat you do not want to wait for 100' of water to "catch-up".

Just my opinion, but I would wire the system to circulate "on demand" and see how it does. It would be simple enough to make it run 24/7 if desired. or try it both ways and see how much coal it takes to keep that 100' hot. It is a compromise of recovery time vs. parasitic load...experiment and see what works best.

200 feet of 1" pex holds about 6.3 gallons of water...the zone on the first floor of my house holds double that, and the 520 EFM just shrugs it off.