Yellow Flame to Tri-Burner Conversion. What Do You Think?

The stoker ran for 14.8 hours over the past 2 days. Yesterday I turned the feed rate down 1 turn. I'm still going to assume 3.5 pounds per hour so thats 51.8 pounds, 25.9 pounds per day. Not quite sure why coal usage is creeping up. I'm hoping to get down to 20 pounds per day.
I removed 31 pounds of coal from the past 5 days. WOW!, 5 day tending! The little Tri-Burner just keeps go'in! -Don

I had an outfire today! I have not been watching the draft lately so I don't know what happened. I re-lite it and now we are back in buissnes.
This boiler thing is still strange to me. Here it is, the middle of May, 80 degrees outside, I just serviced one of the Cubs' this morning and did a couple hours of mowing, and I'm lighting a coal fire? -Don

I woke up to another outfire this morning. I'm not sure whats going on. I I bumped the feed rate back up 1 turn to where it was last week, I hope that helps. The timer is set for 6 minutes, 15 percent. That should be 54 seconds "ON", that should be enough to keep a fire going.

There is realy only 3 things to play with here, Timer cycle, Timer percentage and feed rate. I'm thinking my lower feed rate may have let the fire shrink to much.

-Don

The stoker ran for 25.9 hours since Friday. Thats 90.7 Pounds of coal, 30.2 pounds per day. Still creeping up, temps have been in the 80's in the day and 60's at night all weekend, coal usage should NOT be going up!
I have turned off the auger. Even at 30 pounds a day it will take 5 or 6 days to go through a hopper full. I bumped the timer up to 20%. That should be 72 seconds "ON" in a 6 minute cycle. Maybe thats why coal usage is up?

-Don

I just calculated that these timer settings alone run the stoker for 4.8 hours a day. Thats 16.8 pounds of coal just to keep the fire going. It does keep the fire going though, no outfires.

Temps have been in the 80's here for the past few days, will be a bit cooler for the coming days though.

The heat has been off for over a week now, only heating DHW. I will keep it going as long as I can. I just don't want to turn on that dang electric water heater!!!

-Don

The stoker ran for 31 hours over the past 5 days. Thats 108.5 pounds of coal, 21.7 per day. I removed 34 pounds of ash.
Visualy, it was that much coal. I'm gonna try to keep burn'in til June! -Don

How did you arrive at your coal consumption rate? The pounds per day are pretty good partner! Did the ash produced come from the 108 pounds? Seems a little heavy around 31%

Lee,

It's a guesstimate right now. I can't seem to get the Tri-Burner to feed without a fire going so my feed rate test method does not work. I'm going with 3.5 pounds per hour right now. Since I'm bucketing the coal in now, I should just go back to weighing the buckets.

-Don

StokerDon wrote:I woke up to another outfire this morning. I'm not sure whats going on. I I bumped the feed rate back up 1 turn to where it was last week, I hope that helps. The timer is set for 6 minutes, 15 percent. That should be 54 seconds "ON", that should be enough to keep a fire going.

There is realy only 3 things to play with here, Timer cycle, Timer percentage and feed rate. I'm thinking my lower feed rate may have let the fire shrink to much.

-Don

Don, what temperature does the boiler maintain? I recently had an outfire with my EFM...increasing the low limit setting seems to have helped the draft.

Rob,

It's running 145* on the low side and thats right about where the boiler temp stays. I think raising the low limit does about the same thing as increasing the timer settings, basicly your putting more heat into the chimney to keep the draft going. I'm a little afraid to raise the low limit, my garage was 90* today!

-Don

This keeping the boiler going in hot weather is more of a challenge than I thought it would be. So far the timer settings I arrived at a weeks ago have staved off outfires. It's been hot down here, a lot of days in the mid 80's, some in the upper 80's and the Tri-Burner keeps going!

-Don

StokerDon wrote:This keeping the boiler going in hot weather is more of a challenge than I thought it would be. So far the timer settings I arrived at a weeks ago have staved off outfires. It's been hot down here, a lot of days in the mid 80's, some in the upper 80's and the Tri-Burner keeps going!

-Don

Don with my yellow flame I had to watch the water temp pretty close during the summer. I had to increase the timer and the water temp to 145 just like you did but the water temp would creep up till the safety lifted. If I could catch it in time I just turned on the washing machine on HOT HOT HOT and let her fill. That would draw enough hot water off real quick to drop the temp. You may want to sit a radiator outside and have it as your dump zone when the water reaches 205. When it cools back off in the fall, bring it back inside.

I was going to do that but my wife was home all day and she would go look at the temp twice a day and if it creeped up she just did a load of clothes quickly to suck out some of the hot water.

Good advice there Larry. I was a little worried about the temp creeping up, almost evey time I look in the fire door, the grate is at least 2/3rds full of lit coal. I know I don't need that much just to heat DHW, it's just to keep the draft going. So far this spring the boiler temp stays between 130* and 155*.

Last fall before we installed the timer, it was running on the rehostat. I saw a lot of over 200* creep ups then. It was then that I found out these new high efficency washing machines don't take much hot water at all! I just turned the hot water in the kitchen sink on for a while.

-Don

The stoker ran for 13.2 hours over the past 2 days. 46.2 pounds of coal at 3.5 pounds per hour, 23.1 pounds per day. I added a weighed 53 pounds to the hopper. I have found that nothing is perfect when it come to measuring how much coal is being used.
I removed 16 pounds of ash for the last 2 days. 53 pounds of coal added. Aquastat set at HI = 170, LO = about 148, DIFF = 10 It was on a heat call, pressure = 14 PSI, Temp = 135 -Don

Yepper the running the hot in the bathtub works really good also. It moves a lot of hot water real fast. But about two baths a day? Really? That is bordering on obsession.