From OWB to EFM520 Installed in Truck Box

I agree with Rob that the main thing is to get the ash ring the right size for any given feed rate. It shouldn't be bigger than the 2" because then some of the "combustion" air is just blowing through dead ash and cooling the boiler.

My concern with the appearance of the fire relates to how it is "breathing". A fire can appear "lazy" even with the ash door open if, for example, your coal is "small" or has a large percentage of undersized pieces, or the fines clean-out cover isn't closing fully. If the fire is too lazy with a proper air setting at 4 teeth, I am concerned that you will have trouble if/when you try to ramp up its output in colder weather. Best to vet out any of those types of issues now before you're actually trying to carry the big load.

Mike

The draft should be properly set before you consider the "tune" final.

One thing I did notice when we were unloading the coal was the high to me amount of fines in it.I can get quite a few fines each day when I work the fines lever. Maybe the fines in this coal is why Scottscoaled says that I got the wrong coal. I had researched on here & found a favorable review of Superior's coal in the past ,not sure if any of the reviews was for the past 12 months or not.

Even small rice with a lot of undersized pieces can be burned in that stoker, but it may not be easy to get a proper burn at the higher feed rates you eventually may need. Before getting too concerned, I would suggest that at some point fairly soon you "test drive" the unit at higher feed/air settings to see how it does with that coal. Maybe pick a time when it's comparatively cold and windy so you can start to simulate winter draft and load conditions. If you can keep it on the rails at 7-8 teeth of feed, that's probably all you should hope for. If you can't get enough air through it at higher feed rates, you might want to locate some coal that's better suited to running hard in an EFM. My vote would go to uniformly sized large rice or small buck free burning white ash coal.

Mike

Here are some pics of our chimney set up in response to franco b 's request & pics we forgot to take till he reminded me,Thanks,franco b

Pacowy, I used a measuring cup tonight & got 3 cups of fines out, I added 100# of coal to the hopper,both the fines figure & coal figure is for the last 24 hrs. We definitely got heat calls from all 3 buildings today with the very windy day we had & temp about 62* for the high.With that amount of fines coming out with 100# input,do I need to empty the fines 2 times per day when coal usage goes up ??

Chimney looks good. I think you could slide a brush down that pipe pretty easily, and if you used a tee at the boiler as a clean out, never have to dis-assemble anything.

franco b , I installed a tee at the bottom with the clean out at the bottom not thinking about getting into the boiler base for clean out so I will probably have to remove the lower section to do that job.

windyhill4.2 wrote:Pacowy, I used a measuring cup tonight & got 3 cups of fines out, I added 100# of coal to the hopper,both the fines figure & coal figure is for the last 24 hrs. We definitely got heat calls from all 3 buildings today with the very windy day we had & temp about 62* for the high.With that amount of fines coming out with 100# input,do I need to empty the fines 2 times per day when coal usage goes up ??

I'll defer to other members who run S-20 stokers to chime in regarding their rates of fines accumulation per 100 lb of coal burned. Kind of makes me wish lsayre had an EFM. The stoker I run has automatic fines removal, but 3 cups per 100# sounds pretty intense and like it takes up significant space in the air chamber.

To project this to future load levels, I suggest you do some figuring on the correspondence between the number of pounds you burn vs. degree days - e.g., if the high was 62 and the low was 42, you would have burned 100 lb/(65 - ((62+42)/2) dd = about 7.7 lb/dd. This figure may not remain steady as conditions get more challenging, but it should start to give you a basis for projecting your mid-winter situation. It might wind up making sense for you to either screen the fines out of the coal you have or come up with a second source for heavy load periods.

Mike

I usually get about a coffee cup worth of fines per ash tub, which is about 150 lbs worth of coal. I haven't checked it since I switched to this year's supply of coal, but I will check later this week.

It is possible the grain auger used to move the coal created additional fines.

Pacowy, you bring up a very good point about Isayre,he has an amazing amount of data,we wouldn't be talking cups but oz/mm Rob, I stuck my hand into the coal on the truck b4 we started unloading & was surprised at the amount of fines,we ran the auger on the slow side & kept it full most of the time,so I doubt the auger had much to do with the fines issue.When I was farming I used a silage blower to transfer dry shelled corn from gravity bins to trucks by using an 80 HP tractor running slightly above idle & filling the blower hopper with corn.We could transfer corn at a very high rate with no visible cracking/damage,not a quiet way to do it but very effective & rapid field transfer.

Following a windy night & windy day today with max temp of 60*, I added 120 # of coal to the hopper & took out 4 cups of fines. 1 cup of fines for every 30 # of coal, ash amount is not bad,about 3/4 tub for that 120# burnt. I have the stoker set at 4 teeth/5 air to get the ash ring size suggested,the ash ring is a thick clump 1-2" thick which breaks apart when it falls into the ash pit.

With the proper ash ring you may get a little more efficient burn and slightly reduced coal consumption. The fines and undersized pieces make it hard to get a good burn from the bigger pieces.

What was the low temp Saturday night?

If you have a chance could you post a pic of the fire after a long run at the new air setting?

Thanks.

Mike

36* this morning & we had 30 mph wind overnite & today,we will try to get a pic tomorrow a/m when all buildings are calling for heat.

Pictures of fire,with the ash door open to help prevent flame flutter, I took this at 7:30 a/m,we had 30* outside so all systems were calling for heat, stoker is set on 4 teeth,5 air ,we used 140 #/24hrs., 3 cups of fines.