From OWB to EFM520 Installed in Truck Box

Hmmm and I've always blown my snow away from the foundation! Lol

We had a very pleasant surprise tonight when we filled the hopper,it only took 240#. Hi temp today was 15* but only breezy so we didn't burn very much today even tho the shop exchanger fan ran a lot while working today. -5* this a/m had me thinking we would be adding in excess of 300#. 7 teeth ,8 air has passed a brutal test just fine,it carried the extreme load this a/m with good HOT supply of DHW too.

Another evening with a pleasant surprise, we only added 180# ,4* this a/m,up to 30* briefly ,BUT no wind, 15 mph breeze with LOTS of sunshine.Our house heated up to 80* without the heat exchanger fan running since early this a/m. Shop heat also did not run as much as yesterday,wind really affects the shop & our house demand for heat. Forgot to empty the ash tub this a/m,had 1 Very FULL tub to empty.

Didn't get any pics,camera probably would have frozen,12* & Windy, but we got 3 tons of Blashack rice delivered today.Jono Hardware delivered with their hi-lift, as long as we kept it moving fast it flowed nicely, but when we got to the clean out stage the coal was freezing in the chute. We should have enough coal to get us close to the end of March unless this brutal cold stays around for a few weeks yet. Now we can keep heating & start saving some $$ to pay for this coal in a few weeks.Sure hope we see the temps start rising,it was 7* this a/m & not to get over 16* all day with 30+mph winds,too cold !! Now we have exceeded the 10 ton mark, we have now burnt 10.5 ton with this boiler & we are still amazed at how easy it is to tend & how well it does its job(at least when I have it adjusted right). Sure is a good feeling to see almost 4 ton in the bin again.

-4* this a/m,18* high today,30 mph wind gusts all day till about dark then the wind diminished . We added 255# of rice coal to the 520 tonite , just a bit over 1.5 tubs of ash/24 hrs. 7 teeth/8 air,burning Blashack rice is doing just fine,no lag this cold a/m,plenty of heat & the HOT shower was great too.

23* this a/m following the 5" of new snow we received overnight,it warmed up to 48* today with plenty of afternoon sunshine & mild breeze. We only added 150# of coal tonight,but we likely will be adding more than that each nite for the next week if the current forecast holds.

From first fire on Oct 10,2014 -Mar. 1,2015 , we have burned 22,000 #-(11 tons) in the boiler. Jan. 1235 HDD with 5,875 # of coal burned = 4.76#/hdd ,Feb. 1256 HDD with 5,280# of coal burned = 4.2#/hdd . The first half of Jan. was Superior,second half was Reading,most of Feb.has been Blashack. We have been very pleased with the low ash & reasonable consumption rate with Blashack. With the 4,000# of Reading & Blashack that we have burned in our Crane 404 we are at a total of 26,000#(13 ton)~~~~ This compares to 20-25 cord of wood for the same time period when we were feeding our OWB just last winter. We have all the buildings heating at a slightly higher temp than last winter + in our house with the Crane in our living room ,the living room is quite a bit more comfortable (warmer) than it was last winter.This concrete slabbed room is much warmer with radiant heat in the room vs just the hot air warming it.If only we had installed a coal burning boiler instead of the OWB,we would likely be at least 5 yrs younger than we are. BUT,while "better never late, better late than never".We are with our current heating system & the greatly reduced work load from the wood burning days of the past.Looks as tho we may have enough coal in the bin (6,000#) to get us close to the end of April.

For this boiler, Jan. avg.= 189.5#/day (1/2 of Jan was Superior,1/2 Reading), Feb avg.=188.5#/day ( a little Reading ,mostly Blashack) These figures are at my upper limit of mathamagical computations.

I set the stoker back to 6 teeth,6 air Sat. evening,will watch to see if the low temps are gone for sure b4 setting lower. Yesterday morning we had 20*,lots of sunshine took the temps to 53*,last nite we added 120# ,this a/m we had 30* cloudy for most of the day with late afternoon & evening rain ,warmed up to 48*,tonite we added 120#. We are also using about 30-35# in the Crane in our house.We are doing quite a bit of work in the shop now which means the overhead door gets opened a few times per day which makes for more heat calls.Even with tending the boiler & handfed it takes so much less time & work than the wood eating OWB did.

windyhill4.2 wrote:For this boiler, Jan. avg.= 189.5#/day (1/2 of Jan was Superior,1/2 Reading), Feb avg.=188.5#/day ( a little Reading ,mostly Blashack) These figures are at my upper limit of mathamagical computations.

I didn't see this when you posted it, but that is funny as hell my friend.

SWPaDon, I sure am happy to know that my typed words could make someone smile Seems like my typing skills too often bring out the opposite reaction from too many folks.As a boy, I got many whippings from my parents & a few teachers for "clowning " around, that sure changed the way I interact with others over the yrs. & even tho I generally no longer "clown" around, I still most often get misunderstood , especially with my typed words.Thanks for your post . You have started my day with a smile !

Did you ever get a chance to clean the boiler? I am curious to hear how much flyash you find/found in the base.

Rob,i have not yet,i will be on Sunday. Seems the warmer temps have kick-started our busy season, 5 lawn tractors & 4 Self-propelled mowers so far for this week.Some others are supposed to come in too, not verified yet tho.

See my next post

My first coal boiler,my first season,my first fly ash clean out. It didn't go too bad,didn't lose the fire,altho water temp dropped to near 100* till we got it powered back up.Did not seem like a terrible amount of dust considering that we burned 12+ tons & 8 of that was the high ash Superior.I do not have a steel wire bristle brush so I used our nylon bristled dryer vent brush to clean between the boiler plates.It actually brought down about a qt of dust from all the plates.I reached in thru the round fire door & used a screwdriver to scratch some of the semi-loose scaly stuff off,couldn't fool around in there long as the pot was still hot.Now I need to get a whole lot of work done in our shop so we can get enough $$ together to get a 10 ton load of Lehigh coal in the bin this summer.