What Kind of Coal Works Best in an Outdoor Wood Furnace???

Post by **Rob R.** » Wed. Dec. 31, 2014 8:22 am

Art, sounds like it is working well for you. Do you run the unit via natural draft like Wally described.

artbaldoni · Post by **artbaldoni** » Wed. Dec. 31, 2014 8:54 am

Rob R. wrote:Art, sounds like it is working well for you. Do you run the unit via natural draft like Wally described.

Rob, I tried natural draft but kept overfiring, even with a 1/8" gap in my damper flap. I run 175° with a 1-2° differential. I can tune my forced air flow by adjusting the size of the air opening that the fan is pushing through. I try to adjust so I am losing as little heat as possible out the stack, still quite a bit no matter what you do. I may give natural draft a try again just to see if I can make it work. It would be great if I could figure that out, keep more heat in the stove and a better control of temperature swings. The stove usually overfires to 180° after the blower shuts off.

This is a 12 hour load in 30° temps.

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windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Wed. Dec. 31, 2014 9:34 am

50# of coal + 50# of wood,picture tells the whole story,thanks.

artbaldoni · Post by **artbaldoni** » Wed. Dec. 31, 2014 11:53 am

windyhill4.2 wrote:50# of coal + 50# of wood,picture tells the whole story,thanks.

Actually its not the whole story. That wood is there more to keep the coal in a compact pile. It will still be there for several coal loads, 2 days or so at which time I add more wood to the sides. I have used about 1/3 of a cord since the end of October and less than 2 tons of coal. Seems pretty good to me. I realize that I will never convince you that my setup is working and thats ok with me. What I do know is that my heating cost is low and my wood usage has been cut by 2/3 or more. Is your setup better? Probably. I imagine yours is the best of anyone on this forum, but I need to work with what I have. Bottom line is it's better than oil! I think we can agree on that. :surrender:

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Wed. Dec. 31, 2014 12:04 pm

My wood usage has been cut by 100%,so of course that's better than your's!!!!!!!

Actually, Wallyp has us all beat,5000 sq ft with only 100 #/day,that is super good & that is up there in the cold country north of us. Art, the 1/3 cord of wood/(1/3 ton of coal) would need to be added into your actual consumption figure just like everyone else adds all their #'s of coal.Yes ,i am happy that you have kicked the oil habit.

userdk · Post by **userdk** » Fri. Jan. 02, 2015 11:27 pm

I'm back. Thanks for all the replies. I am burning a MF 10,000. Check out this vid.

userdk · Post by **userdk** » Fri. Jan. 02, 2015 11:29 pm

Youtube is blocked on this computer so I don't know if the vid worked, but that should supply you with the info you need on grates, firebox shape, and etc.

lzaharis · Post by **lzaharis** » Fri. Jan. 02, 2015 11:54 pm

Wallyp wrote:
We live at London, Ontario, Canada, have sold Heatmor Outdoor Boilers since 1995,
and have burned anthracite and been a dealer for Blaschak for the past 3 years,
and now also a dealer for Keystoker.

We have learned how burning anthracite in a Heatmor can be a great way of heating,
but not everyone has the same luck.

We have shaker grates ( that is a must ) and last year used a fire brick lined steel box
that sat over the grates and held about 300 pounds of nut size anthracite, but this year
have been getting along just as well without the box, keeping the anthracite bed very deep,.
to the bottom of the firebox door opening- so that means our coal bed is 18 inches deep.

The key is to shake the coal bed at least 2x per day until hot coals appear in the ash tube
below the grates- we even shake in the "dump" mode but then the trick is to stop shaking
before a hard piece of anthracite jams the grates.
Our other, off the cuff, thing that works for us is- set the water temp to cycle between
150 and 165, but for constant atural draft we jam a screw driver between the ash tube cover
plate and the tube such that there is a gap of about 1/8 inch- that allows natural, under the
fire draft, continuously so that the combustion air fan seldom comes on .
We throw in one full 40 pound bag, bag and all, on average, in the morning and at night to
heat our 4,000 sq ft home plus 1,000 sq ft shop. We feel we keep our efficiencies up by using
natural draft as much as possible and I really feel our efficiencies are good but that is hard to
measure for us. Three years ago in cold weather we were burning discarded wooden pallets-
we knew we were burning 400 pounds of pallets per day because we weighed some - did this
for 1 month or so and then switched to nut anthracite- the next month burning anthracite
seemed reasonably close weather wise to the previous month - we burned 100 pounds of
coal per day . The only reason this ratio would occur is if we kept our efficiencies high burning
coal . As stated above- the key is to shake at least 2 x per day and remove your ashes with the
auger at least every 2 days, and of course you must block off all the air flow from the front air
box at the top of the air box, plus it is best to remove the reducer in the air tube leaving that
front air box ( The pipe that takes air from the air box, through the sand a few inches and allows
that air to flow under the grates ) . For wood burning you need the reducer in to allow only
1 inch of air pipe- For anthracite, take the reducer out and you have 2 inches of air pipe to
direct more combustion air through the grates up tho the anthracite if and when the front
combustion fan kicks in to top up the water temp . For coal burning you must disconnect
the rear fan of a Heatmor - you want zero top air in burning anthracite coal .

I have just read a thread about qualities of anthracite this year and it has me thinking .
We had a heck of a time getting a new large Keystoker boiler to burn anthracite the
other day- it just would not light- we blamed the balls of paper, the charcoal briquettes,
our lack of patience etc., Could it have been our new bagged rice coal ?

==================================================================================================

Were you using oiled coal?????? they want you to use oiled coal.

Were the screws holding the grate assembly side plates and bed plates tight
and was it sealed with gasket cement?

I would check the combustion air holes in the sloped grate to
see how plugged t hat are from coal dust.

If the bagged coal was wet when you started the fire that is also
a problem.

If you want to see your coal burning efficiency improve in your forest eater
place a piece of channel iron over half the length of the grates and then fill
the boiler with firebrick to the edge of the channel iron and you will see a
huge difference in burning coal as the fire will be smaller and more
concentrated over a smaller square area.

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Sat. Jan. 03, 2015 6:39 am

userdk , are you still able to sell many of those OWB's ? Here in our country there has been a big push to ban them completely. In Pa.many townships have banned them except for the farmers,greenhouses & commercial interests. The gasification units are allowed some places yet for residential use.

userdk · Post by **userdk** » Sun. Jan. 04, 2015 10:16 pm

As far as I know they're still legal in most areas of the US. The EPA is expected to ban the sale of new traditional outdoor wood furnaces early this year, but I don't think they have yet. Then there will be a sort of initiation period of grace, to increase public awareness of the new law. There's some threads on http://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com about it. Gasification models are still going to be legal though.

userdk · Post by **userdk** » Mon. Jan. 05, 2015 5:53 pm

Michigan passed a law blocking any attempts by the EPA to enforce the new regulations.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Mon. Jan. 05, 2015 6:02 pm

You can't get a permit for an OWB in my county.

scalabro · Post by **scalabro** » Mon. Jan. 05, 2015 6:10 pm

lsayre wrote:You can't get a permit for an OWB in my county.

What if a small shed was built around it?

Then it would not be on OWB....hahahahahahahahaha!

For every new reg. there is a work-around.

lsayre · Post by **lsayre** » Mon. Jan. 05, 2015 6:14 pm

When I permitted my latest back yard shed about 3 years ago I was asked straight up if I intended to put an OWB inside it. I said no and I got the permit. No idea what would have happened if I said yes, but likely it would not have gone as smoothly.

scalabro · Post by **scalabro** » Mon. Jan. 05, 2015 6:55 pm

lsayre wrote:When I permitted my latest back yard shed about 3 years ago I was asked straight up if I intended to put an OWB inside it. I said no and I got the permit. No idea what would have happened if I said yes, but likely it would not have gone as smoothly.

Well when you got the permit for the shed, you were not going to put the OWB in it

People change their minds all the time!

I guess it really depends strictly on the wording of the ordinance.