WL 110 Boiler

rickcj7 · Post by **rickcj7** » Mon. Mar. 02, 2015 2:23 pm

Ordered a Dwyer 460 off EBay, should be here in a few days.

Just filled the hopper with the last buckwheat coal, used 700 lbs.
Started coal Thur evening 6pm, all Fri/Sat/Sun and will be out by this evening.
4 full days 700 lbs? 175 lbs daily. Average 3/4 pan of ash per hopper full. Sound right? Lots of unburnt or looked unburnt pieces. Felt heavier than you would expect a pan of ash to weigh.

Average about 10-12 gals oil daily. Does that equal 175 lbs coal?

Picked up 6 bags of rice says Duey on the bag. Going to give it a try.

13,000 btu/lb x 175 lb = 2,275,000 btu/ 24 hrs or 94,791 btu/hour
Doesn't look like the coal is going to keep up.
Draft must be close to burn near max!

Flyer5 · Post by **Flyer5** » Mon. Mar. 02, 2015 8:04 pm

Read the manual and start the setup process over once you get the air meter. You are probably pushing unburned coal off the end.

rickcj7 · Post by **rickcj7** » Tue. Mar. 03, 2015 9:36 am

Filled the hopper with the rice coal last night 9pm,
added 1 3/4 bag this morning 9 am. was 15 degree out, the water never got up to temp ran all 12 hrs.
only have 1 bag to go, will run out before my meter gets here.
That's 1 ton in less than a week.
Will draft really make that much difference?

Post by **Rob R.** » Wed. Mar. 04, 2015 8:26 pm

rickcj7 wrote:That's 1 ton in less than a week.

What are you heating with this thing?

rickcj7 · Post by **rickcj7** » Wed. Mar. 04, 2015 9:04 pm

Sorry 1/2 ton 1000 lbs.
Heating my house and garage, 2500 sq ft

KLook · Post by **KLook** » Wed. Mar. 04, 2015 9:55 pm

What are you heating with this thing?

I think the question would be better asked with some parameters.
1) What is the construction of the home? Insulation? Windows?
2)What is the construction of the garage? Same as above.
3) What is the type of radiation you are attempting to heat these spaces with?

Kevin

rickcj7 · Post by **rickcj7** » Wed. Mar. 04, 2015 10:40 pm

The week before I started with coal I burned around 75 gals oil, it was 1 of the coldest weeks we've had, several nights below 0. The boiler barely kept up running most of the nights it was below 0.
I've gone thru 1000 lbs of coal and this week has been warmer, only 1 night it dropped to 0 and has been in the 20s during the day and low teens at night.
I now think the boiler is working OK, I just didnt figure it would take longer to recover than it does with oil.
The house would call for heat, the boiler would lose 20 degrees, before it could get back up to 190 the shop would call for heat and it would drop another 20 degree. After a few cycles the water temp would be too low to heat.
175 lbs of coal burning 24 hrs is close to the boilers output, I think I just bought too small of a coal boiler. I have a monometer coming to double check the draft if its close i'll be looking for a bigger stoker, something at least 150k+ btu.

blrman07 · Post by **blrman07** » Thu. Mar. 05, 2015 7:56 am

rickcj7 wrote:Filled the hopper with the rice coal last night 9pm,
added 1 3/4 bag this morning 9 am. was 15 degree out, the water never got up to temp ran all 12 hrs.
only have 1 bag to go, will run out before my meter gets here.
That's 1 ton in less than a week.
Will draft really make that much difference?

Yes draft will really make that much difference. If you don't measure the draft, measure the boiler temperature and measure your stack temperature your merely whistling in the dark.

rickcj7 · Post by **rickcj7** » Thu. Mar. 05, 2015 9:38 pm

Out of coal and back on oil, manometer should be here friday.
Running coal it should be -.01- -.02 in the base and -.04 at the flue
What about for oil?

rickcj7 · Post by **rickcj7** » Sat. Mar. 07, 2015 12:12 am

Got manometer today, checked oil usage and checked draft.
Burner ran 18 hrs of 24 ( 0- low 20s) with a 9-2 nozzle at 3 psi. Cant find flow gph rate for the nozzle.
Manometer read .01 above the flame.

Post by **Rob R.** » Sat. Mar. 07, 2015 7:07 am

When fired on oil you are looking at 165,000 btus/hr input, about 140,000 btus/hr NET. That requires about 1.2 gallons per hour. If the burner runs 18 hours per day to keep your house warm, there is no chance that the stoker output will be adequate in the same weather. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you either need to reduce your heat load somehow or get a coal boiler with a higher output rating.

rickcj7 · Post by **rickcj7** » Sat. Mar. 07, 2015 9:03 am

Rob R. wrote:When fired on oil you are looking at 165,000 btus/hr input, about 140,000 btus/hr NET. That requires about 1.2 gallons per hour. If the burner runs 18 hours per day to keep your house warm, there is no chance that the stoker output will be adequate in the same weather. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you either need to reduce your heat load somehow or get a coal boiler with a higher output rating.

That's what I think too! The coal would keep up above 30, run full blast in the 20s and fall behind in the teens. The oil can keep up down to 0. The extra BTU of the oil burner and fast recovery helps a lot.

blrman07 · Post by **blrman07** » Sat. Mar. 07, 2015 9:06 am

Lordy have mercy!!! Are you looking at burning about $50 a day in oil?

rickcj7 · Post by **rickcj7** » Sat. Mar. 07, 2015 9:37 am

blrman07 wrote:Lordy have mercy!!! Are you looking at burning about $50 a day in oil?

Probably more on the really cold days!

Jan/Feb it was cold and I used over 600gal in 60 days. Average usage for the season is 4 tanks or 1000+ gals.
That's 2 tanks for the house and 2 for the shop, not bad.

Not sure I want to shovel over 5 ton coal.

I have a waste oil boiler in the shop set up to heat both shop and house, when the waste oil is used up I thought burning coal in the system would be better than leaving it sit.

Now I'm thinking I should have kept the waste oil boiler and just added a 150K stoker.

blrman07 · Post by **blrman07** » Sat. Mar. 07, 2015 9:50 am

i'm not sure where your at but my coal costs me 8.5 cents a pound. I am blessed to have 5 yards within about 10 miles of my house. That five tons would work out to $850. 1000 gallons of fuel oil at 2.50 a gallon comes to $2,500. For a savings of $1,650 I'll shovel some coal and take a couple of weekend trips this summer but then each to his own.

That' just my opinion.