Looking for Plans for Outdoor Coal Boiler.

HI, I'm new to alternative heating, but I know that I can't afford the way I'm doing it now! (Propane)

I live on a Dairy farm in Northern WI. We have a 40x48 shop with in floor radiant hot water heat powered by the worlds crappiest OWB...... The house is approx 2000-2500 square feet, poor to moderate insulation. Then there's the milk house, probably 700-1000 square feet with very poor insulation.... We need to heat all three and would like to heat the hot water for the house and milk barn........

I'm planning on building the mother of all outdoor boilers..... Was looking at wood, but like the no-fuss potential of coal. I'm looking for plans for building my own boiler (no way on earth I can afford to buy one)....... It'd have to be able to burn both wood and coal efficiently.......

How many BTU's should I figure on? I plan to have about 1000 gallons or so of water storage......

I'm primarily looking for plans for a good design.....

Thanks!

-Matt

I'd go look at a comercial one or maybe get some brochures to get an idea of how to fabricate your own.
http://www.heatinnovations.com/coalheat.htm

This is what I built, I wanted as much heated area as possible, with water circulation guided through the heat exchanger tubes and passageways. I made it all out of 3/16" stainless steel [409]. Greg L

Take a look at these boilers for ideas, I sell them so I am a familiar with them. They offer optional coal grates that would be real easy to incorporate into a home built furnace and a local dealer would be a source of the grates. I have two customers that are burning coal and are very satisifyed with the performance and coal consumption.

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deerefanatic, where are you? That may have a bearing on which coal you can use as the designs for one are not always ideal for the other. With the demand you are talking about, you'll want something efficient.

Ladysmith, WI; 54848........... I'm having a bugger of a time even finding ANY coal......

Wood is what everyone uses up here.......... about $70/logger cord...... Then you've gotta cut, split, stack, and dry it before it's ready to use.............

I read somewhere on here where someone said to stop at a coal burning power plant and see if they'd sell some to you........

For the size fire box you want and style of furnace, coal won't work unless you have your own coal mine.
A hand fired coal furnace/boiler likes a round small fire box. From that it starts to be a trade off.

As for making a boiler, get a length of gas pipe line weld the ends in, put a door on one end.
Cut the hole in the 1000gal. tank, slide the pipe (fire box) in and weld.(leaving out details)

The round pipe within a pipe is how most OWB's are made, and they are very inefficient..not enough surface area. A good boiler has lots of heated water surface, and the exhaust is fairly cool, that is most of the heat of the fire has tranfered into the water.

The PROBLEM with this is that with wood, all the surfaces are a condesation surface for creosote.. creostote will condensd on any surface cooler that ~250*, so you must either make the heat exchanger very simple or provide access to the surfaces so you can scrape/clean the creosote off. I made all my surfaces accessable with doors and the entire interior can be cleaned with a small garden hoe.

When I converted to burning coal,, I just vacuumed the surfaces off with a shop vac after about every 4-5 tons of coal.

In Wisconsin, the only coal you will be able to find in any quantity and reasonable [maybe] price will be Bituminous coal.. I'd go the http://www.will-burt.com and look into one of their stokers and a commercial boiler... and then reverse engineer it if you have the capabilities. Not an easy task.

Let us know what you figure out... and BTW, which brand of OWB do you have?? Some have a better design than others.

One method to get an efficient wood burner is the rather sophisticated down-draft burner boilers,, they are much more efficient, and get much cleaner burns, with little creosote buildup... most of the high-efficiency setups store the hot water in large tanks. So the boiler runs hot and hard, [highly efficient] heats the water, then goes into idle mode.

Check out this site: https://www.hearth.com I think this is the right address, if not, google down-draft wood boiler.

Take care,,, Greg L

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are you planning on a pressure system or no pressure

a simple tank would be a used propane tank .. after a suitable purge and a gas sniffer test for explosive gases
next step would be to put a coal stoker unit under one end of it and and a wood burner under the other
my system , a coal stoker is the the main heat for a 40x60 shop under slab heating,has only 50 gals capacity and runs at 150 deg.

keep in mind that under ground pipe is expensive an adds up really fast (mine is 1inch metal lined )
my actual boiler is just sheet metal welded together with fiberglass insulation and metal siding
they welded tubing from the fire box to a ash catcher on top ( 3 inch car exhaust) the top is just an insulated top
they also have a 1/8 by 2 3/4 inch flat bar with a triple twist for ash control these go into the 3 inch tubes from the fire box
i am going to stainless steel chimney pipes , the are eaten up in 2 to 3 years otherwise
my system also requires a anti rust and lubricated additive
a alternative heater for your new location . school bus heater cores usally 1 inch lines small cage fan from a small house furnace for a blower and a electric baseboard heater control/thermostat

also insulation and draft reduction is your most important upgrade
planning your location for your boiler is also very important if it is the highest point in your system air bleeding is much easier
shovelling coal and ash gets really old .. really fast ( experince talking) my coal stoker is loaded by a 8 in auger driven by a electric motor reduced down to about 10 rpm I still need to install the ash out auger
plus where will you store your coal and where can you dispose of your ashes and how are you planning to get then there .my system has about 5 gallons of ash a day

my system uses a gravel truck load of coal a year ( 13 metric tonnes )
and to end more insulation ,thicker insulation ,less drafts
have fun later

http://www.legendmfg.ca/
this a canadian company but there product is good ( over seven years ) had to repalce the drive belt once

gives general idea of there product and with the cdn dollar = 80 cents american it might work for you

deerefanatic wrote:Ladysmith, WI; 54848........... I'm having a bugger of a time even finding ANY coal......

I read somewhere on here where someone said to stop at a coal burning power plant and see if they'd sell some to you........

Did you find any coal? I am at the other end of the State, West Allis.

NOW TO FIND COAL
I can give you two suggestions to find coal. First go to http://www.blaschakcoal.com and send them an email asking for a list of dealers in your area. Give the usual, for location with phone area code and location in the State.
I know of a dealer in eastern MN. Call Tradewinds in Isanti, MN at 763-434-8887 and ask for Fred Meyer. He is an Alaska stove dealer and their midwest Rep; so he will also know locations for coal in your area. He is very proactive at adding dealers to the Midwest.

if practical, build your stoker room unto a building thus would heat your building without adding pipe and pumps to your system

also when you assemble your tank lots of insulation around your tank and in the structure you build around it
plus if practical build your coal bin in such a way so that you can dump your coal in straight from your truck saves time an a auger to move coal to your bin

my auger system takes 2 to 3 hours to move my coal from truck to bin ( 8 inch auger tractor driven )

my plan if practical to your site .. coal bin below crest of hill , stoker below the level of the coal bin to avoid a auger delivery system and a ash container below the stoker so that the ash falls into it ( prevents shoveling not my favorite hobby)

happy planing