LL AA-220 Max Draft Burn With Power Vent Please Help!

Arghhhh.....you finally got to where your at by..,.. NOT TOUCHING IT!!!!

Let the controls do what they were designed to do.

When I was onboard ship we had BIG experimental boilers. They were named pressure fired because they had super chargers on them that were powered by the exhaust gases coming out of the boiler. The end of the supercharger had a compressor that supplied the boiler with combustion air. The boiler was designed to operate in automatic mode.

In the school we had to attend before being assigned to that ship we were challenged to take the land based training boiler out of auto and put it in manual. Then they would do load changes and the operator was to make the necessary changes to keep the pressures and temps within operating parameters. Every time the boiler would get outside parameters the auto trips would take it off line.

No one ever operated those boilers faster or better than the automatic controls.

Moral of this story.......You cannot operate that boiler more efficiently than the automatic controls on it unless your going to sit right next to it 24/7/365

LEAVE IT ALONE and get a hobby.

If you have to do something, split and stack wood and then sell it.

I have 2 trailers at my shop waiting for a little fab work. I'll just go over there and make some extra money to buy coal! Was surprised to come home to the boiler within set temps at lower feed and combustion levels with 27* outdoor temps!

swyman wrote:I have 2 trailers at my shop waiting for a little fab work. I'll just go over there and make some extra money to buy coal! Was surprised to come home to the boiler within set temps at lower feed and combustion levels with 27* outdoor temps!

You have warm temps there,

We had 18* this a/m.

Big warm up + rain

tonite & tomorrow
55* for the high
flooding possible.
We shall see what takes place,so far our temps are lower than the forecast, day & nite.
Looks like another week with no threat of any snow storm

Starting a GoFundMe campaign for Swyman. Something like this is what I had in mind.


Just kidding. Go have fun with your trailers

CoalisCoolxWarm wrote:Starting a GoFundMe campaign for Swyman. Something like this is what I had in mind.

Doorchains.png

Just kidding. Go have fun with your trailers

Love it. I think we need to include that with every unit we sell.

You guys are awesome!!

swyman wrote:You guys are awesome!!

Glad you accept our sometimes twisted sense of humor, LOL!

Still nothing to report but a boring coal boiler running flawlessly. I hardly even look at the fire anymore, just top off the hopper everyday and dump the ash every other. Season winding down and I have about #1500 left. So I lit it up around end of Nov and the 6 ton I purchased will get me well into March. Granted a mild year and was a painful experience early on but now I can say it has been great. I truly don't know how I ever had time to cut and split all that wood for all those years. My next venture with coal is figuring out the best way to transport/store as I am going bulk from here on out. I think I am going to use the IBC totes. Judging by the size of the 330 gallon, it should hold about #2500 so my plan is to get about 8 and make 1 trip per year for my coal supply. I need to figure out a way to efficiently get the coal out from the bottom, my plan is to build a stand above the hopper and set a whole tote on it and feed the boiler that way. Would get me over a month without doing anything but dumping ash! Plus with multiple totes it would be easy to try both rice and buck and keep them separate. If anyone has done this or has any ideas, I would love to hear it! I had the perfect tote which was bulk seed totes that have a lid, tapered bottom with a door but the seed companies keep a tight inventory and are to expensive to buy new at the cost of $600 each. I have found the 330 gallon IBC totes for $50 each.
-Shane

swyman wrote:Still nothing to report but a boring coal boiler running flawlessly. I hardly even look at the fire anymore, just top off the hopper everyday and dump the ash every other

swyman wrote:. Granted a mild year and was a painful experience early on but now I can say it has been great. I truly don't know how I ever had time to cut and split all that wood for all those years.

We told ya!!!

swyman wrote:Still nothing to report but a boring coal boiler running flawlessly. I hardly even look at the fire anymore

Lost the key to the lock, eh?

Glad to hear she's doing her job

Excellent post!!!! Ain't it great!!!!

blrman07 wrote:Excellent post!!!! Ain't it great!!!!

Can't wait to try some Buck. I can see now how coal can vary, my last pallet of coal was from a later shipment that my dealer received and although from the same company (Blaschak) the sizing was a lot more consistent, less fines and larger size.

Has the coal consumption been more reasonable thru the cold spells?

Lightning wrote:Has the coal consumption been more reasonable thru the cold spells?

Yes, been averaging #120/day with #200 on the coldest. It is pretty amazing considering I am heating 3 buildings (house and 2 garages) plus domestic hot water. But on nights like tonight when I get 20+ mph West winds when it's 25* or below I now turn on the furnace and run together to get through. Do to my setup inefficiencies and air infiltration through the wall due to West winds the boiler temps will drop to around 145-155*. Everything just works better when it's up to 175-185* so I simply turn the furnace on for the night. I am hoping switching to buck might get me a little more output on those windy days but will have to wait till next season to find out. Also when I run the furnace with boiler on those cold days I will only burn #80-120. Overall everything works and I know I could make things more efficient but do I really want the hassle as others have stated? If I could increase draft just another .02-.04 I could run a hotter fire and the unit would keep up when it gets cold and windy but other than adding another direct vent or a 40' chimney there is no way to get any more out of it. On a side note, if I get a North, East, South wind I am fine, my house just has an issue on the West side that I cannot figure out. I am planning on building a living room addition on the West wall and I figure when I do that, should take care of my problem.....whenever that day comes!

Not a whole lot more tweaking you can do really on the boiler now. Your will be chasing about 8,000 BTU/Hr. Keep in mind this is all seat of the pants figuring.

Assume 75% efficient burn based on their lab rating of the boiler at 150K times a realistic 75% efficiency gives you a real world rating of around 112K possible.

So if you are burning 200# and averaging 104K to a possible max of 112K that is pretty darn good!!!

You are heating a LOT of space. You might get a little bit more efficiency out of the buck but remember coal is coal is coal. No matter the shape or the size it has the same BTU per pound. It's not like wood where the BTU per pound value can vary a lot by species.

Keep in mind that Return On Investment in not only money but time spent chasing that illusive 8K BTU/Hr could be considerable.

Most of the folks on this forum have a backup system for the stupid cold times and we use it too!!!! You can heat everything comfortable except for that possible week a year where you put on the propane. Your sitting pretty good now from what I can
see!!! I have an oil burner in the basement for hot water heating and domestic water. However we heat the house most of the time with my Vigilant Castings 2310 stove in the dining room. The oil backup is there for times when I get sick for a week or so and can't tend the stove... which has happened the last three winters. Right now we are on the little bucket a day coal fired water heater which is piped so it can heat the house and make all our domestic hot water.

To quote a TV series line with a little modification.....You've done good grasshoppaa