Energy King Ek45. Opinions Anyone?

Hey,
I've been researching coal boilers like the EK45B and other types of wood gasification boilers,(TARM). Does anyone have practical experience with either of these? can offer any operational advantages of one over another? I really want a high efficiency boiler that can burn either wood or coal. We nee a 160,000 BTU unit. It will be used as a secondary boiler (booster) in conjunction with a 500 gallon hot water storage tank to "boost" the primary LP boiler, which I hope will never need to run again. I'm certainly not predispoed to either the EK or the Tarm if there are others that are better. Suggstions? I saw a another from AHS, the coal gun, looks great, pretty expensive, tho. Mike62

I can't help you much as I don't run one as as yet, but Tarm's multi fuel is over $13,000. It does not burn coal, just wood & oil. AHS is more money than that? It does burn coal.

Hello Mike62, welcome to the forum.. If you are located where you can purchase anthracite coal easily, I would forget about the wood.. If you want a system that saves money on fuel, and heats well. The real cost of cutting, stacking, cleaning up after, seasoning the wood, is very high. With coal,, just get the coal, and use it. The only thing you have to do is protect the coal from freezing rain and snow,, and this is only because it will freeze into a solid mass. The coal itself doesn't care if it is wet.

As far as I know, there are no true wood-gassification boilers that will also burn coal. The temperatures and gass flows are different, there may be some that 'can' burn both fuels,, but I'm not a fan of compromise solid fuel burners.

With a properly sized anthracite-burning boiler, for your application, an AHS 130 coal gun or AxemanAnderson 130 may be too small, so maybe the larger 260K BTU versions, or a Keystoker KA6 would be better. If you want a hand feed, AHS makes a multi-fuel boiler, and Harman makes several sizes of hand feed coal/wood boilers.

You state you need 160K BTU, if this number is for really extreem cold weather, I'd recommend a smaller, slightly undersized boiler, like the AHS or AA 130 size.. they like to operate near their max output, and are very efficient. The use your LP to help make up if you have the rare very cold night.

With proper plumbing and controls the interaction of the coal and LP boilers can be automatic. The use of a big water storage tank is popular with wood burners, especially with the reverseflow and gassification systems,, because these systems don't work well when 'idling' or during ramp-up to max heat output, they smoke and still make some creosote. The water storage is an attempt to keep the boiler at efficient operating levels, then shut it down.. This is not needed with coal,, a stoker coal boiler idles very well and efficiently, then ramps up to max output without emissions or much lag at all.

BTW: I've been a wood burner for decades,, but now with coal,, I give away my standing dead, and dead-fall trees,,, they are a nusiance, not an asset !!

Hope this helps

Greg L

Thanks for the info, L's farm. We used to have a TASSO wood boiler many years ago and we cut/spilt/stacked/ etc about 14 cord of wood annually. Yes, it's a pain alright. My thoughts on a dual fuel burner is to still have an alternative if coal should become prohibitively expensive, like oil. We live in the Northeast, coal will not be hard to obtain. I've been researching different coal boilers for a couple of months now. The more I look, the more there is to know! Very helpful to know the water storage is not needed with coal furnace, great way to save some money and floor space. The s-130 looks like a great unit, more than I was hoping to spend tho. Comes in around 5500.00. The Energy King is around 3500.00. Not sure about the efficiency yet. Anyone else know?? I had another idea: take a Reading furnace (Susquehana - 160K BTU) a hot air furnace and install a bunch of hot water coils into the burn chamber. Sort of "create a boiler". This unit is way less, around 1400.00, before the coils. Anyone else tried this yet?? Please chime in........... Mike 62

I would buy a refurbished EFM boiler, it is made to be a boiler, they are very heavy duty, and are available for around $ 2000-2500.
The problem with a wood/coal boiler is that it will be a compromise. It won't usually be very efficient burning both fuels. I built myself a very good wood/coal boiler, it is good for wood, marginal for coal.

I personally like the AA and AHS boilers,, I like the self cleaning heat exchanger design.. but I buy used and refurbish/rebuild myself.. I wouldn't pay for a new boiler, I prefer to convert my time to money saved.

Greg L

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Thanks for the sugggestions. I'm new to this and not sure what all the terms mean. What is EFM please? I have literature on the AHS models, but not sure what AA is. Please advise, are they similar to AHS units? Again, being new to this, I'm not familiar with rebuilding or repair. I'm mechanically inclined tho, are these fairly easy to work on / understand? Mike 62

EFM: efmheating.com/d520.html

AA: Axeman-anderson.com

AHS: Alternatheatingsystems.com

Hi Mike 62 here is some reading for you There all good units it will come down to what size you need and how much you want to spend

http://www.efmheating.com/d520.html
**Broken Link(s) Removed**http://www.axeman-anderson.com/anthratube.html

http://www.alternateheatingsystems.com/coalboilers.htm