OUTDOOR Wood/Coal Furnaces...Seeking advice before we buy??

here is another pic with expansion tank

Hey guys i was finally able to get anthracite to burn in my owb .It felt like a turning point in my life i sat and gazed at the blue flame for 5 hours .Wife thinks i have totally lost it.I have kept the fire going for eleven days now.It was a lot of frustration and trial and error,but i have been browsing and reading on this forum for a year and gathering info.I had to build a insert with them shaker grates after several attempts i believe i have it.I wasted over 1000 lbs of anthracite due to inexperience.but i do believe my wood days may be close to and end.Even though i am hand fired it is still cheaper than that wood.Berlin had me about talked into a wilburt underfed ,but he said to use coal that was geographical close.The illinois stoker coal was nearly 10 hours away from northern wis where i have now found 7 heating outfits that carry the bagged anthracite all year round nearest only 1 hour away.The problem with bit coal in wis is only power companys use it and they buy by the barge load of 25ton.So the average home owner has to have a minium order of 25 ton or they wont bother with you .I know anthracite is more spendy but its still cheaper than gas/oil and you can buy it buy the bag if you want.I figure even at 350dollars a ton for anthracite if i only burn dduring the cold months it takes a load off the wood cutting.I am real excited guys this coal can be addictive My house has been at 79 to 80 degrees for days wife says she cant take it no more.But wisconsin is still below zero so i am loving the 6 dollar a day heat. thanks again for all the info it sure helped

sarge wrote:I have kept the fire going for eleven days now.

Congratulations! No wood at all for these 11 days? How much coal are you burning per day? What did you do to finally get it to burn?

I built a coal box for anthracite and placed in the middle of boiler ,it has the vertical sides and aggressive homade grates with fingers.I seen these grates on schaver outdoor wood coal boilers.Then i built an air manifold that goes in ash box and blows through the coal from bottom.I have not figured out what i will do when it gets warmer.The stove is designed to shut off all air when at temp,does the baro help.Right now its 9 below zero again so combustion fan does not shut down.I am hoping march is warmer right now i am adding about 60 lbs a day and water temp creeps to 160 at times and i have set at 140 so warmer weather will concern me with overheating.Coal gets this water hot 5 times faster than wood.No i have not burned no wood its hard to burn wood with that insert in their.as long as the coal is going i wont put no wood in their ,i am trying to get away from wood,I do get more ash but i have not seen no clinkers in the ash everything is just fine ash.I was concerned the fire box was to big but that large area does not affect the heating of water.Its hard to believe you open that big door and this little pile of black rock with no smoke is heating my house.My neighbor thought i shut the boiler down when he has not seen smoke.I told him i was heating with coal and he gave me the dirtyest look.I love it everyone thought i was crazy but i see my wood cutting back breaking days coming to and end.when summer comes i want to permantly incorparate the shaker box into boiler its all 321 stainless heat resistant.i have unlimeted access to stainless where i work

Sarge --- Interesting thread, Having worked in a Blooming Mill with an inline shear for an 8x36" slab (Tons??) I
believe your shear should take the heat -But as Freddy mentions it is a good deal more difficult to shake coal ash
compared to wood ash. Keep asking questions, if your friend can pick up in our area (Pittsburgh seam) you can get
run-of-the-mill at about $50/ton ........lots of information on the bituminous part of the forum. Less btus/lb
but LSFARM or someone qualified might point you a boiler you can use. (from experience I have more trouble
with bit. clinkers than anthracite = harder to shake) Good Luck, baldeagle

Baldeagle:

Much of the bituminous coal has more btu's/#,but to utilize it you have to be able to

burn the volatiles where a lot of heat is. Many have the misunderstanding that anthracite

has more btu's ,there are some bituminous coals with mid 15,000 btu's/#,there is no

anthracite with this high of heat value.The long chain hydrocarbons have a very high

heat value ie (diesel and gasoline) and they take higher amount of oxygen to release the

internal energy.Some coals also contain a large amount of gases(oxygen & nitrogen)

which reduce the heat value of the fuel. A lot of variations of coal are available and each

is little different in its composition so has its own burning characteristics,many members

on this forum express these in how one fuel burns better in their particular appliance.

Anthracite is more uniform in that it is mostly carbon with few volatiles and not much

else to produce heat.Many of the thousands of volatiles in coal have a much higher heat

value than carbon alone,but burn in a different way so a heating device has to be designed

to burn that type of fuel.


BigBarney