Harman Stoker Coal Usage

Does anyone know how long a hopper of coal would last if burnt continously in a Harman mag stoker ......

Depends on how big the hopper is and how much heat is required.

ie.) 100# capacity hopper pushing 1#/hour (approx. min settings), about 2-3+ days.
3-4#/hr on HIGH, about 1 day or day and half, approx.

My keystoker or hyfire burn can go thru 40-50# in 24 hours burning full bore.

I bet you could go through 80lbs-100lbs a day running full bore 24/7.

I had one for 3 years, but I doubt I every put 100lbs in there. there always some space left in the hopper. I've had times where after 24hours +- a couple hours I looked into an almost empty hopper

Last winter I figured just over a day and a half if my mag ran continuously at full tilt. That's an estimate, I weighed a few buckets and figured how much was needed each day to top up the hopper.

how much does a 5 gallon bucket of rice coal weigh????

A full 5 gallon bucket is roughly 35-40#, depends on the coal. Some is heavier than others.

Greg L

Using 40cuft per ton, mathematically a 5 gal bucket will hold 34.43 pounds. But make sure your bucket is 5 gal and not 6 or 7.

I'm new to coal burning. Installed a Harman Vf3000 in November 08 and as of this point I've burnt a bit over 3 ton of rice coal. This seems excessive to me. I've changed the setup several times but doesn't make a lot of difference in coal usage. When I look at the ash there is some light weight fused together ash that looks like pretty efficient burning, however there is some barely burnt coal in there too. I've tried adjusting the ON and OFF times and even added extra time to blower (by plugging it into the distribution blower outlet to extend the burn time without adding more coal. Right now the Idle is set up for an On time of 1 minute and Off time of 15 and extended fan time of 4 minutes, Aquastat is set for 175, stroke is 2 holes. (Previous had On 4, Off 15, 175 deg and 2 holes but not vastly different results). The boiler is installed in the basement of a detached building (unheated) and piped about 85' (one way) through 1" insulate PEX , because there is little room in the basement of the house and no room for coal and the ash would create too much dust in the finished basement of the house. I've also covered the VF3000 with 1" insulated duct board. The house is 110 year old with uninsulated, 3 bricks thick walls with good windows on 2nd floor, old windows on 1st floor. Area being heated is ~1650 sqft however we have 10' ceilings + DHW. The past few years, when burning oil, I used 800 -900 per year (including DHW in the summer) Is there anything else I can try to improve this?

3 ton! That sounds way off! I'm sure coalkirk and other VF3000 burners will chime in on this. Maybe you should start a new thread for this.

how do I start a new thread?

Hopefully one of the site moderators will see this and start one for you. It's always better to start a new topic instead of jumping on someone elses.

I think that the most I ever burned in 24 hour period was 60#. I can't say that it was running full-on the whole time, but this was during one of the those snot-freezing-in-the-nose cold snaps that last about a week in Central PA.

I'm sure that there's a way to figure this out mathematically, but I'll leave that for someone a lot smarter than I.

Just as a matter of routine, I dump a 5 gal. bucket in mine morning and eve. ( plus or minus)
With temps so far this winter in central Pa., I suppose I use about 50 - 60 lbs./ day.

Mossy Beard

bde-19547 wrote:how do I start a new thread?

Since the subject is stokers, just goto the Board Index, then the "Coal Stokers: Boilers, Furnaces and Stoves" forum & select the "New Topic" button.

Every installation is unique so what is going to be normal for you is not going to be the same for me. I'm heating 4,000 sq. ft., started burning the end of October and I've gone through about 2 tons. I don't keep my water that hot. I keep it around 140*. The first year I had it, I tried to run it like my oil burner and kept it 180*. It would do it but really ate up the coal. I would try dropping your water temp some. Do you have a barometric damper? Properly set draft is also key to coal economy. My draft is set at .04. I keep my house 68-70 degrees. Any warmer and I get complaints from my wife. She's producing her own heat but that's another story. My house is well insulated and my windows are good.
I'm sure you have some heat loss in your 85' run and you lose the heat gain from the boiler being in a separate building. Mine is in the basement under my family room. The family room floor is warm from the boiler and the 1 1/4" pipe runs. I'm also in Maryland which is alitle warmer than points north.