Alaska Stove Coal Usage

traderfjp · Post by **traderfjp** » Sun. Oct. 26, 2008 11:07 pm

Something doesn't sound right -if the manual feed is on 1 and the fire is idling there is no way that the feeder should be pushing that much coal. I don't think you can blame the consumption on the coal either. Since 10-3-08 to 10-26-08 I've consumed 7 bags and there is still 2 full bags in my hopper. So essentially I burned 5 bags or 200lbs. in 23 days. That comes out to about 8-9lbs. a day. Granted temps have been mild but we've been in the low 40's and upper 30's a few nights.

Pacowy · Post by **Pacowy** » Mon. Oct. 27, 2008 9:26 am

It's an 85k btu/hr stoker. If the Alaksa rheostat is roughly proportional, a "1" out of "5" should feed around 17k btu/hr (=85/5). If the coal is 12.5-13.0 k btu/lb, that's about 1.25 lb/hr, or 30 lb/day.

It may be worth experimenting to see if it will idle at a lower setting, and I'll leave it the Coal-trolers to say how much difference that unit would make, but the numbers he presented look about right to me.

Mike

traderfjp · Post by **traderfjp** » Mon. Oct. 27, 2008 9:33 am

You have to remember that the manual feed box is not calibrated at all. You need to find the lowest fire a then use the set screw to move the knob's pointer to the lowest setting. My stove has been mostly been on idle but I've also had a 2-3" fire on many occasions. So if his stove has been on idle 1-2" band of fire then how is it that I burned 8-9lbs per day and he is burning 30? It doesn't seem right unless he has it in his basement and idle to him is a 2-3" fire band.