Chronicles of the Clayton

 
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joeq
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Post by joeq » Sun. Feb. 15, 2015 7:46 pm

So Lee, if you remove your filter, aren't you worried about the possibility of looking like some-one famous?
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sun. Feb. 15, 2015 7:50 pm

HAHAHA!!

No, not really... It's taking clean air from the cold air return on the first floor. The only thing I don't want is the squirrel cages to get any dust build up. Should be ok for a short period of time running without a convection filter.. I'll put it back in tomorrow. :)

 
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joeq
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Post by joeq » Sun. Feb. 15, 2015 8:43 pm

I hear ya. Makes sense to me Boss.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Mon. Feb. 16, 2015 4:53 am

A proud moment for any coal burner!!

One small step for lightning,
One giant leap for lightning kind....

-18 whoa! In the cold pockets on my way to work I saw -26! :shock:

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joeq
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Post by joeq » Mon. Feb. 16, 2015 7:12 am

Holy mackerel Lee! I think you need to put a hood on your thermometer.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Mon. Feb. 16, 2015 7:29 pm

Ash/coal ratio for the last 8-9 days 16.4%.. I'm very proud of Ashley for doing so well keeping us warm through the recent cold spell. Including about a 36 hour period (Saturday night thru Monday midday) with a high temp of -6 and a low of -26 F. 12 hour burn cycles with 50 pounds added at each tending. :)

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sun. Mar. 01, 2015 11:53 am

Ash/coal ratio for 2/16 thru 2/23 was 14.5%
During the month of Feb, I dug from the bigger sized coal in the bin and used 12 hour burn cycles most of the month.

I wanted to keep the following info here too -
My total for Jan is 2200
Average pounds per day 70.9

My total for Feb is 2471
Average pounds per day 88.3


 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sun. Mar. 08, 2015 9:03 am

Last ash/coal ratio was 14.5% again.

According to the long term outlook, the below zero days are over. We can hope right? I'll be finishing up the heating season with 24 hour burn cycles. I do the tending between 6-8:00pm which is most convenient, that way I don't have to do it in the small hours before work. I'll just poke and slice under the grates around 3:00am and then again in the early afternoon. This keeps an even distribution of primary air feeding the fuel bed throughout the 24 hour burn.

Spring is coming!! Yay!! :D

 
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joeq
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Post by joeq » Sun. Mar. 08, 2015 10:15 am

Sounds like you had a very comfortable and informative winter Lee. Good job. I'm sure lots of furnace owners have benefited by your exhaustive experiments. Thanx for sharing. As for winter being over, I'm sure mother nature has a "little more" fun, up her sleeve. "Just when you thought it was safe to go outside".... WHAM! :D

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Wed. Mar. 18, 2015 9:22 am

Total coal usage since beginning of the season (Oct 18th) till yesterday (St Patrick's Day) has been 9211 pounds. Started with ~12500 so I have about 3300 pounds left to finish with. I count 45 days till May 1st. I'd have to use 73 pounds per day to run out at this point. I'm averaging 50-60 pounds per day currently. Once we get into April that will trek downwards. I feel confident I'll have some left.. :)

Last ash/coal ratio was 33.8% for March 1st-7th when I broke the grate and did a total clean out which included some unburned left in the fire box. I didn't try to salvage any.

 
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Post by joeq » Wed. Mar. 18, 2015 4:38 pm

With your ash ratio, I don't remember what brand and type of coal you're burning, Lee. Did you mix up brands, or coal size, or were you consistent? I would think that there are many variables causing ash quantities. The reason I'm asking, is because some brands promote, "low ash", and I was curious if this is actually possible or true between brands. I mean, is anthracite "anthracite", no matter where it's pulled out of the ground, or do different areas actually vary in their ash content?

 
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tomsusmc
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Post by tomsusmc » Wed. Mar. 18, 2015 5:59 pm

Hi Joe.....

I think when they refer to "Low Ash" in a coal product, they are meaning the fly ash particulates/air contaminants and such......diesel fuel has that same low ash designation, also......

Tom S.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Wed. Mar. 18, 2015 7:40 pm

joeq wrote:With your ash ratio, I don't remember what brand and type of coal you're burning, Lee. Did you mix up brands, or coal size, or were you consistent? I would think that there are many variables causing ash quantities. The reason I'm asking, is because some brands promote, "low ash", and I was curious if this is actually possible or true between brands. I mean, is anthracite "anthracite", no matter where it's pulled out of the ground, or do different areas actually vary in their ash content?
Lightning wrote:Last ash/coal ratio was 33.8% for March 1st-7th when I broke the grate and did a total clean out which included some unburned left in the fire box. I didn't try to salvage any.
I should have clarified that the clean out was dumped into my ash can and included in the weight of the ash. That is why this ratio is so high. Other than that it's been pretty consistent 13-16% usually.

Anthracite has an ash window usually between 8-12% although there could be exceptions that go a bit under or a bit over. Being coal is pretty much unrefined (other than for sizing) it's quality and contents vary slightly at the end user (us). Every mine location has slightly different contents of ash, sulfur, iron, volatiles, ect. I use an average ash percentage (10%) to establish how much unburned coal I loose thru the grate. If I come up with 14.5% ash, its safe to say that about 4.5% is unburned coal that fell thru the grate. Even 5 pounds lost out of 100 really doesn't bother me much. Gotta expect some will, especially with my aggressive shake down routine. It could be off a couple percent either way since I don't know the exact ash content of my coal, which could mean - did I loose 3% coal thru the grates or 5%? I really can't say. I suppose I could possibly research further to get the exact ash content of my particular coal.

As far as sizing, I used a nut/stove size mix all the same batch from the same place (Stockton coal from Mammoth Vein I think is what my coal guy said lol). It does tend to separate some as its being poured into the basement. Smaller pieces stay under the coal chute doorway, bigger pieces roll towards the outside of the bin. So when I needed a hot fast fire I dug from the edges, when I need a slow cooler fire I dig under the coal chute door.

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Wed. Mar. 25, 2015 10:47 am

When I left for work at at 3:00am on Tuesday morning, I left the furnace running with a moderate fire since it was pretty cold out. I asked my wife to turn it down before she left for work but she forgot. I was a little worried that the furnace wouldn't make it's 24 hour run, but it did..

That said, Tuesday evening I revved her up and shook it down. I shook out two full ash pans worth and was left with only a couple inches of nicely burning coal at the bottom of the fuel bed. My old record of adding the most coal at one tending has been shattered. I piled 90 pounds on top the thin layer of burning coal and it took an hour or so with the draft inducer running for it to recover.. :)

 
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Post by joeq » Wed. Mar. 25, 2015 7:44 pm

90lbs! You ought to be able to make it till summer on that, (if you turn her down to exceedingly low).


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