Looking for info on coal boilers

Dry Steam

I just talked with AHS factory today and lead time is out to April for orders.. Love my wood gasification 250, It's only been in operation three weeks but you couldn't pry it out of my hands now. Good to see a fellow AHS alumni here.

Daniel_3

One pipe steam. Currently have natty gas. I'm looking to possibly get a coal boiler for an extra fuel source and one that would not need electricity. Any thoughts? I would have this tied into the exiting steam mains with gate valves. Granted it would need an aquastat, a lwco, and seperate draft needing electricity, what are my options? thanks!

Considering this, it seems an install of a new wood stove with a coal kit would be less efficient that using the existing radiator system.

Dry Steam

Its not coal but...

I just installed an Alternative Heating System wood fired Boiler (gasification) 84.5% efficiency. They also do coal fired boilers. They are located in S.W. PA. Nice people to deal with. http://www.alternateheatingsystems.com/coalboilers.htm

Unknown

Not a coal fan!

We had a coal fired furnace when I was a kid. It was fed coal from hopper with a worm (screw feeder). I had to fill the hopper at least once a day. Coal is filthy and dust gets into/over everything. On top of that you have to remove the clinkers morning and evening. These have to be cooled (usually put them in a metal trash can) before you can put them in the garbage containers. This was 50+ years ago so today I'd want to check first with the local trash collection to see if clinkers are still accepted.(Did I mention that they were heavy and a pain in the *** to haul out of the basement and dump in the garbage containers?) Also I'm not sure what you'd do about delivery. In those days they had a team of men carry the coal sacks into the basement and dump them in a 20 x 20 coal bin. I'd check and see how they did it now and what the delivery costs were. Also you'd want to know what type of coal is available locally and costs. There is a lot more hassle to coal than meets the eye.
I thought I'd died and gone to heaven the day my father had the furnace changed over to oil! I'm sure Hell is coal fired!

Daniel_3

Well, the coal would be pea or buckwheat sized so clinkers wouldn't be a problem. Some systems claim a week before a reload with gravity filled hoppers.

My rationale is this: In desperate times wood would be one source and coal another. Coal is much more abundant and easier to handle though dirtier. I would rather see strip mining than the trees in my neighborhood go down.

Brian R

I'll second the vote for AHS boiler

I have one, and love it. Unfortunately when you mention a coal burning device, most people conjure up images of their father, or grandfather tending an octopus looking behemouth, shoveling dusty crud riddled coal, and returning to the upstairs covered in soot. Nothing is further from reality these days. Although my boiler is in an out-building, it could very easily reside in my basement and not cause any problems. Coal these days comes washed from the producer, so there's virtually no dust. The hopper on mine can last for 4-5 days without refilling, and the ash pan needs to be dumped nearly the same. It's self-stoking, has no difficulty passing the occasional clinker. I live in the country, so ash disposal is not an issue, but others do in fact bag & put out for the municipal trash pickup. As with any heating appliance, safety comes first. just for kicks this heating season, I plan on taking a combustion analysis on my unit and see exactly how 'dirty' the flue gasses really are. I took some temp readings on the flue pipe last year during a time when the boiler was firing, and it showed up as 360 degrees. These units are expensive, probably due to the small niche market. I originally planned on a 5 yr. ROI, but now with natural gas costs skyrocketing, my payback time will be much less.

[Deleted User]

EFM DF 520

What about an EFM coal stoker? The DF 520 can be used as a steam or hot water. These boilers have proven themselves for a very long time. check them out. I have worked on many of these units and I know you would not be disappointed.