Connecting coal boiler to.my fuel.oil.boiler

vanetten

Hello , I am new here, I recently purchased a coal boiler and would like to connect it to my fuel oil boiler to save on heating costs. My fuel oil boiler,which is brand new, is plumbed primary secondary. Can I connect the coal boiler using closely spaced tees? Is that the best way? Will I need two extrol tanks ? The maximum vertical lift is 8 feet and boiler feed is 12 to 15 psi. I'll post pics to mitigate the confusion. Thanks folks ,I really like Dan's books but new questions always pop up. I was thinking of the closely spaced tees in the return tubing that is right above the fuel oil boiler.Pump at the coal boiler .Please critique anything you see here.Thanks!

PerryHolzman

Please post pictures of your coal boiler and all associated coal feed equipment. Also a sketch of how you plan to place it in your basement and room for the coal; and plans to build a chimney (or run one up the side of the house).

I used to clean and repair coal furnaces and boilers decades ago. I want to see what equipment you have. How old is it? I was not aware anyone was still building them (except for industrial purposes).

Connecting the water piping is not that bad; if you can actually get things set up for a coal boiler.

Perry

hot_rod

Piping-wise, yes you could easily connect into your loop with another set of tees.

Will you manually operate the switch from oil to coal? if not it will take some additional controls to call on the coal and drop off the oil at the appropriate time.

What type of heat emitters? If they are high mass be sure to include a return temperature function on the cola boiler.

What is the manifold on the wall to the right? Domestic water?

Perry has good question about how you will vent and feed the beast

vanetten

Thanks for the replies , yes Hot Rod I built my own domestic water hot and cold manifolds and installed the fuel oil boiler. I aim to control return water temp with a bypass pipe. Coal boiler is a Refurbed Van Wert Va600. You can see that the fuel oil boiler has a 3250 hydrostat I have it wired so that it fires to high limit to heat my indirect tank. It is plumbed in 1 1/4 pipe with a white Rodgers zone valve. Both the boiler pump and system pump are 007(. Because i had). Going to vent the coal boiler with some triple wall stainless and feed it out of a 3 ton bin. Controls unsure on right now , as the extrol tank.One should do it right?

hot_rod

The #30 Extrol should be adequate, depends on the volume of water in the coal boiler. When it is up and running, observes the pressure increase from cold to setpont of 180°.
How does the pressure run on the current boiler from cold to highest temperature?

12- 20psi is acceptable, above 25 psi you are getting closer to that 30lb relief.

An accurate gauge is worth the cost to monitor fill, pre-charge and watch pressure increases.

vanetten

Ok great idea sir , I have not fired the fuel oil boiler yet. So i cant tell you any specs, so far i have leak checked it. I'll take some pics of the coal setup and post. Thanks!!!

PerryHolzman

I did some internet searching.... I've seen some pictures, some forum post in coal forums, and there's videos on Youtube.

Here is a Heating Help post from 2004 on help for a Van Wert that says they Van Wert was long gone.

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/84848/van-wert-boiler-problem

How was the boiler constructed? Cast iron or welded steel... the Cast Iron ones are probably a relabled Utica boiler.

I then went to Mark's Supply. They are currently saying that for the VanWert equipment that if they don't have the parts you need that they will make them for you...

http://markssupply.com/

Hope this helps,

Perry

vanetten

Thanks much, boiler has been refurbed by A B Vanwert in south Otselic by. Doesn't need anything. Great people at Mark's supply. Thanks .