Replacing oil burner with corn burner in steam boiler

J. W. Trimmer

Further clarification on the corn burner. The corn burner is designed for a hot water boiler rated at 165,000 btu. I do not know what the burner unit itself generates heat wise.

J. W. Trimmer

Replacing oil burner with corn burner in steam boiler

I have an large old farmhouse with a two pipe vac/vapor steam system. The boiler is a National - US all fuels boiler "37" series. The system uses large pipes, no pumps and a hoffman differential loop. The plate on the boiler says 900 sq ft of steam and 216,000 btu hand fired coal or 239,000 btu oil or coal stoaker fired. The current oil burner is a National Oil Burner Model 52AF-G-4436 with dual 1.50 80 degree CM nozzles. If I replace the oil burner with a 165,000 btu corn burner (similiar to burning wood pellets) will I have enough btu's to produce steam in this old system? If not, what size of a replacement burner should I look for?

techheat_2

If you are firing

2 1.50GPH nozzles @100 PSI. Your current input is 420,000 BTU/Hr. If you actually have 900 Sq/ft of radiation connected, 165,000 BTU/Hr will not do it.

Mad Dog

Yeah....never dun worked on no corn burner.....

but btu input is btu input no matter how you shuck it ...er I mean slice it...I know I'm bein' real corny. I would try to match the current btu input closely. Was it heating properly with the last set up? How common are these corn burners? What do you use? Livestock corn? Do they pelletize the whole ear? We'd love to see pics of this set up. Mad Dog

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Floyd_2

www.burncorn.net

or do a google search for "CORN BURNING STOVES" dag gum it thar's a manure spreader load of info out thar!!!!

J. W. Trimmer

The corn burner looks like a wood pellet burner but is set up to burn shelled corn. Basically you have a fire pot that corn is metered into and a combustion blower which blows air on the fire to get a hotter burn. The corn is livestock feed and can be purchased at an elevator or in my case taken from a grain bin on the farm. They are starting to become more popular in corn growing areas as they are cheaper to operate than oil or gas and corn supplies are readily available.

The existing oil burner works ok in the boiler, but uses a lot of fuel and seems to be oversized for normal load as the system often fires up, heats completely up and then shuts down for several hours before there is demand for heat again at which point the system is cold and goes through another long burn cycle to heat up a cold boiler. I tried plugging one of the nozzles in the burner, but did not get enough btu's out of the remaining nozzle to make steam.

techheat_2

Don't take this the wrong way

But call a Professional! Thats not how you reduce the firing rate!

Steamhead

I agree, J.W.-

you really need some professional help. Where is this job located? I'm sure one of us isn't too far away....

In order to know how much heat is needed on a Vapor system like your Hoffman, we need to know how much radiation you have. From this, a pro can figure out what firing rate is needed. Don't just go by the boiler rating- whoever put it in might not have sized it properly. We see this all the time.

If a new boiler is out of the question, you might also consider replacing the oil burner with a more modern flame-retention type, which will use less oil.

Also check to be sure the steam mains are vented properly (there may be radiator-type traps that do this) and that the traps are not leaking steam. The vent on or near the Differential Loop must also be sized right and working.

We support your quest to lower your energy usage, but it needs to be done properly.

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J. W. Trimmer

This system is located about 100 miles north of Kansas City MO near I-29. Anybody work this area, I haven't been able to locate any takers in the directory here.