new boiler options. will I gain anything

[leon]

Back in 2007 when i was looking as wood boilers, I spent quite a bit of time looking onto coal boilers. There are a couple of dealers for boilers and coal up here. But not many people were using them, or so i thought. The cost compared to processed firewood(at that time it was $175 a cord up here) was very comparable. Sometimes i think, shoulda woulda.

I have a friend that has an old memco wood boiler, once winter sets in he will put in a shovel full of pea coal at night and that works great. Keeps the boiler heated up good until the am.

I keep hoping that someone will build and sell an anthracite burner
with either a Pocono stoker or a retort pot burner for outside use
and cover it with one of those metal carports.

The Portage and Main units are built for the soft Western Bituminous coals
unless that has changed recently.

 

[maple1]

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any act of combustion creates exhaust flue gasses and the
average wood burner could not afford a catalytic converter
or water scrubber to clean the flue gasses in a gasser or an non gasser
OWB nor do I see the builders of these things making an effort to incorporate
a second induced draft fan and water scrubber for the flue gasses.

Nor do I see the use of kiln dry firewood from cull logs increasing other than the
for the users of romance bundles or wood fired ovens.

Every time you see smoke from a chimney one see's energy lost from
the act of incomplete combustion.

Agreed on smoke = incomplete combustion.

But the way you are comparing things here would make one think that coal burns without any smoke or emissions in the stoker things you are talking about, and that in order to burn wood in a boiler as clean as coal you need catalytic converters, water stack scrubbers, and kiln dried wood.

I have never burned coal - might be something I'd check out if there was a supply around here - but doesn't it leave a LOT of ash to deal with? And if there's ash in the firebox, there's also some going out the stack.

 

[leon]

Agreed on smoke = incomplete combustion.

But the way you are comparing things here would make one think that coal burns without any smoke or emissions in the stoker things you are talking about, and that in order to burn wood in a boiler as clean as coal you need catalytic converters, water stack scrubbers, and kiln dried wood.

I have never burned coal - might be something I'd check out if there was a supply around here - but doesn't it leave a LOT of ash to deal with? And if there's ash in the firebox, there's also some going out the stack.

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The amount of ash in the ash pit and goinf up the stack depends on the draft and the coals carbon content
and how much iron is in the coal to make clinkers.