Perhaps a dumb question. Can you burn or convert (safely and economically) the Orlan 60 to use coal? Appreciate any responses! Thanks!
Orlan 60 Question...Coal
- Thread starter Gilby
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Floydian
Feeling the Heat
Hi Gilby,
I can't help with the coal question, sorry.
Do I recall correctly that you bought a house with an existing EKO (Orlan) 60 and you were having a few issues with how it was setup? Just wondering how things are working with it now?
Noah
I can't help with the coal question, sorry.
Do I recall correctly that you bought a house with an existing EKO (Orlan) 60 and you were having a few issues with how it was setup? Just wondering how things are working with it now?
Noah
I see in the manual that it discourages use of fuels other than seasoned wood. Strange that my Biomass 60 allows for up to 50% coal usage. They are essentially the same boiler.
I've been burning with some coal(less than the 50%) to help get my dwindling supply of wood through this winter. Without a proper coal grate, it can be somewhat of a PITA. Makes tremendous amounts of heat, though, and burns clean. I didn't expect running it through a gasser would affect the normal sooty black smoke one gets out of soft coal as much as it has.
I've been burning with some coal(less than the 50%) to help get my dwindling supply of wood through this winter. Without a proper coal grate, it can be somewhat of a PITA. Makes tremendous amounts of heat, though, and burns clean. I didn't expect running it through a gasser would affect the normal sooty black smoke one gets out of soft coal as much as it has.
You are correct! I was actually re-reading some of my first posts. Amazing what a few winters of tinkering and reading will do for one's knowledge!! I will say this site has been a phenomenal resource. We have our house for sale at the moment. I've encouraged a few people that have looked to visit this site and read my prior posts. I don't want to scare anyone off, but simply to show there is help out there and how far I've come with this boiler to get it to actually function like it's supposed to.
I can honestly say at this point the ol' Orlan is working great! A lot of trial and error, plumbing, and electrical trying to get it to work properly, but my biggest 'win' was hard wiring my two pumps to their own switches, as well as the circ pump, and eliminating the controller (at least from the pump control). Once I figured that out, I've never had another issue with over heating or not being able to carry any type of load. We've had a fairly cold winter up here and it's done great. Usually I'm out of wood (at least 12 cord) by the end of February and I'm back to electric and propane heat, but this year I probably have 3 or 4 cord left over as we approach the end of February and my house was a balmy 74 degrees when I left this morning! A lot of that is the boiler working properly...some of that is me actually knowing what I'm doing.
Thanks again for all the help! Hopefully the person that buys my house won't have to visit this site cause you all already solved the problems!!
And thanks Mark! We had a showing on the house yesterday and someone asked about the coal. I wasn't sure. Not sure I'd want to add another element to it like coal, but maybe it'd be a way to supplement like you're doing?
If it's for a prospective buyer, I might suggest they investigate that one themselves. Liability issues and all, you know. 
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