Anyone burning coal with storage?

[Pat63]

Hi gents, thinking about getting out of wood burning and going to coal. Looks to me that its actually cheaper than wood without the work of cutting, splitting and stacking and then tossing it in the boiler later. With coal, fill the hopper every 2 days and forget about it, sounds like a no-brainer?

I've got my home built Seton 130 that still works quite well, but I ain't getting any younger... My question is will burning coal with 500 gallons storage work?

thanks, Pat

 

[Drewby]

It will work fine but coal doesn’t really need storage because it burns at a much more steady rate and it can also be shut off as needed with the damper. It is truly superior to wood in every way except cost in some cases. Wood needs to burn at the maximum rate in order to gasify to smoke where coal doesn’t make much smoke at all.

 

[Pat63]

Thanks bro, that's what I was thinking too. So that means I can sell the Seton and a 500 gallon insulated propane tank and free up a lot of space in my garage.

I'm willing to pay a little more to burn coal and know that I don't have to scrounge, cut, haul, cut again, split, stack and fill the boiler 2-3 X/day anymore. not to mention coming back in the house smelling like a smokestack !! LOL

I like my Seton, and ever since I added storage, it works great and the water tubes stay pretty clean. No more "creosote monster" when I go to clean it in spring, but it's time to simplify things. So, next question...can anyone direct me to a good coal boiler w/ hopper attached? I was thinking about a Coal Gun?

thanks, Pat

 

[Drewby]

You need to stop by the coalpail forum. Those people are the coal expert over there.
You should look into getting a coal stoker boiler. They feed automatically.
A coal gun or its older twin the Axeman Anderson are at the top IMO.

 

[Pat63]

Actually the S130 Coal Gun I looked at is an auto feed unit, has a big hopper on top that gravity feeds the coal into the burn chamber. I got a quote of $7K for one delivered to my door. I don't need it now, but the guy sent me a quote anyway. I won't even consider a hand fed boiler. More money for the auto feed but WAY less time needed to keep it going..

Thanks for the info on the coal forum, I'll check it out. I need to make sure there is a coal supplier somewhere around here first. I know they sell 40lb bags of nut coal at tractor supply but I've read that it's crap !

thanks, Pat

 

[shawntitan]

Actually the S130 Coal Gun I looked at is an auto feed unit, has a big hopper on top that gravity feeds the coal into the burn chamber. I got a quote of $7K for one delivered to my door. I don't need it now, but the guy sent me a quote anyway. I won't even consider a hand fed boiler. More money for the auto feed but WAY less time needed to keep it going..

Thanks for the info on the coal forum, I'll check it out. I need to make sure there is a coal supplier somewhere around here first. I know they sell 40lb bags of nut coal at tractor supply but I've read that it's crap !

thanks, Pat

I second the recommendation on the coalpail forum, great guys over there. I switched from wood to coal myself years ago, and they were very helpful. Believe there’s a huge thread on locating coal suppliers.

 

[Pat63]

Yup, already registered and lots of guys helping me allready

 

[Chris Hoskin]

No. Thermal storage is not appropriate for coal burning. Coal burns best with a decent, steady load (not too damped down). Thermal storage is best taken advantage of by batch firing a boiler. Theoretically you could do that with coal, I suppose, but lighting a new fire is such a PITA with coal I wouldn't recommend it. Unless the units you are looking at are self-igniting? If you've never burned coal, be prepared for a huge amount of ash compared to wood and very dirty (coal dust and ash dust gets everywhere).