Burning coal in a Buderus boiler

[CT King of Coal]

I just completed the installation of my Buderus G201 Logano Wood/Coal Boiler.
I have about 4 days experience with the unit so far. I have a poorly insulated 3300 sq foot ranch with cast iron baseboard radiators.
Yesterday I had the unit working on coal perfectly for 24 hours. Morning outside tempurature was 8 degrees f and daytime temp was 27 f.
By the end of the day my entire house was low 70's.
Draft seems to be a problem at start up and upon accumlation of ash.
I will continue to tweek to determine how to shake, scrape, riddle, raddle, paddle, rock, roll or what ever to drop the ash and maintain the hot bed of coals.

 

[webbie]

I find this type of boiler very easy to use with hard coal.

The key is to do it in the same way as most coal stoves, that is - it's always filled to the top, but the heat is controlled by the draft flap. Any attempts to limit heat by limiting coal will not work out well. See the coal burning article:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/coaltips

Ash raking or shaking is easy. Don't disturb the fire higher up - just the base of the bed. As per the article, open the air flap first and get the draft going, add some coal if the bed is low - then use a poker (a straight round rod or flat iron) in through the jail grates and right above the water-filled grates.

Keep at it until you see some red dropping into the ash area. Make sure you then reset the draft door if you had it propped open, etc.!