Burning Nut coal in Harmon SF260

[pinesawyer]

I bought a Harmon SF260 late in the season and am running low on seasoned wood. I plan to start burning nut coal in it starting tonight to stretch my wood out.

I have a few questions. What is a ton of nut coal compared to split hardwood as far as how long it will last? Is the wood providing more heat for less buck...or is seasoned hardwood?

Also, is loading up a wood/coal boiler full of coal a good way to clean creosote out of the firebox and flue?

Any info. is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Wet1]

I'd suggest you go to http://nepacrossroads.com for info on coil burning, most of those guys really know a lot about coal burning.

That Harman looks really impressive. If you don't mind me asking, what did it run you?

 

[pinesawyer]

It was about 3600 just for the boiler. I was very lucky to find one nearby. Most dealers were sold out and putting customers on a waiting list.

Thanks for the link.

 

[Mike Van]

pinesawyer - I have the same Harman, my trys at coal found the pea coal to burn better. Nut left too much behind unburnt. Could be just my setup, draft, etc. I was never really happy with the coal. Sometimes a good fire, usually not. Let us know how you do. Lots of ash too, I had to pull the pan every other day rather than 6 or 7 with wood.

 

[BIG BEAM]

Burnning coal is a learning curve.It can take months to learn how to burn it well(just like wood)You will get more and steadier heat and much longer burn times with coal when you learn how to burn it.nepadigital is one of the best coal sites and a lot can be learned over there.I burn 7-8 tons of coal a year.The quality of any coal can vary as much as wood,even anthracite.But I gotta warn ya after you burn coal a lot of people don't go back to wood.Many coal burners were once wood burners.
Good luck
DON

 

[HD-tech-NH]

I am kind of lost in this thread. I have spent some time wondering if I couldnt toss some coal in with the wood in my Central Boiler. I this what you guys are talking about? Putting coal in a wood boiler?

Tim

 

[urhstry]

I'm not sure what to say here. Burning coal is as easy as wood. I get a nice bed of wood coals in my Harman Mark III and then add a big load of (anthracite) coal. I load it at 8pm at reload it at 8am with no problem. I never burned bituminous coal since I am in the heart of the anthracite coal region. You have to take the ashes out more often but it is nice, even, HOT heat. You do not have to load the stove as much as you would wood for the same heat. You will usually need less draft also. Good luck!

 

[ktm rider]

I am kind of lost in this thread. I have spent some time wondering if I couldnt toss some coal in with the wood in my Central Boiler. I this what you guys are talking about? Putting coal in a wood boiler?

Tim

I have burned coal for years in my Harman Mark II and my indoor AHS coal boiler. Yes, you can burn coal in your Central Boiler as long as it has grates in it. You need for the combustion air to come in UNDER the grates for the coal to burn properly..

 

[abohac]

I bought a Harmon SF260 late in the season and am running low on seasoned wood. I plan to start burning nut coal in it starting tonight to stretch my wood out.

I have a few questions. What is a ton of nut coal compared to split hardwood as far as how long it will last? Is the wood providing more heat for less buck...or is seasoned hardwood?

Also, is loading up a wood/coal boiler full of coal a good way to clean creosote out of the firebox and flue?

Any info. is appreciated.

Thanks.

What's nut coal?

 

[Wet1]

It was about 3600 just for the boiler. I was very lucky to find one nearby. Most dealers were sold out and putting customers on a waiting list.

Thanks for the link.

Hmmmm, that's not nearly as bad as I thought. It looks very nice. I have a Harman coal/wood stove. While I would greatly prefer to burn only coal, the price of "free" wood is just too low for me to justify buying coal. The guy in my town is getting $350 a ton for bagged... too steep for me when compared to <$50/cord for me to harvest my own wood.

 

[ktm rider]

The guy in my town is getting $350 a ton for bagged... too steep for me when compared to <$50/cord for me to harvest my own wood.

I burn high quality bituminous coal. it is only around $60.00 a ton and that usually last 4-5 weeks.

 

[Mike Van]

What's nut coal?

It's the size of the coal - Smallest is rice, then pea, nut, and the biggest is stove coal.

 

[pinesawyer]

Well last night I followed the Harmon directions for burning coal and got er' going. Once the bed was cooking good I layered on about 30 pounds.

Got up this morning to no heat, cold cabin, and about half the coal unburnt in the boiler. Harmon says loosen the auto. damper screw counterclockwise completely as well as 3/4 of a turn for both the manual draft knobs on firebox door. Thats what I did.

I have no idea why it went out. The remaining nut coal in the boiler this morning was mostly white, but still hard, apparently unburnt. Hardly any ash in the ash pan.

Perhaps once the boiler hit the temp. for the aquastat to shut down, the manual draft adjust on the auto damper door was not open enought to keep the coal going and it went out due to lack of O2??

I pushed the unburnt coal to the back of the firebox, adjusted my airflow for wood and got a rip roaring fire going and went to work scratching my head.

 

[BIG BEAM]

That's what I ment by learning curve.I'm sure others will post with how they burn their 260's.
DON

 

[1savagehunter]

We pay $25/Ton and 3 ton keeps my 3000 sf home heated for the year ... well it did til coal got banned here. Coal is definately a learning curve but once you've got it ... man is it awesome.

 

[Zodiac45]

I've been using a mixture of anthasite (stove coal) and wood in old Glenwood cookstove. Not really burning coal perse but whenever I add a few sticks of wood, I grab a couple large hunks of coal too. Bit more at night on the last fueling stretches out the burn too. I've found that I get a good hot fire all the time and as long as I keep the grates clean (good stir at each loading) it works fine. A side benifit is that I have very litle creosote buildup compared too burning only wood. I can tell by the way the damper in the stove pipe spins freely where as before it would have that crunching up carbon sound. The key for me (if I was going for a coal fire) is too have the large ripping woodfire coals, then add the coal slowly adding more as the originals get that bluish glow going.

 

[Mike Van]

I had my best coal fires when I threw a shovel full in every hour - But, who wants to do that all night? Experiments with banking the fire worked sometimes. I left my door vents closed, seemed to work better for me. I think the hydrostat controlled door hurts too, when it shuts, for any length of time, you start losing your coal bed. Mine also did better with the ashpan door cracked open, but I couldn't leave it that way. I pretty much tried it all. If coal here was 25/ton, I'd still be trying it too. Wood only costs me my time, last I knew the local coal guy was 6.00/bag, that was 3 years ago.

 

[HD-tech-NH]

I have burned coal for years in my Harman Mark II and my indoor AHS coal boiler. Yes, you can burn coal in your Central Boiler as long as it has grates in it. You need for the combustion air to come in UNDER the grates for the coal to burn properly..

OK gotcha.. good thread

 

[pinesawyer]

Thanks for the info folks. I abandonded Harmon's directions concerning draft on coal burning, and played around with putting coal in with a wood fire.
So far I am having real good results the last 48 hrs.

Giving it less draft has helped. Closing firebox door manual knobs to just a hair open seems to have been the trick as well as restricting auto. damper door to about 3/4.

But mixing the coal with a hot wood fire while restricting draft seems to be the key to my improved results.

Perhaps my learning curve was shortened with a little luck. About 5 degrees here tonight. So time will tell.

Happy New Year!!!

 

[ktm rider]

Thanks for the info folks. I abandonded Harmon's directions concerning draft on coal burning, and played around with putting coal in with a wood fire.
So far I am having real good results the last 48 hrs.

Giving it less draft has helped. Closing firebox door manual knobs to just a hair open seems to have been the trick as well as restricting auto. damper door to about 3/4.

But mixing the coal with a hot wood fire while restricting draft seems to be the key to my improved results.

Perhaps my learning curve was shortened with a little luck. About 5 degrees here tonight. So time will tell.

Happy New Year!!!

Glad you are catching on to the coal burning. It takes a while but once you get it, there is nothing like it...