Nine years ago I built a 3 ton coal bin to hold what I thought would be a years worth of coal. as it turns out the bin was one half of the size needed, I also placed the bin in the shade and built it poorly. over the last nine years I have learned a lot about what should have been done from the start when using coal to heat your home. refilling the coal bin in the middle of the winter with less then dry coal to say the least is no fun, it all freezes in to one big lump. since the bin was in the shade it would not dry till spring.
Another problem with the old coal bin was the lid needed to be held up with stick wile standing inside of the bin to move coal from one end to the other as the coal was used up. this was very unsafe, if the wind would move this stick the heavy lid could fall on me. the new bin lid uses a counter weight to offset the roof weight, now with one hand the lid can be opened and no stick is needed to keep the lid open.
The new coal bin now gets sun all day long and the clear roof lets in lots of sun to heat and dry the coal. there are small rain proof holes in the lid to keep the bin ventilated. I hope to start our pepper,eggplant and cabbage plants in the spring inside of this bin too. It took twenty tractor buckets (6 tons) to fill the bin to the top. A 60 watt PV solar panel powers a 4 inch 13.8 volt, 240 CFM bilge blower made bt ITT. The PV power is run through a 5 ohm 100 watt resistor to slow down the fan, the resistor also adds a small amount of heat to help dry the coal.
Home made adjustable PV solar panel mount. Stainless steel hardware and Pressure treated wood.
