switch from wood to coal

[Mike Wilson]

Well, one out I have is that my wife works at home so I can have real live dialer downer
I don't see where the savings comes in. Currently, with my wood burner, we get the house toasty warm and then dampen it down and the house stays warm the rest of the day. I assume the coal stove would do the same thing. Is this not correct?.

Nope. There's no way you can manually dial down a natural draft stove as low as you can with a stoker. As posted above, you can dial down a stoker to 5K output... that's not going to happen with a natural draft stove, the fire will go out. You can get it low, but probably 20K low. The flip side of all this is, how often do you really need to go that low... probably not too much, spring and fall maybe. Either way, you're making a good decision. Go speak with your dealer, spend a few hours there, see what they have, and just keep talking to the guy.

-- Mike

 

[webbie]

Coal fires are actually much easier in just about every way - the problems are:
1. Starting the stuff - see the articles here
2. Former wood burners tend to fuss with the fire too much - messing it up that way.

In most situations, hand fired stoves can be set to burn from about 1.5 lbs per hour to about 4 lbs per hour. That's an input of about 21,000 to 64,000 BTU - multiply it by .7 for output.

 

[jjbaer]

Coal fires are actually much easier in just about every way - the problems are:
1. Starting the stuff - see the articles here
2. Former wood burners tend to fuss with the fire too much - messing it up that way.

In most situations, hand fired stoves can be set to burn from about 1.5 lbs per hour to about 4 lbs per hour. That's an input of about 21,000 to 64,000 BTU - multiply it by .7 for output.

Craig,

I think anthricite is about 12,000 BTU/lb so I think 1.5 lb is about 18,000 BTU input (12,600 output) and 4 lb is about 48,000 BTU input (33,600 output).The advantage to a stoker is the lower setting you can get (say 5,000 - 7,000 BTU/hr) at night when you don't want to extinguish the fire but you want a little heat to keep the chill off.

 

[Mike Wilson]

You know, re-reading this thread this morning, if I could find a convenient way to dispose of the coal ash, I'd add coal to the house in a heartbeat. Keep the Jotul, just add a stoker in the basement with a duct upstairs. Its just too damned convenient, and I have a feeling oil is going to base out at 60 this winter.

-- Mike

 

[wg_bent]

One thing not being mentioned is the cost of a stoker. Them ain't cheap. ROI should be calculated. I did that and decided that oil would have to be around 6 bucks a gallon to make it worth while. I may not be remembering my calculations real well, but my point is, run the numbers. Honestly, hand fired coal stoves can burn wood to take the chill off, and really are very low effort. shake and feed twice a day... enjoy the heat.

 

[Mike Wilson]

Keystoker 90, direct vent, 2800 installed... hell, that's the same as my Kennebec with the flex installed...

-- Mike

 

[Michael6268]

I can tell you the Kodiak stove is a good stove. I had to go with a stoker stove due to having to keep it in the basement and "duct" the hot air upstairs, while still keeping it looking like a stove. Its in a somewhat finished basement, and a hand-fired furnace/boiler wasnt going to happen as long as my wife had anything to say about it!! LOL. But if I didnt have to go with a stoker, the Kodiak would probably have been my choice. As far as ash. You get ash with any stove which im sure you are aware of. Sweeping/dumping wood ash into the bucket or ash dump is a dusty mess as with coal. True burnt coal ash is finer and does seem to be a little messier if you dont handle it properly, but when you shake a handfired stove, the biggest mistake people make is then opening the ash door and taking the ashes out. The way to do it is wait a while for the dust to settle/go up the chimney and then open the door slowly and close it while you take out the ashes. With some stoves people like to open the ash door while shaking so they can see when the "red unburnt coal" starts to fall in the pan so they now its shaken completely. This also can let a lot of ash fly! The Kodiak has small air inlets in the ash door so you can see in without opening the door. When taking out the ashes, you can put a piece or sheet metal on top of the ash pan so when you walk through the house no ash escapes. As far as loading fresh coal to a Kodiak vs a Stoker, its less messy to load the Kodiak. It has a "top load" door and all you do is open up the top door and pour the coal in from the top. The Kodiak uses nut or pea size coal, which I find to be less dusty than rice coal which is used in stokers. Either way, the dust is minimal as most bagged coal is rinsed prior to bagging. Aside from the important points made about availability of coal, the other thing I would think about is "where" the stove is going. The nice thing about a hand-fired stove is "no noise". No augers/moving carpets, combustion blowers etc. I would never want my stoker in my living room or near my sleeping area, but some people aren't bothered by the noise. I have burnt wood, pellets, and coal, and in my opinion- coal rocks! Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[woodconvert]

I was just reading the output BTU's for the Kodiak. It says you can burn it as low as 15,000BTU/hr...being that this model is gravity fed, is this indeed true???. And if it is true, is operating a coal fire at the lower BTU range any more difficult than operating at the higher BTU range?.

I still have not been able to make contact with the local supplier of Kodiak stoves/anthricite. He's either on vacation or he went out of business.

 

[jjbaer]

I was just reading the output BTU's for the Kodiak. It says you can burn it as low as 15,000BTU/hr...being that this model is gravity fed, is this indeed true???. And if it is true, is operating a coal fire at the lower BTU range any more difficult than operating at the higher BTU range?.

I still have not been able to make contact with the local supplier of Kodiak stoves/anthricite. He's either on vacation or he went out of business.

Either way (bankrupt or on vacation), it's the markets way of telling you they don't want your business....LOL.....

 

[woodconvert]

Either way (bankrupt or on vacation), it's the markets way of telling you they don't want your business....LOL.....[/quote]

No doubt. "You are not from the east coast?!?!?...screw you. Burn wood"

 

[jjbaer]

Either way (bankrupt or on vacation), it's the markets way of telling you they don't want your business....LOL.....

No doubt. "You are not from the east coast?!?!?...screw you. Burn wood"[/quote]

I'm from Ohio but I hear ya......if they wanted your business, you'd think they would have a "leave a message" thing or a cell phone you can call while they're fishing.........so........I guess they don't want to sell stoves.......

 

[woodconvert]

Either way (bankrupt or on vacation), it's the markets way of telling you they don't want your business....LOL.....

No doubt. "You are not from the east coast?!?!?...screw you. Burn wood"

I'm from Ohio but I hear ya......if they wanted your business, you'd think they would have a "leave a message" thing or a cell phone you can call while they're fishing.........so........I guess they don't want to sell stoves.......[/quote]

Well, I will say it's not an ideal time of year to have stoves blazing away on a showroom floor...but at least shut off the fax portion of your fax/phone.

Wherebouts in Ohio are you from?. Got any good coal connections down there? :lol: . Better yet at this point, you got a inside scoop to some bitchin' fireworks??.

 

[jjbaer]

Either way (bankrupt or on vacation), it's the markets way of telling you they don't want your business....LOL.....

No doubt. "You are not from the east coast?!?!?...screw you. Burn wood"

I'm from Ohio but I hear ya......if they wanted your business, you'd think they would have a "leave a message" thing or a cell phone you can call while they're fishing.........so........I guess they don't want to sell stoves.......

Well, I will say it's not an ideal time of year to have stoves blazing away on a showroom floor...but at least shut off the fax portion of your fax/phone.

Wherebouts in Ohio are you from?. Got any good coal connections down there? :lol: . Better yet at this point, you got a inside scoop to some bitchin' fireworks??.[/quote]

About 5 miles south of Dayton, OH. Dayton has fireworks I think on the 3rd or 4th. As for coal stove dealers.....not near me. I currently burn wood but was looking into coal in case I ever decided to switch at a later date.

 

[sstanis]

If you can get Rice coal, check out Reading stove company. I was able to check out there stoves 1st hand, they are beautiful (if aesthetic is a consideration). If I hadn't already purchased my heritage, I would have def purchased one.

 

[Michael6268]

Provided you have a good draft, you should have no problem throttling that stove down. On warmer days it may get a little "temperamental" and you may even lose the fire occasionally if you turn it down too far or it is too warm out. Reading doesn't make a "handfired" stove at this time. Only stokers. But they are working on a hand-fired unit that may be out this summer if they work out a few "bugs" with it. They do have nice looking stokers. I have heard a few negative things about the stoker mechanisms though.....

 

[jpl1nh]

All right, all right, just gotta mention that coal is not renewable and if you are concerned about CO2 and greenhouse effect (personally I think we all should be) coal is a fossil fuel and therefore a high CO2 producer. Wood is a lot of work, but most of us in this day and age can benefit from a little physical work ;-) and as someone else suggested you could always switch to pellets which are still renewable and CO2 neutral and a little less work.