Switching from wood to coal

[grizzly2]

I have heated with wood for over 30 years, and plan replace my wood stove with a coal stove. I need a stove that will work without electricity. The idea of a gravity fed hopper appeals to me, but the Alaskan Kodiak has a minimum heat output of 15 K BTU. I would like to be able to operate at less than 10K for late fall and early spring use. The Harmon Mark I is about the size of stove I think I need, but comes with a blower and is double wall in the back and top for heat circulation. Can it be operated efficiently without the blower? Basicly, I need to heat 1200 sq. ft. of average insulated house in Northern NY, without electricity, and for as long a heating season as possible. The ability to burn wood in a pinch would also be an asset.

Your thoughts, facts, opinions and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Corie]

You should buy a Harman Mark II sized stove.

The minimum heat output the manufacturers give is often high. It's pretty easy to throttle a coal stove back to barely even burning. The trick is to not shake the bed enough and let the accumulation of ashes slow the fire. The double wall Harman will still transfer heat fine without the blower. Plenty of people use them and almost every other coal stove without the blower.

 

[derbygreg]

Corie, I will remain silent this time, lets see how many of us help him out.

Greg

 

[berlin]

I agree with corey, it's very easy to slow a coal fire, and there's no creosote issues with "smouldering" a fire like with wood, so it doesn't hurt to have a stove that's larger. a larger stove will allow lower coal bed temps while trying to heat the entire house in the dead of winter, and thus reduce the possibilyt of clinker issues, and fast burnout of replaceable parts. you will need at least mark II, possibly bigger; unlike with wood, and to an extent, bigger is better.

 

[grizzly2]

Thanks Corie and Berlin, This is just the kind of info. I need.

derbygreg, please don't stay quiet! If you know anything about burning coal please share.

I like the looks of the cast iron coal stoves, such as the VC Vigalent, but I notice that many of the coal stoves on the market are plate steel. Any advantage to plate steel, or just cheaper to put into production?

I would love to hear from every coal burning member of this site. Even if it is just an opinion of the stove you use I would like to hear it. Very little coal burning going on up here in Northern NY. Nobody right arround me that I can rely on for info.

Keep the homefires burning!

 

[berlin]

where are you in northern NY? by plattsburg?, i may know an anthracite coal dealer in your area, i don't know what he charges though.

 

[ansehnlich1]

Here's my take on this. I had a Baker coal stove. It had a fan. My brother still is using it, it's been a great unit. HOWEVER, I know the manual indicated the stove was to be operated with the fan on at all times, otherwise an overfire condition could/would occur. The fan blew hot air through a jacket and out 3 tubes in front of the stove. I think the manual said the jacket/tubes could overheat and warp without using the fan.

Anyway, I'd be cautious of running a coal stove that was designed to be used with a fan, unless the manual/manufacturer specifically indicates it can be done.

That leads us to use of a "radiant" coal stove.

If you do a google search on radiant coal stove it takes you right to here: http://www.keystoker.com/radiantstove.html

 

[swestall]

I have an old Potbelly style coal stove with a large footrail and flat top. It has to weigh about It was the original stove from the Quincy Mass train station. I've never fired it up. The last owner had it installed in their basement for about a week. They had a small cape. It seems that after a few small fires the decided it was safe enough to heat with so they loaded it up and let it rip. A few hours later they had to open all the windows to let the heat out and when the wife went downstairs all the candles were muck.
I've thought about installing it in my extra flue for those Zero days like we've had lately, it would make the bridge time when we are at work a little easier to manage....
Coal is good, but no piece of cake either. I don't think I'll ever let go of the woodburning experience/culture though.

 

[grizzly2]

Good to hear from you guys. I live on the NE tip of Lake Ontario. We have one coal dealer about 35miles away, but right on my way to visit my daughter. There is another about 60 miles south of us who is cheaper. I would probably pick up a truck load when I was in the vicinitdy of either of them.

I can believe that not cooling the inner wall of a double wall stove could be a problem with too much heat buildup.

The Quincy Potbelly sounds like a beast. Probably be great if you were heating a real big workshop.

 

[elleninpa]

My dh and I are in central Pa. We heated with wood for the first ten years we were in this house. At that time our house was 2200 SF and the heater was an old Heatilator, basically a big metal box with grates and 3 dampers - one on the flue, a small air intake adjustment flap, and the door to the ash pan. With the fire bricks arranged so 50% of the floor was open to the ash pan, we could get up to 600F on the flue thermostat within minutes and then have coals in the am after loading up the 22 inch firebox about 11 PM, guess that's about 8-9 hours of burning. The house was always way too hot and the heat surges and declines drove me nuts, and this was before my change in life.

Then we put an addition on the house to the tune of a house total of 3600 SF. We also put in two more flues, one for a woodburning fireplace upstairs (not for heat so much as for atmosphere) and moved the woodburner to the new double wall stainless flue.

Our neighbor gave us his old Surdiac 715/515 and that is on our masonry flue in the center of the basement. We run coal from November Thanksgiving to March. What I like about our gravity fed radiant coal burner is that it burns hotter when the draft outside is high, meaning when it is cold and/or very windy. Coal gives us a steadier heat. Very tolerable for fickle me and my too hot/too cold 'interior' thermometer.

But for 3600 SF we run about 60 to 68F upstairs, and then fire up the woodburner when the temps outside drop to 0F and winds above 10 mph.

We had some great coal from Reading the first few years we ran the coal burner. Very little ash and very fine. But lately we are getting the regular white ash anthracite and so our burn time has dropped from 12 hours to barely 8 hours between poke downs on the grate.

The advantages are that our heat is not dependent on electricity. The disadvantage is having to poke down the fire with a little metal stick twice a day and then filling the hopper. Not bad really. Our house would be about $600 a month to heat if we did it with electric but it's only about $600 a year to heat with coal.

The point I am making in response to needing a small coal stove is that it is more than the size of the house and the BTUs that need to be considered. You could ask around your local coal supplier or heat stove store and see what other customers experience with the coal they have and with your average heating days per the weather man. They have some kind of stat called a degree day that equalizes for the seasons, temps, etc. That kind of information in addition to the specs of the stove you are considering will help you make an informed decision.

 

[elleninpa]

oopes, sorry for the back to back. My brother ran a Vigilant in his ranch house, in the family room, and it was way too hot so I believe it when the specs are underrated for the real heat they put out. He loves his Vigilant though and it is a beautiful stove.

And about the warping, we warped our cast iron grates because we didn't watch the fire closely enough while we were speed starting the fire with the ash door open. Still works but a pain because our poke stick sticks sometimes on the warped rungs. So I guess you can run anything at low enough heat so things won't warp but with coal the temps can really fly high, a lot higher than with wood, so the opportunity for an oops is more present.

 

[Fishing Randy]

Hi everyone! can you help me... you all seem to know what you are doing when it comes to coal. I have a wood/coal burning woodstove its a england stove works 28-3500, i have not used coal in it and i do not know how to, can anyone tell me how to get it started, what to do, etc???? this is a stove that has a blower on it that kicks on when the air temp in the plenum reaches 125f.

 

[Michael6268]

Hi everyone! can you help me... you all seem to know what you are doing when it comes to coal. I have a wood/coal burning woodstove its a england stove works 28-3500, i have not used coal in it and i do not know how to, can anyone tell me how to get it started, what to do, etc???? this is a stove that has a blower on it that kicks on when the air temp in the plenum reaches 125f.

That stove is not designed to burn coal. Years ago, they said you could burn a small amount soft/bitumenus coal in it with wood, but I dont think they even recomend that anymore. Depending where you live you may not be able to find bitumenus coal. In some states its illegal to burn it. If you can find it you could burn a small amount, mixed along with primarily wood. That stove is not capable of burning coal only due to its design, lacking a shaker mechanism required for burning coal. When burning a wood coal mix, you want to use the ash door regulator more than the slide damper as coal needs under fire air.

 

[grizzly2]

:coolsmile: Thank you one and all for your input. After doning a lot of on line research and exploring what stoves were available within about 150 mile radius, I made the decission to buy a Hitzer 30-95 coal stove from a very smaller, but very well run family stove and coal store. I bought it on Sat. 03-03-08 and hooked it up to the chimney that I was using for my wood stove. I got the coal to light up on the second attempt, and have had the stove running for over 24 hours. It has been warm so I have the air vent control set for low burn. The coal concumption is much less than I would have gussed.

I could not be more pleased with the Hitzer. It prety much runs itself. In fact I was advised that the more you leave it alone the better it burns. Seems to be true. As a 30 year wood burner, it seems like I should be stoking it up and generally poking at it.

This stove is a gravety operated hopper feed. Hitzer says it can go 30 hours on 30 pounds of coal. I would say that it will do that easily, even at a little hotter setting than I have it on. The Reading nut coal I am burning has produced very little ash. It is hard to believe that the gravity hopper could be so simple and work so well.

The fire is not a beautiful as the wood fire, and the stove is not as beautiful as the cream color ceramic finish Jotul 3 stove I was using. Coal will cost me a little more than wood, especially because I frequently managed to get some free wood. However I can see already that it will seem good not to have to tend the fire constantly, and I have moved up from 30K BTU to 50K BTU so I won't have to supplement my stove with a kersoene space heater in sub 10*F weather. All decissions contain compromises, and this is one I was ready to make. The Jotul will now be burning wood in my garage just in time for retirement.

 

[berlin]

"In some states its illegal to burn it."

not true. in certain states such as connecticut, selling coal, or bringing in coal with the intent to sell with greater than 1% sulfur content is not allowed more or less that is how the law is. basically, it encourages large users of BITUMINOUS coal to switch to low sulfur bituminous coal, such as prb coal from wyoming etc. there are a few localities that have banned bituminous coal, such as the city of pittsburgh, pa, boulder co, and manhattan, ny. other than that it's fair game.