i want to upgrade my current 5510 (move it to the garage) and buy a new harman. im thinking of maybe going coal this time. im thinking of maybe buying a harman dvc 500 coal stove or a harman p38 pellet. i know that coal stove is more expensive but i believe that coal is a much more economical unit to operate, coal tends to be cheap and hot. i was wondering how much more dust a coal stove develops vs. pellets. i read that a dvc 500 is a direct vent. does that mean that it vents much like a pellet stove? i was also looking at the harman magnum stoker. does anyone else know anything about this stove. it appears to have a room filter which would keep the air cleaner. if the dvc 500 is the cheaper stove to vent and not require a full expensive chimmney that would probably be the option i would take. i would also like to hook it up to a thermostat and it appears that stove can be set up that way. if i dont go with coal, i will go with a P68 most likely.
harman p68 vs. a harman coal stove
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Bravo for you in recognizing the virtues of coal! I took this from a recent post to another question that I made. The Harman looks good but these manufacturers know what they are doing too. The also have a powered extractor that eliminates the need for a chimney at all. 
Just spent the day in Oley with my sister-in-law before heading back south! You DO realize that you have a coal breaker in Tamaqua (or is it Shamokin?) where you can buy coal for about $165 a ton, don’t you? I continue to be amazed at how many pellet burners in SE Pa don’t realize the value of burning coal and how many really beautiful coal stoves are made right in the area. Being ‘Green’ is no excuse for not being warm.
Look at the comparison of heat between the two. http://www.buildinggreen.com/calc/fuel_cost.cfm
(broken link removed to http://www.readingstove.com/heating-stoves/coal-stoves/)
(broken link removed to http://www.leisurelinestoves.com/698400.html)
http://www.keystoker.com/
All are made right in your backyard.
Also, my brother in law has a keystoker and loves it. You'll notice that they all have much higher btu ratings than any pellet stove. I burned coal for years in a more modern stove and the old wives tales of dirt and dust every where are just not true any longer. The stokers are bottom feeders like the Harman pellet stoves. You'll have people come on saying that when they grew up, they burned coal and dirt was everywhere. The key is 'When they grew up', there was a huge beast in the basement.
Just spent the day in Oley with my sister-in-law before heading back south! You DO realize that you have a coal breaker in Tamaqua (or is it Shamokin?) where you can buy coal for about $165 a ton, don’t you? I continue to be amazed at how many pellet burners in SE Pa don’t realize the value of burning coal and how many really beautiful coal stoves are made right in the area. Being ‘Green’ is no excuse for not being warm.
Look at the comparison of heat between the two. http://www.buildinggreen.com/calc/fuel_cost.cfm
(broken link removed to http://www.readingstove.com/heating-stoves/coal-stoves/)
(broken link removed to http://www.leisurelinestoves.com/698400.html)
http://www.keystoker.com/
All are made right in your backyard.
Also, my brother in law has a keystoker and loves it. You'll notice that they all have much higher btu ratings than any pellet stove. I burned coal for years in a more modern stove and the old wives tales of dirt and dust every where are just not true any longer. The stokers are bottom feeders like the Harman pellet stoves. You'll have people come on saying that when they grew up, they burned coal and dirt was everywhere. The key is 'When they grew up', there was a huge beast in the basement.
I'm plenty warn and green with my p68, may not be as warm as coal but I don't need my house to be 90, 80 will work for me and no mountain top removal to boot! Bio-heat is the wave of the future, coal is prehistoric.
ad356 I just realized that you posted something a few days ago that I responded to, in that you stated rightfully that NG was a bad choice mostly because of what it's doing with fracturing and people's water being all messed up. You didn't want to support those bad NG company. So now your thinking about coal? The coal company's do not take good care of there worker's, just look up upper big branch disaster and see what they found out about all the rules they were braking, a whole bunch of workers died just so the coal company could make a buck.It seems like every few years a few worker's go down in the mine and don't ever come back up, and that doesn't even count all the coal miner's who work there whole life in the mine only to die early from pollution to their body in the form of lung cancer.Sorry for the soap box, but if you factor in the whole picture you will see that pellet heat is by far the best way to go hands down!
Burned coal for years in a hand feed Harman Mark I. The heat was great. Alot of ash, dusty even though I bought bagged. Here its now over $300/ton. The whole coal mining thing, the workers, slurry ponds, environment, outside smell of sulfur, made me think it was time to change. Pellet burning is different heat, takes getting used to. The P38 I have does not heat as well as my Harman coal burner did, but I knew that getting into it.
noelp68 said:
i really dont like the idea of a greedy NG company contaminating my water for their bottom line. i can live without gas very easily....... i cannnot live without water even for a week. if my water was contamiated by their actions my home would be worthless both as a place to live and from a resale standpoint. my home is my biggest investment, it literally is everything i have worked for.unfortunately when people think of natural gas they have this "green energy" imagine in their heads and it just isnt so. i would say that natural gas is even more evil than coal when you consider that the NG companies could easily destroy the drinking water for many thousands of people. when fracking goes wrong, it screws up allot of lives. i really like pellets but i dont like the cost, they really arent that cost competitive. does a stove like a harman getting better use out of that ton then the stove i use now? how many tons would i expect to go through with a really good pellet stove like the P68. last winter i burned 6-7 tons. it also was a very long, cold winter. this year it is the opposite, its very mild. we have only burned 1-1/4 tons so far this winter. i just dont know if pellets are price stable.
When I see 'Green', I see RED. Yes, coal miners die during mining and years later. Personally I lost three great-uncles in 1906 at the Monongah disaster in WV. My grandfather was a breaker boy. It's a dangerous business to be sure but I would venture to say more people die texting in cars, fighting fires, driving drunk. Yes, coal mines could be safer, for sure, but realize at the same time that our current EPA is heaping regulations on coal mining in an effort to kill coal mining just as they have killed oil exploration and drilling to force us to the elusive Green technologies.
Worried about the mountain tops? China is the largest user of coal in the world and growing more dependent every day. Well, they don't have enough coal so negotiations are well underway to buy all OUR coal, our greatest natural resource! Those mountain tops WILL BE GONE anyway as we give away our resources and slide to third world status. To not use our resources WISELY is just plain stupid. It's a fact of life that we need energy and to find excuses NOT to use it is insane. The world will change and so will our landscape. Fact of life.
Yes, coal miners die during mining and years later. Personally I lost three great-uncles in 1906 at the Monongah disaster in WV. My grandfather was a breaker boy. It's a dangerous business to be sure but I would venture to say more people die texting in cars, fighting fires, driving drunk. Yes, coal mines could be safer, for sure, but realize at the same time that our current EPA is heaping regulations on coal mining in an effort to kill coal mining just as they have killed oil exploration and drilling to force us to the elusive Green technologies.Worried about the mountain tops? China is the largest user of coal in the world and growing more dependent every day. Well, they don't have enough coal so negotiations are well underway to buy all OUR coal, our greatest natural resource! Those mountain tops WILL BE GONE anyway as we give away our resources and slide to third world status. To not use our resources WISELY is just plain stupid. It's a fact of life that we need energy and to find excuses NOT to use it is insane. The world will change and so will our landscape. Fact of life.
As far as being price stable I think the one element that comes into play is the tranportation cost. I think that would play a bigger part in the cost then the greed factor from the manufactures.
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