I am a previous owner of a nestor martin coal stove. I purschased the Vigilant II coal stove by Vermont Casting , it said that it could heat up to 2,000 square feet. I live in a 1600 square foot ranch house. The problem that I am having is that I cannot reach a high enough temperature to fully heat my house. It reaches only 74 degrees in the room where it is burning. The rest of the house is in the mid to lower 60s. I checked the draft and it's fine, the bed is fully burning bright red. I'm not really sure how to operate the air control on the side. I have had it burning with the internal damper both opened and closed, and I'm still having this problem. Please help! Freezing in new york
new owner of vigilant II coal stove
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Have you tried using the search? Most of us are wood burners, but there are a few coal folks on the board who may be able to help. Also there is a coal forum like this that I've seen reccomended - if you search on coal burning you should be able to find a link to it.
Gooserider
Gooserider
We can handle coal questions here too
Remember now that manufacturer's claims for square footage heated as usually either wild guess numbers or loosely based on a formula. I would never use that number to size a stove for my house and I work at a stove company!
More importantly, look at the coal capacity of the stove. The Vigilant holds 45lbs of coal, which is on the small side of coal stoves (which you obviously know). Assuming you're burning anthracite at 13,000 BTU/lb, how fast are you burning a load of coal?
I'd guess in that stove, you're probably burning no more than 3 pounds an hour, which would mean you're refilling the stove with 36 lbs of coal every 12 hours, which is around a full coal hood, give or take.
At 100% efficiency you're making 39000 BTU/hr. At 80% efficiency you're putting about 31,200 BTU/hr into the house.
Now, using the ballpark BTU loss number (which I hate, but is good for simple calculations like this), you need about 45 BTU/hr / sq ft. of living space. That would mean you need 72,000 BTU/hr on the coldest day of the winter.
Basically I said all of that to say this - The stove probably isn't big enough for your needs. Is it installed in the basement? Is the basement insulated at all if so? What temperature are you getting on a stove top thermometer placed in the dead center of the top loading griddle?
Remember now that manufacturer's claims for square footage heated as usually either wild guess numbers or loosely based on a formula. I would never use that number to size a stove for my house and I work at a stove company!
More importantly, look at the coal capacity of the stove. The Vigilant holds 45lbs of coal, which is on the small side of coal stoves (which you obviously know). Assuming you're burning anthracite at 13,000 BTU/lb, how fast are you burning a load of coal?
I'd guess in that stove, you're probably burning no more than 3 pounds an hour, which would mean you're refilling the stove with 36 lbs of coal every 12 hours, which is around a full coal hood, give or take.
At 100% efficiency you're making 39000 BTU/hr. At 80% efficiency you're putting about 31,200 BTU/hr into the house.
Now, using the ballpark BTU loss number (which I hate, but is good for simple calculations like this), you need about 45 BTU/hr / sq ft. of living space. That would mean you need 72,000 BTU/hr on the coldest day of the winter.
Basically I said all of that to say this - The stove probably isn't big enough for your needs. Is it installed in the basement? Is the basement insulated at all if so? What temperature are you getting on a stove top thermometer placed in the dead center of the top loading griddle?
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