question about BTU's

[tarzan]

We are heating our 1500 square foot home with a Lennox Country Performer with a 2.1 c.f. firebox rated at 75,000 BTU'S.

I know that rating may be a little bit of wishful thinking but it heats our home fine. Even managed to hold 72F during the bellow zero hours of the recent cold snap even though I think once temps were near -10 F we would have lost ground for good without constant tending.

Sadly, this will probably be our last year as woodburners and we are looking into other heat sources. We are interested in anthracite coal, particularly the Hitzer 30-95 that is rated at 65,000 max BTU'S.

OK, now the question. Would this stove heat as well as our present wood stove? I'm thinking that even though the BTU rating is a little less the heat is more consistent so it should be as good as a stand alone heater as what we currently have. Am I missing something or just don't know nothing about BTU's

P.S Not sure this is the proper place for this question but I'm sure many folks here know the answer.

 

[pen]

It's mostly about wood here. There are folks around that know coal, just not as many as there are wood.

If you don't get your question answered here, don't be afraid to check out www.nepacrossroads.com. They know coal.

pen

 

[HotCoals]

The short answer is coal will do better.

 

[fbelec]

welcome to the forum tarzan. i'm sorry that i can only give you a opinion because i'm not a coal burner. but if the stoves are rated wood btu to coal btu coal puts out more btu than wood buttttttttttt the nice thing about a coal stove is you can turn the output way down without worrying about creosote buildup in the chimney. so if it were me i would buy the next size up stove for those just incase nights but also have the ability to turn it down and not worry about having to come home to a cold house and cold stove. i also wouldn't want to run the stove flat out because of the heat output that coal has.
but that is me. there are some coal burners here and hopefully some can give you a first hand view of your question.

frank

 

[Bigg_Redd]

We are heating our 1500 square foot home with a Lennox Country Performer with a 2.1 c.f. firebox rated at 75,000 BTU'S.

I know that rating may be a little bit of wishful thinking but it heats our home fine. Even managed to hold 72F during the bellow zero hours of the recent cold snap even though I think once temps were near -10 F we would have lost ground for good without constant tending.

Sadly, this will probably be our last year as woodburners and we are looking into other heat sources. We are interested in anthracite coal, particularly the Hitzer 30-95 that is rated at 65,000 max BTU'S.

OK, now the question. Would this stove heat as well as our present wood stove? I'm thinking that even though the BTU rating is a little less the heat is more consistent so it should be as good as a stand alone heater as what we currently have. Am I missing something or just don't know nothing about BTU's

P.S Not sure this is the proper place for this question but I'm sure many folks here know the answer.

DISCLAIMER: I have no firsthand experience with either anthracite nor bituminous nor lignite coal

For wood stoves I wouldn't put too much stock in the BTU rating. Not that it's false, it's just that it's meaningless because of the wildly different BTU content of firewood by species.

Anthracite coal, however, does not vary very much, and not at all for the purposes of home heat, so that 65,000BTU rating actually means something. Whether or not it would sufficiently heat your home is another question and I really don't know. I don't suppose you'd want a unit running at it's maximum capacity on a routine basis because it don't leave room for those extra-cold cold snaps. I'd say something that runs at about 80% capacity for normal winter weather would be perfect.

 

[DougA]

All I can add is my understanding that the BTU rating on stoves is the maximum it can output under ideal conditions. My expectation is that the real BTU in actual use is closer to half of that. I can't prove it but it's closer to truth on my own stove compared to my baseboard heater which is a known output.

 

[Wormyone]

I would have to agree with Bigg Redd...I think BTU's depend a lot on the type o wood that you are using...if I were you I would stick with would if at all possible because it is a lot cheaper to operate

 

[HotCoals]

all wood is around 8000 btu's /pound.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

I would have to agree with Bigg Redd...I think BTU's depend a lot on the type o wood that you are using...if I were you I would stick with would if at all possible because it is a lot cheaper to operate

That is not strictly true - it's only cheaper if you cut and haul your own wood. Coal is a bargain compared to buying wood.

Fun Fact: A ton of anthracite coal costs about $300 and has about double the BTUs of wood pellets which cost $250-$300 per ton.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

all wood is around 8000 btu's /pound.

But you cab fit a lot more pounds of dense species in a stove. More pounds = more BTUs. It's science.

 

[tarzan]

Thanks for the replies. We would be very happy to go on heating with wood but it looks like the only way that will be possible is to purchase it and that makes it one of the more expensive ways of heating in my area.

After doing a little homework we are leaning toward coal as an alternative.

Not trying to make this a coal versus wood thread, just simply wondering if I can use my current stove as a reference in sizing a new stove (wether it be coal, pellet, or gas) The problem I'm having is how much (if any) consideration I should give to the up and down heating nature of our wood stove vs the steady heat of other sources.

 

[fbelec]

all wood is around 8000 btu's /pound.

if that were true my defiant would be a 512000 btu heater. manual says it hold 64 pounds of wood. 800 i would believe.
if it were me having to buy fuel aka wood, 300.00 a cord here or 300.00 a ton coal here and i was buying a new stove i would go coal for the steady output, the ability to run it low and slow without clogging the chimney. that is perfect for the shoulder season. pellets up here are 210.00 at lowes or home cheapo but even on low setting the house runs hot.

 

[HotCoals]

if that were true my defiant would be a 512000 btu heater. manual says it hold 64 pounds of wood. 800 i would believe.
if it were me having to buy fuel aka wood, 300.00 a cord here or 300.00 a ton coal here and i was buying a new stove i would go coal for the steady output, the ability to run it low and slow without clogging the chimney. that is perfect for the shoulder season. pellets up here are 210.00 at lowes or home cheapo but even on low setting the house runs hot.

It doesn't work that way..lol.

 

[fbelec]

that was my point if it did i think i would be a tad over sized for my 1240 sq ft house

 

[HotCoals]

that was my point if it did i think i would be a tad over sized for my 1240 sq ft house

Well it is roughly 8000 btu's/pound though.

 

[DougA]

I'd prefer it if you said all DRY wood is...
Wet wood still has the BTU's but uses them up drying the wood prior to burning so it doesn't produce usable BTU's in the same amount.

Coal has to contain more BTU's because it was once wood that has been compressed over time.

 

[HotCoals]

Yep,dry wood.

 

[tarzan]

Coal has to contain more BTU's because it was once wood that has been compressed over time.

LOL, I've worked several years in the coal mines and most of the fossils I've seen look like firns and palm trees. kinda hard to imagine things like that could ever burn hot.