who heats with Wood and coal in same stove?

[domat]

Not at the same time of course but is there anyone that heats with both? say heats with wood during the day and coal overnight or any other combination?

If so how do you handle the transition? is it as simple as throwing in the other when you want to switch? Anything to look out for? Any reason not to do this?

If you do why?

Thanks

 

[CoalHog]

We burn wood in the fall and spring and coal in the winter. Transition..... throw in the fuel and change the air flow and forget about it. ;-)

 

[Belgian]

Hello

Our previous stove was een wood-coal stove. For wood the airinlets above were opend, for coal the airinlet beneath was opend.

We burned wood in it untill december and then put in some coal in it. We burned wood, shaked with the grate untill only hot embers were on the grate en started a coal fire. It worked very well. Shaked before we went to bed and added a few kg of coal.
The coal did not burn overnight because there wasn't enough in the stove. We tried the same thing the next day but this time we put the coalbunker in the stove and filled it to the top. This worked very well. However, when we wanted to start heating with wood again we had to wait untill the bunker was empty, remove the bunker (which is very heavy and dirty) and put wood in.

Conlusion: when you have a stove that is designed for both fuels like our was, it will work if you add enough coal at night (so you probably need the bunker). It is a mess however to always put in and remove the bunker, also a lot of ashes, but that's common with coal. We dicided not to do it again and bought a wood-only stove. I must say the wod burns much 'slower' in this stove. Overnight burns are not possible but when we put the stove full of oak after an hour or 6 there are still enough embers to start another fire. Stove keeps warm for 8 hours. Less mess, cheaper and simpler then the wood-coal solution.

Hope this helps!

David

 

[tang]

I have a Harman tlc-2000 woodcoal stove.. I have been burning wood in late fall and a mix now. During the week I burn coal, since no one is home and it will burn much longer with no fuss..and on the weekends when i'm home, all wood. the transition is easy..just a matter of changing the coal vs. wood air controls. This was my main reason for getting this stove, i have access to free wood but was tired of all the work associated with a wood only stove.

 

[dork]

I had no problem buring wood and/ or coal in out TLC-2000. If we had a wood fire going and it was starting to turn to embers and peter out, I could load some lump anthricite on the wood ash/embers and transition right to a coal fire for a long overnight burn.

We had either stoker coal or large lump coal available. The stoker was tough to work with for me.

The anthricite lump coal worked well for use here in central IL.

I also had great luck with burning eared corn in the TLC-2000. Had to get a good wood fire going first and then either toss a dozen whole (dry) ears in or laddel in some dry shelled corn.

Gotta watch it though, that corn can get hot fast. So you have to experiment.

I can also burn earred corn in our current stove (Heathstone).

ANyway to attach photos? I'll show you how it goes or you can go to this link and see my post on a corn stove forum for burning ear corn in a wood stove:
(broken link removed)

All for now,
DK

 

[Martin Strand III]

Hey DK:

How do keep that corn from "popping" in your stove?

Eah?
Marty

 

[dork]

Marty,

"Pop corn" is a very different animal then yellow "field corn". Kind of like the difference between a grapefruit and an orange. Bothcitrus, both similar in structure, but two completely different fruits.

Pop corn is a completely different variety of corn.

Field corn will never 'pop' in a stove, as long as it is dried down below 15% moisture (which is what the grain elevators dry it to for storage).

Here is another photo for you.

DK

 

[Martin Strand III]

Thanks, DK:

I didn't know that.

Aye,
Marty

 

[dork]

Good Chatting with you Marty. Thanks for asking the question. All for now, DK

 

[Martin Strand III]

DK:

You are welcome.

But now I'm thinking about it, what is the BTU value for that non-popping 15% dry field corn you burn in your stove, compared to wood?

And, why can it dry to 15% when wood dries to about 20% outdoors covered? How long does it take to dry to 15%?

Do you know if corn has the same pollutant problems if burned "cool" like wood does?

Does burning corn in a stove form creosote?

Just thinking of alternatives if in case there is another great fuel (wood) shortage before I have to start busting up my wood furniture to heat my house.

Seems farmers could grow more corn, instead of soil banking, which could be used to heat homes, make bio-diesel or other to offset our dependency on gasoline and feed the starving. This would help out our farmers and others as well.

Not to mention making a corn based ethanol for a toddy as a sundowner...

Aye,
Marty

 

[dork]

Marty,

we have a harman PC-45 corn stove and a Hearthstone Wood stove.

No creosote at all

Corn will naturally dry down below 15% in a crib.

This web site at Penn state should answer most of your questions about corn as a fuel:
http://energy.cas.psu.edu/burncorn/shellcorn.html

or you can come to our website at : (broken link removed)

DK