Comments on: The Coal Chronicles – Book I

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:36:57 +0000

Essentially that is what I did. I will get into more detail in the next post. Since the house has electric heat the choices are limited. However there are two electric heaters that are installed in the floor of the house. The first year I took one of the heaters out of the floor leaving the cavity. I needed to remove the ceiling tile in the basement for the area, and do some finishing work. The problem is Fire Safety. Check with your local codes of course, but, generally it is unsafe to have an opening in your floor to between levels. Most modern houses have 2 x 4's installed between the wall studs of the house to act as a fire stop. Also, in my case the movement of air just wasn't enough. My solution was to gut the heater that was removed and install a blower in the empty shell. Another issue is that a return is needed to keep air flowing. I will go into this further in the third post. The unique construction of the split level house that we live in allowed for me to install a register on the other side of the house with a piece of duct work installed. this empties the cold air back into the basement for reheating. Essentially the basement is a giant plenum. The bad part; keeping all the doors shut. With little children this is a challenge.

By: dmbecher

dmbecher — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:22:20 +0000

I have a suggestion for Plowboy on how to get the heat upstairs. In my old house I put in a few cold air returns with closing grates to let the heat flow upstairs through the floor. For me, I just cut a hole through the floor between the joists in one of the common vent sizes. I made a metal duct that would fit the hole so the heat didn’t just flow through the floor joists, but came all the way upstairs. You put a grate on the ceiling side and the floor side, and you’re set. In summer, when you’re cooling, you just shut the levers and the grates close. It really helped to get the heat from the wood stove downstairs up into the living room.

Dawn- Narrow Gate Farms

By: Plowboy

Plowboy — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:42:06 +0000

Greg,
I have baseboard hot water heat.. No furnace, I should have bought a wood or coal fire hot water boiler.
Well I guess I could trade this new stove off but I really hate to.

Plowboy

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:31:20 +0000

I have plans to share all the experiences concerning this stove with the readers. I am enjoying writing these chronicles. Just an FYI, The Coal Chronicles – Book II is in Draft (need some more pics and fix up some links). It is due to be published with the next newsletter, which will be sent on Friday (January 25th). This next installment will cover the installation, firing, and daily upkeep of the stove.

Honestly I am trying to catch up the Chronicles, this is our second season with the stove. Late fall we put a lot of insulation in the attic of the house, this helped considerably (again this will be in the chronicles). Book III should cover the problem of getting the heat to the upstairs, the solution I came up with really works for our situation. If you have a furnace with a blower installed, it seems the answer is obvious, but may not be. I have the base board heat, this presented a major problem. When I woke up Sunday morning (yesterday) the temp outside was 5° the house was still 65° the electrics had not kicked on. That was huge.

By: Plowboy

Plowboy — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:12:11 +0000

Let us know when you get this stove fired up in the basement and how you get the heat moving upstairs.
We put in a wood burning Country Stove, Step Top, in our basement, large stove.. and the basement stays 70deg.. upstairs 64 65..
Any ideas on how to move the heat? We leave the basement door open and the laundry shoot door open but I think it should still be warmer upstairs.
Our house is a small 1300 sq. ft. insulated well, have a fan behind the stove, just about ready to give up. We wanted the stove upstairs but the rooms are made to where there is no room for a wood stove upstairs, we wish there was.
Any ideas??

Plowboy

By: jrlii

jrlii — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 23:12:51 +0000

Coal avalibility is a problem in a large part of the country: Many blacksmiths have gone back to using charcoal because it is just too difficult and/or expensive to obtain mineral coal in large swaths of the US.

Anthracite availability is even more limited than bituminous coal.

Here in Kansas just about all the coal mining has been shut down since the ’80s, since it is cheaper for the electric companies to ship low-sulphur coal in from the Powder River Basin of Wyoming than it is for power plants to meet emmissions requirements with the local high-sulphur coal. And that is with some of the power plants having been constructed within conveyor-belt range of coal mines so the shiping costs approached zero.

We get nearly 100 trains a day through here on the Union Pacific, and most of them are coal trains. We must see a good half million tons of coal go past most days, but there isn’t a retail coal dealer in a hundred miles.

- John.

By: chiva50

chiva50 — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 01:16:52 +0000

I have a big old Hitzer that isn’t airtight anymore (smoke puffs out at the top seams sometimes). I burned one sack of coal in it a couple years ago that I got from an Amish friend, and I liked the results. My 8-inch chimney is stainless steel from Menards–is that enough for the hotter coal smoke? also it said that 8 inch was too small–is it? I’m in West Central Wisconsin, anyone know where to get coal around here?

By: bobmakita7777

bobmakita7777 — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:35:43 +0000

I live in NE ohio and Burned wood with a Waterford stove for years. Got up at 3am every night to refill it with wood so our wake-up would be warm. This year I bought a Hitzer 30-95 and it is great. It will still burn wood if you remove the coal chute from the top which we do when temps are in the 55-60*+ range. 1400 sq/ft cape cod, upstairs 68*+, downstairs 73*. New windows and doors with attic properly insulated, no wall insulation. Called Hitzer and got Ok to use existing 5″ stainless steel flex chimney liner from wood stove, which sat in our living room. Have used a little over 1 ton of the nut coal so far which I bought in bulk(loose, cheaper that way and use a coal bucket to bring it in from bin in garage) from Thompsons in New Springfield, oh and also from Bushes in Lordstown oh. Hauled myself in truck, about $200 a ton. I love the stove, shake the grates 2x`s a day until you see a solid glow in the ash pan and then add coal in the top chute, no smell inside or out and no more mess from the wood. I can now sleep all night and the house is always warm, no cold spots. Go to Lehmans or Bushes and buy 1 of these, cheaper than a harman and will save you a ton of money as well as increase your homes comfort.

By: rcrone

rcrone — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:49:38 +0000

I am using coal to heat my log home the furnace is a hotblast

coal or wood the furnace was bought from tractor supply. The

stove uses hard coal the chimney is an out side stainles steel insulated.

The coal is in 40lb bags and one bag lasts 12hrs . The stove is made

by US STOVE company if you go to usstove on the internet you

will find several sizes. I get my coal from abuchon hardware at

present one bag is arround $5.00 per bag and 60 bags to the pallet.

By: dmbecher

dmbecher — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:59:02 +0000

I just bought a restored antique wood/coal burning cook stove and am having trouble finding a source of coal in SE Wisconsin. The only way I’ve been able to get it is through the local Amish community that purchases a semi trailer full each fall for their stoves. If anyone know where else I can find it around here I would be grateful for the info.