Stoker Heating 1100 Sq Ft House?

I'm looking to take the leap into coal this Spring, and will probably be purchasing a Leisure Line Pioneer top-vent stove. My house currently has an old Warm Morning coal stove and chimney in the basement (unfinished currently), so it will just be a matter of tying in the new stove to the existing chimney. I've got a few questions that I was hoping some of you experts could weigh in on...

1) My house is an 1100 squ. ft., 3 bedroom ranch house. The coal stove, as I mentioned, is in the basement. The side of the basement it's located on is the opposite side of the house as the 3 bedrooms upstairs. Will the coal stove heat the whole house with just the radiated heat the stove produces? Our master bedroom has a bathroom that we keep the door closed to a lot...will it keep that room warm? Would installing some sort of ventilation system in the floor between the basement & upstairs help? Be worth it? That's the kind of stuff my wife is concerned about.

2) In terms of stove installation...we want to have the nice "finished" look with the stone work behind the stove and tile underneath. Kind like this: http://www.leisurelinestoves.com/image/17531309_s ... 16x324.jpg. Can I get the stove installed in my unfinished basement right on the concrete floor, then have this stone work done later? Or does the stone work need to be done first?

3) For my last question, please refer to my other post yesterday about my plans for coal delivery to the hopper (Gravity Feed Into Pioneer Hopper?). Do you think it's a bad idea to remove my coal bin from my basement and go with bagged coal that is gravity fed from the garage? I understand it will cost a bit more to buy bagged, but the benefits of going a week + without having to fill the hopper, plus never having to shovel coal from the bin to the hopper in my finished basement (minimizing dust) are enticing to me. Thoughts??

I'm thinking you could possibly find a used stoker boiler and install it in your garage and finish your basement off fully. Heat your domestic hot water while you were at it. Scott

I don't see any problem doing the stone and tile later. I have tiled under an existing stove by lifting one side a half inch with a pry bar and putting blocks under it. Then tile under the legs, let the mortar set a day, let it back down, then repeat with the other side.

I suspect you will need some circulation to heat the upstairs, unless you keep the basement very very warm. Generally, you need at least one hole to let warm air up, and another to let cool air back down. How do you heat now? If you have forced hot air, you could probably use that to circulate the heat.

I'm guessing your not using the Warm Morning stove?

I have a similar setup as you are planning with a stoker stove in my basement. I would look into getting a boiler and putting it in your garage like scott recommended. I wish I had bought a boiler instead of the Harman mag that I have. It works ok but I run two stove most of the time. A hand fired in my living room and the Harman stoker in my basement. If you were able to put a boiler in your garage, none of the dirt/dust would be in your house and you can heat your house much more evenly..... BOILER!!!!!!

lundys wrote: 1) Will the coal stove heat the whole house with just the radiated heat the stove produces? Our master bedroom has a bathroom that we keep the door closed to a lot...will it keep that room warm? Would installing some sort of ventilation system in the floor between the basement & upstairs help?

Jerry from LL will tell you that the stove is supplementary however he's quite modest and doesn't like to steer anyone down the wrong path. Having said that 90K BTU coal stove should be able to heat a 1000 sq foot home fully. I'm assuming you have backup heat and are just throwing this question out to get an idea? Generally speaking 90K can do up to 2000 sq. ft. You will need to circulate the heat. The simplest method is to provide a cold air return. I'm assuming it's single level?

What you do is provide a vent for the heat to escape into the house above the stove, at the other end of the house provide another vent preferably with some duct work going back to the stoker. This can work naturally or you can get a some duct work with a fan to assist it. What you're doing is creating a loop, the heat rises from the stove and the colder air at the other end of the house will return to the stoker via the duct. There's a lot of posts on this here.

Can I get the stove installed in my unfinished basement right on the concrete floor, then have this stone work done later? Or does the stone work need to be done first?

Certainly,

3) For my last question, please refer to my other post yesterday about my plans for coal delivery to the hopper (Gravity Feed Into Pioneer Hopper?). Do you think it's a bad idea to remove my coal bin from my basement and go with bagged coal that is gravity fed from the garage? I understand it will cost a bit more to buy bagged, but the benefits of going a week + without having to fill the hopper, plus never having to shovel coal from the bin to the hopper in my finished basement (minimizing dust) are enticing to me. Thoughts??

Why do you need to switch to bagged to do that? Build a coal bin outside, figure out how to get it in the garage etc. There's a lot of options there and using bagged long term is going to really run the bill up if you can already get bulk.

What is your current system? If it is hot water baseboard get a stoker boiler. If it is forced hot air go with a coal furnace. It seems that many people buy stoker stoves and then try to modify them into central heating systems. Unless money is an issue just buy the central heating system whether it be a boiler or warm air furnace.

Salemcoal wrote:What is your current system? If it is hot water baseboard get a stoker boiler. If it is forced hot air go with a coal furnace. It seems that many people buy stoker stoves and then try to modify them into central heating systems. Unless money is an issue just buy the central heating system whether it be a boiler or warm air furnace.

Currently I am heating through electric baseboard, so I don't really have a central heating system. I have central air in my attic that comes into the rooms from ceiling vents...I suppose one possibility is to put a return for the central air next to the coal stove in the basement, then run the fan of the central air during the winter to circulate the heat. The downside there is that the hot air goes through the attic, which some hot air would probably be lost through the ducts...thoughts?

Richard S. wrote: I'm assuming it's single level?

Yes, the house has a basement, single level, and attic.

Richard S. wrote: Why do you need to switch to bagged to do that? Build a coal bin outside, figure out how to get it in the garage etc. There's a lot of options there and using bagged long term is going to really run the bill up if you can already get bulk.

The wife doesn't want a coal bin outside (plus we have a small yard with not much room), and she doesn't want one in the finished basement. I'm thinking bagged will still save me a lot of money vs. continuing on with electric baseboard...

Also, our garage is a small 1 car garage, so having a coal bin in there probably wouldn't be too good since it would take up half the garage...

Any other thoughts? Thanks for your feedback so far.

There are always stipulations when wives get involved. Have your wife carry bags down the basement stairs for awhile and she problably come around to the idea of some kind of coal storage in the basement that comes in through a window.

The last post made me think about your situation. You are set up perfect for a coal boiler in the garage area and run some pipe to a water to air heat exchanger in your A/C duct work. This will not only heat your whole house, just as well as the A/C cools the house in the summer, but you can also knock off your hot water heater too. The investment will be higher, but I think you will be happier with the overall set up more and the mess will be outside of the livng area.

hugg wrote:I have a similar setup as you are planning with a stoker stove in my basement. I would look into getting a boiler and putting it in your garage like scott recommended. I wish I had bought a boiler instead of the Harman mag that I have. It works ok but I run two stove most of the time. A hand fired in my living room and the Harman stoker in my basement. If you were able to put a boiler in your garage, none of the dirt/dust would be in your house and you can heat your house much more evenly..... BOILER!!!!!!

good advice. I didn't have this forum when I bought my Harman Magnum. Great stove, just not for me. I really needed a stoker boiler and I didn't get one b/c of the extra cost when I was buying the stove. I already had hw baseboard in my house and an indirect hw tank. Now I can run my boiler year around!

Plus the coal boiler is soooooooooooooooooooooo....oooo much quieter then the oil boiler. That's the first thing everyone says when they hear it...

Salemcoal wrote:There are always stipulations when wives get involved. Have your wife carry bags down the basement stairs for awhile and she problably come around to the idea of some kind of coal storage in the basement that comes in through a window.

With my setup that I am planning, using a hopper in my garage, it would be a gravity-fed PVC pipe into the stoker's hopper. So, the bags wouldn't need to be carried down the stairs. They would be stored in stacks in the garage and fed into the hopper in the garage (like this: )

DOUG wrote:The last post made me think about your situation. You are set up perfect for a coal boiler in the garage area and run some pipe to a water to air heat exchanger in your A/C duct work. This will not only heat your whole house, just as well as the A/C cools the house in the summer, but you can also knock off your hot water heater too. The investment will be higher, but I think you will be happier with the overall set up more and the mess will be outside of the livng area.

Garage is too small for a boiler stove unfortunately. In the basement, I plan on using a domestic hot water coil from the stove into my electric hot water tank, so I will be using the stove to heat DHW as well...

You are still set up for a coal stoker boiler. Then locate it in the basement and gravity feed the coal from the garage like you said. This will allow you to use your duct work you already have and take the guess work of air movement you'll have with a stove. Besides you can use the boiler all year unlike the stove. Just another thought.

Unless you are really sold on having the stove, I'd think seriously about the stoker boiler.

---- Also, our garage is a small 1 car garage, so having a coal bin in there probably wouldn't be too good since it would take up half the garage...

You should check out some of the pictures of coal bins in the section on the Board Index. There are some really creative solutions to small spaces. The one that stood out to me was the coal bin that was built in the garage to run between the car and the outside wall. The bin was maybe 24 inches wide and the length of the garage. If I remember correctly they could store 3 or 4 tons in that small space and it seemed pretty easy to put together. Something like that would put you in the market for bulk coal at much cheaper cost then bagged.

DOUG wrote:You are still set up for a coal stoker boiler. Then locate it in the basement and gravity feed the coal from the garage like you said. This will allow you to use your duct work you already have and take the guess work of air movement you'll have with a stove. Besides you can use the boiler all year unlike the stove. Just another thought.

Unless you are really sold on having the stove, I'd think seriously about the stoker boiler.

I am certainly willing to entertain the idea of a boiler if it makes more sense than a stove. One thing I didn't understand about what you said, how would a boiler allow me to better utilize the duct work that I have for the AC in the attic? Where would the hot water from the boiler go? (excuse my ignorance, I'm probably missing something obvious). Also, why couldn't I use my stove all year (if I have it tied into a DHW coil)?

lowfog01 wrote: You should check out some of the pictures of coal bins in the section on the Board Index. There are some really creative solutions to small spaces. The one that stood out to me was the coal bin that was built in the garage to run between the car and the outside wall. The bin was maybe 24 inches wide and the length of the garage. If I remember correctly they could store 3 or 4 tons in that small space and it seemed pretty easy to put together. Something like that would put you in the market for bulk coal at much cheaper cost then bagged.

That seems like a neat idea...I wonder how much I could fit. Do you happen to have a link to a picture? That coal bin thread is intimidating. I'm definitely open to some way to get bulk in the garage and still being able to park my wife's Civic in there.

lundys wrote:

DOUG wrote:You are still set up for a coal stoker boiler. Then locate it in the basement and gravity feed the coal from the garage like you said. This will allow you to use your duct work you already have and take the guess work of air movement you'll have with a stove. Besides you can use the boiler all year unlike the stove. Just another thought.

Unless you are really sold on having the stove, I'd think seriously about the stoker boiler.

I am certainly willing to entertain the idea of a boiler if it makes more sense than a stove. One thing I didn't understand about what you said, how would a boiler allow me to better utilize the duct work that I have for the AC in the attic? Where would the hot water from the boiler go? (excuse my ignorance, I'm probably missing something obvious). Also, why couldn't I use my stove all year (if I have it tied into a DHW coil)?

lowfog01 wrote: You should check out some of the pictures of coal bins in the section on the Board Index. There are some really creative solutions to small spaces. The one that stood out to me was the coal bin that was built in the garage to run between the car and the outside wall. The bin was maybe 24 inches wide and the length of the garage. If I remember correctly they could store 3 or 4 tons in that small space and it seemed pretty easy to put together. Something like that would put you in the market for bulk coal at much cheaper cost then bagged.

That seems like a neat idea...I wonder how much I could fit. Do you happen to have a link to a picture? That coal bin thread is intimidating. I'm definitely open to some way to get bulk in the garage and still being able to park my wife's Civic in there.

On The Average a ton of coal = 40 cubic ft so take say 4x4x8 = 128 Divide by 40 = 3.2 Tons of coal
Take a measurment of where you would like it in the garage and divide by 40 you know how much coal you can store