buying hitzer 82 ul and load of coal

new to forum and coal burning. i have been doing lots of researh and reading mostly on this forum. for what i am looking to heat and the money i'm looking at the hitzer 82 ul. made some calls to local dealers here in nh and pa. if i go to pa with a pick-up and trailer i can save about 7-800$ for 5 hour drive each way. makes sense to me. anyone with better suggetions? heating about 2500 sq. ft. house built in late 1700's. ok insulation single pain windows and storm windows always put plastic wrap on inside of window. have heated house almost soley on wood 8-10 cord per year 1-2 stoves and fans. buying wood cut and split got very expensive last couple of years. doing it yourself is lots of work when i can just shovel coal every 12 hours. plan on putting furnace in basement and building block shell around it and piping in to existing cold air return using existing blower to move air.

You'll be happy will your choice of Hitzer. I'm a little confused as to why you would save so much money between the two States. It makes me wonder if you are comparing apples to apples. Hitzer makes a model 82 utiltity stove and a model 82 forced air furnace. I would clarify as to which you are buying. For the set up you describe, I would get the Hitzer forced air furnace.

You then duct the supply of our Hitzer furnace into the supply plenum of your existing furnace, using a divided plenum or a back draft damper on you exiting furnace. The Hitzer furnace comes with a forced air circulation blower. You would not want to duct that heated air, under pressure, to your existing furnace return. Your existing furnace blower motor, may not last long, either from the hot air temperature or the added resistance now to the motors, or both. You may use the existing cold air return to supply the return air for your new Hitzer though. This is what they call a parallel system.

Another way is the series configuration. This is where you duct the supply of the existing furnace plenum, to the modified larger opening of your Hitzer return, with the Hitzer's blower fan removed. This configuration only uses the one blower, the blower from your existing furnace, to move the air through you duct. Usually, the existing furnace blower fan CFM needs to be increased to overcome the added resistance though. So, that means buying a larger blower.

Either way, make sure you map out what you are doing before you buy.

Feel free to ask anymore questions. DOUG

Here is a link to the two Hitzer mdel 82's. This may help clarify.
http://www.hitzer.com/model82.html http://www.hitzer.com/furnaceunit.html
DOUG

82 ul in nh 1250 in pa 1150. coal in ma about 1 hour drive 300 / ton bagged pa at breaker 150/ton loose would much rather have loose coal for hand fed stove. been hard to find here.

its the 82 ul dealer said the only differance between the ul and the fa is the fa has metal cabinet.

It sounds like the prices that you quote are for the 82 utility stove, not the furnace. That metal cabinet and blower fan is definitely something you are going to want. I believe the Hitzer supply size collar is 12 inches. Without the cabinet, you will have all of the heat radiating into your basement and have to be very creative to try to get the hot air to move through the house. With the cabinet, ducted into your existing system correctly, you will be much happier. It is worth the extra money.

There is a very neat way to gain extra efficiency from a motorized duct door, cut into your furnace jacket. This door will allow for gravity air flow though your duct work, when the blower fan is not on. When the fan high/limit switch activates the blower, it closes and the duct is sealed. http://nepacrossroads.com/download/file.php?id=9490

Just some ideas for you. I've been the other way, using radiated heat, trying to get the air to move, and I'm trying to save you aggravation.

like i wrote i will build cabinet my self out of block and cap it with cement slab being a mason. i will install proper holes and thimbles for venting. this will save 100+$ but will take additional time and also insulate from a drafty rubble stone basement. i also have a metal break and could go that route. as far as the blower many many people on this forum and a hvac enginner that i have worked with have talked about ducting in to cold air return and using existing furnace blower. will save additional hundreds of $.

paid deposit on hitzer 82 today. going to pick it up this weekend.

I'm confused? if you drive the heated air into the cold air return it will come out in only one or two places (the cold air returns). Also....if you do that how does the cold air get back to the furnace to be reheated?

the cold air will be sucked or pulled back to the furnace by the blower. i will run a duct from the hitzer into the cold air return and as it pulls the air threw it will also pull the heat from off the hitzer and then blow the hot air out the heat registers. can i just run 2 8 inch ducts off the top of the hitzer into the cold air return? or do i need to make the cabinet around the hitzer part of the cold air loop with ducts going in the bottom of the cabinet and out the top? another question i have is i ran the exhuast vent into an existing hole in the chimney but their is only 3 inches of rise over 8 feet of pipe is this ok? i have lit a couple of small fires with just kindling and it seems to draft well. the manual says at least 1/4 inch / foot but doesn't say how far. when i am building my cabinet does the thermostat control need to be on the outside? i beleive it does. i know some others out there have built their own cabinets can you post some pictures or tell me where to find them.

The 1/4" rise is standard and the pipe should be made as straight of a run as possible, eliminating any elbows if you can. An eight foot run should be okay. As for the thermostat, you'll want to purchase a fan high/limit switch. Grainger is one place to buy them. http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/pr ... ontrols%2C

i raised the thimble in the chimney another 6 '' the max hieght i can get . that makes about 9 '' total. i have had 3 wood fires that lasted a few hours to try burning off the new smell . it still has a pretty strong smell and sets off the smoke detector sometime . how long should it take for this to burn off ?

mason coal burner wrote: how long should it take for this to burn off ?

Same question in two threads....
how long till the new smell burns off

sorry was looking for a quick answer so i started a new thread

what r u paying a ton in nh?