Seems We're Burning Too Much Coal

In the last 2 days we've burned close to 50 lbs. of coal in our Hyfire II, running one burner. Of course today was pretty darn cold, it went down to about 10 degrees last night and the high was 22. There is also wind that threatened to blow the house down. Yesterday it was cold too, in the 20s/low 30s, so not as bad as today. We know its about 50 lbs. we've gone through because we've been using 50 lb. bags and the hopper had a 50 lb. bag put in on Wed. evening. The hopper was almost empty then. (We've got our coal delivery coming soon!)

Have we burned an excessive amount of coal, or does this sound about right? Seems like a lot to us. Coaltrol is at 69 day and night, and of course today the stove could not keep up (and it probably lost ground while we slept, but it did manage 67 until the sun helped warm the house). Really needed to have burner 2 going but had to wait for husband to get home to light it since I can't do the basement stairs right now.

We have min/max at 4 and 38. We are heating 1600 sq. ft. plus also heating the uninsulated basement of 1,100 sq. ft. The basement usually gets no colder than about 58-60 degrees even without heat down there. The stove is in the basement. The Coaltrol is upstairs though, its not in the basement. The stove is ducted directly into our central heating ducts.

What do you guys think? Too much, about right, or excellent? LOL! Thanks!

I lit the other burner last night since I knew it was going be very cold....
That sounds about about right on usage. I can rip thru 40#'s in a 24 hour period or more if its really cold out. I probably burnt that much with both burners running last night, it was 10 degrees. 1-2#'s an hour is NOT unreasonable.

Thanks Dave. We just don't know what to expect, being its our first coal year. He's got burner 2 lit now, didn't do it last night because he had to buy some more bags of coal today. If we ran out I could've just used the propane, but we don't want to do that, just because... LOL!

Keep warm everybody!

Proooooooppppppaaaaaaannneeeeeeeee. That's painful! The usage seems normal, and we have had no really cold weather except for yesterday, today.....and the rest of the damned winter.

Gotta love a stoker....in whatever size and shape they come in!

THE Woodburners and pellet poker's sure used some fuel also! Keep a spreadsheet if you would like, that way you can compare or reference it later in the season....

P.N.'s

Seems right. I have a Hyfire II down in West Easton and with the recent winter blast I have been going through 40-50 lbs a day. I am only running one burner in my old drafty house.

Any ice up there in the Pocono's out on the lakes??? Looking to get out ice-fishing soon.

No problem, it does take a bit to figure it all out. I usually go thru 5-6 ton, but running 2 stoves to heat this big old house.!!

Can't wait to put in a boiler...(next spring/summer's project hopefully).

Good luck and stay Warm.

Alaska 140 w/ single grate heating 1400 sq ft 1950's ranch and the 600 sq ft basement.

Last year's Excel spreadsheet pinned me down at 72 lbs per day average for the season Dec thru Apr.

Last year's 2-3 day cold snap was -20 degrees, full throttle was cranking through 100lbs a day, spring time idle under 30lbs.

Alaska 140 auger heating 2550 sqft colonial with 1500 sqft basement. Using up to 60 lbs/day now. Peaked out at around 100 lbs/day during coldest part of last year. My house is foam insulated with double pane windows. Winds don't give me the drafty feeling I've had in other, older homes.

Thanks, guys. From what you've all posted, seems we're doing well with usage. The propane guy is gonna cry!

The good thing is that this is a well-insulated house only 5 yrs. old, so that helps a lot I guess.

4tees, sorry, no ice on the lakes yet, it's been too warm! We do have standing snow though, but only about 4 inches so far. Or, actually, it's becoming standing ice. I will let you know when the lakes are iced good and solid!

Just for comparisons sake, my hand fired Mark III will burn up 52 lbs every 24hrs ..........and we haven't even hit January yet!

Pocono Newbies wrote:In the last 2 days we've burned close to 50 lbs. of coal in our Hyfire II, running one burner. Of course today was pretty darn cold, it went down to about 10 degrees last night and the high was 22. There is also wind that threatened to blow the house down. Yesterday it was cold too, in the 20s/low 30s, so not as bad as today. We know its about 50 lbs. we've gone through because we've been using 50 lb. bags and the hopper had a 50 lb. bag put in on Wed. evening. The hopper was almost empty then. (We've got our coal delivery coming soon!)

Have we burned an excessive amount of coal, or does this sound about right? Seems like a lot to us. Coaltrol is at 69 day and night, and of course today the stove could not keep up (and it probably lost ground while we slept, but it did manage 67 until the sun helped warm the house). Really needed to have burner 2 going but had to wait for husband to get home to light it since I can't do the basement stairs right now.

We have min/max at 4 and 38. We are heating 1600 sq. ft. plus also heating the uninsulated basement of 1,100 sq. ft. The basement usually gets no colder than about 58-60 degrees even without heat down there. The stove is in the basement. The Coaltrol is upstairs though, its not in the basement. The stove is ducted directly into our central heating ducts.

What do you guys think? Too much, about right, or excellent? LOL! Thanks!

I burn about 30 to 40 to heat 1300 sq.ft set at 73* to 75* HLF-2. Min/max 5 and 50 whens its in the teens.. 38 seems very low probably increasing it will help keep it up to set temp and also your HLF .. Mine usually stays at set temp with HLF at 2 if set at 3 it goes over a dergree but everyones setup is different. I would have both burners going defiantly..

Pocono Newbies wrote: We have min/max at 4 and 38. We are heating 1600 sq. ft. plus also heating the uninsulated basement of 1,100 sq. ft. The basement usually gets no colder than about 58-60 degrees even without heat down there. The stove is in the basement. The Coaltrol is upstairs though, its not in the basement. The stove is ducted directly into our central heating ducts.

It would seem heating a 2700 sq. ft. home for only 50 lbs a day is a pretty good deal. Even though you have you stove directly vented to your heating ducts you are losing heat in the basement with all that open concrete sucking in the heat. So any plans on insulating the basement would help to decrease your coal usage and allow your system to not have to work so hard to keep up and save you money down the road. We have about 1800 sq. ft. with some good and not so good insulated areas and we use about 40 lbs a day and we still need a little help on our bottom floor (stove is up stairs).

Edit; I also agree with Smith, increasing you maximum should help.

I have a Keystoker KAA-2 boiler.

On a seasonably cold day, I will go thru 80 punds of coal.

That heats a not so well insulated split level home to 72 degrees and heats DHW as well.

I am burning about 50-70 lbs per day more or less. Keeping the house at 70 day 72 night. The house is useless for insulation. Hollow balloon construction brick, 10' ceilings 30 windows no storms. This is about the same rate per day as we burned last year with a hand fired stove, but we are warmer now and life is no longer that of a coal slave.

The stove is the 110,000 BTU Pocono planted right in out living room. We are heating about 1700 sq feet of open rooms, but the house is 3000 square feet. We close doors and have put weather stripping on our interior doors. Even at this rate of 50 to 70 lbs per day we save thousands over natural gas steam.

So we are warmer, have more free time and could not be happier with our new Leisure Line Pocono! Please note wedid not buy it with any concern about power outages! If the power goes out we will make do just like we would have to with out gas igniter on the boiler.

The stove was easy to install and lighting is a simple task. Easy to care for and much cleaner than a hand fired stove.

Thank you so much Leisure Line!!!!!!!!!!!!

I keep my place at 70 when I am home, 62 when gone or during the night, I thought I would run out of my One Ton by the end of November, I started using my stove at the end of Sep , and based on my observations, I may still have at least one week's worth of heat for the first week of Jan 2010, not bad at all.