Pounds per day used?

I live in California high desert...cold as it gets is around 25 to 30 degrees. Just for auxilliary heat in the game room (about 500 sq. feet), and used it only about half the day....what do you guess I would burn? Half a bag/25 lb? How much I burn is extreemly important because it will cost a LOT more for coal way out here on the west coast. I'm thinking it might be more cost efficient than the wood I'm presently burning, even if I have to ship a whole truckload of bagged coal. Whadaythink?

ooops, forgot to mention it would be a medium size pot-belly stove that I've only used with wood previously.

boatjonn wrote:I live in California high desert...cold as it gets is around 25 to 30 degrees. Just for auxilliary heat in the game room (about 500 sq. feet), and used it only about half the day....what do you guess I would burn? Half a bag/25 lb? How much I burn is extreemly important because it will cost a LOT more for coal way out here on the west coast. I'm thinking it might be more cost efficient than the wood I'm presently burning, even if I have to ship a whole truckload of bagged coal. Whadaythink?

Whats anthracite goning for in CA ? Can you even get it?

Don

I can't remember the state, but I think New Mexico or Arizona has a small anthracite field.

This is the first year for coal for me. I am so glad the sales man talked me into a little bigger heater than I thought I wanted. I have a Keystroker Koker, in the bacement. It is hooked up to my propane furnace air duct work. (cold air return) Our house is about 2000 sq'. not counting the bacement. I have been useing about 65 lbs on cold days, (35H\25L). Now it is colder,(31H\0L, I have been useing about 88 lbs. The house was built in 1988. We keep the house at 68\69*. Love the heat, mush easier the wood. Can any one give me some pointers on fine tuning the stove?
Great Forum,
Gary

MrP57 wrote:Can any one give me some pointers on fine tuning the stove?
Great Forum,
Gary

Some details about the unit, stack, chimney etc. would be usefull. Start your own thread in the Hand Fired section and you'll have enough pointers to open a stove store. Pics are good too!

I am burning about 60lbs a day now.
-25 mi S of Buffalo NY
-Outside temps in the single digits
-using a Hitzer 983 hand fed insert
-2300 sqft ranch maintained at 75-78 deg(round the clock) bedrooms farthest from insert are about 69-71 deg
-When outide temps are 25-35 deg I burn about 40 lbs/day
-this past dec-early jan was unusally mild (30-50 most days) I was burning about 25-30lbs/day

boatjohn, it is very hard to answer how much you would use because we don't know anything about your pot-bellied stove.

Typically a pot-bellied stove will burn coal, but not all that efficiently. If you had a name brand well known stove that someone here was using, then we could estimate what you might burn.

How much are you spending for wood per night?? I can't imagine it is all that much money for wood.

If you can give us a name for the stove or at least some photos of the firebox and grate, ashpan, and describe the way it burns wood. Maybe we can estimate coal burn for a night.

Maybe the best bet would be to buy say four or five bags of nut coal and give it a try, and see what happens.

Greg L

.

My house is 100+ year old Victorian with high ceilings and windows/doors everywhere. heated area is ~4000 sq. ft. With temps in the 20's I use 50# a day, when the temps are in the teens I use 100# a day. When the temps stay below 10 for a 24 period I burn 3 bags or 150#. This includes all our hot water too.

so far i'm putting in 2 - 40 lb bags every other day. stove seldom has been in idol until today , a couple of times. its about 50 here now. but i like it 75

Burning coal in a Harman stoker boiler, with temps in the low 20's, heating a moderately insulated 2000 ft house, I' burning about 60 to 70# per day. In warmer weather, say upper 30's, 40's I burn about 30 to 35# per day. My hot water is supplied by this boiler also. Warm weather hot water only its about 12# per day.

Alaska Channing III, heating about 1650 Sq/Ft avg temps around high 30's to low 40's daytime, mid 20's overnight for the last 36hrs. Just topped the hopper with a 50lb bag...so apprx 17lbs a day or so. Charted a 3 day stint with colder temps a few weeks back and averaged 25 lbs per day. Maintaining a constant temp of 66*-69*.

I would imagine 40/50lbs per day during the colder parts of winter.

My KA-4 boiler is burning upto 90# /day now . The weather has been pretty cold and I hooked my domestic water up now so my coal costs should be ofset by quite a bit by the reduced electricity costs . Dave

I've been tracking in terms of run-hours per month.


Added a column to convert to the average pounds per day for each month, and created a new chart with these values. In January I was running about 52 pounds per day.

I've got a Harman Magnum Stoker in an area I heat of about 1600 sq/ft. It's a newer home and well insulated. It heats the entire area! I have a small fan in the room and a ceiling fan too. The stove is hooked to a digital thermostat that kicks back to 69 at night and when I go to work. It bumps up to 73 when I'm home. Here in Indiana, it's been pretty cold....teens and some single digits. She sips 40 lbs a day. When the temps hover around the 30* mark she'll drop to about 30 lbs a day. I LOVE THIS THING!