Newbies - Half Way Through the Year, What'Ca Think?

 
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lowfog01
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Location: Springfield, VA
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Mark II & Mark I
Coal Size/Type: nut/pea

Post by lowfog01 » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 8:43 am

I just dawned on me the heating season is half way gone. I was wondering what the newbies or for that matter old hands are thinking about their "coaled" experience so far this year.

I'll start off - this is my 4th year and things really came together. I routinely get 12 or 15 hour burns, less fly ash is escaping in to my living space and most importantly I'm warm, my family is warm and we are only paying half the yearly price of what our average cost of natural gas was, probably less. The neighbor told me her gas bill for last month alone was $300. That was before we got dumped with the snow and the temps dropped. How can people afford that?

My only concern is that I caught DK (my husband) checking out the way I have the stove operating. Really, it was creepy. ;) He was just staring at the baro which was "breathing." A few of you may remember I have a reverse situation from a lot of you in that the coal stove was my idea, not DK's. He has been strictly hands off. I had to drag him screaming to the idea. Now it's my hobby. :D I suppose it's a good thing he is at least paying attention; a second pair of eyes is always a good thing but he better not get too involved. :( I have a flower bed dedicated to coal. If I'm not burning coal, I'm thinking about how to burn coal better. To say I like coal is an understatement. How about you'll? Lisa


 
DonnaK
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Post by DonnaK » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 9:10 am

This is our second season burning coal. We started Jan. 1 last year. It was my husband's idea, but it's my baby, lol. He'll take care of it if he has to. I've directed him to poke,poke, rake, rake, shovel, shovel, shake, shake...not necessarily in that order. It's funny, Lisa, I've caught him downstairs looking at the stove, too and he's started giving me advice on how I should load, shake, etc. I often remind him that I know how to load a gun as well as the stove! Must be a man thing. I know, I know, we're a minority here, but it's true. Most of you guys would rather the fairer sex stayed in the kitchen! Just teasing you all.

Last year was alot of trial and error and I lost the fire more times than I can count due to my inexperience and some pretty poor quality coal. This year I'm still on my first match from Nov. 7.

I am thrilled with coal. We burned wood for years and use oil for backup and hot water. We could never afford to keep the house this warm with oil. I've burned 3 tons of Hazleton Shaft coal this year so far at a total cost of $510, house is around 75*. Best change we ever made around here!

 
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mkline
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Location: Lewisburg,PA
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Alaska Kodiak x 2...Old and New
Coal Size/Type: Nut and Stove/Anthracite

Post by mkline » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 9:17 am

Well this is my first season burning coal and the most important thing I found was this house doesn't have to be cold :D .I started burning my Kodiak in Oct and haven't had to relight yet.We even went away for 3 days to the hour and I still had burning coal in the fire box.Try that with wood :lol: .I was having a problem with too much heat in the house but I got very good advice on this forum,you incuded Lisa ;) .Now I don't have to sit around in my shorts anymore and I keep the downstairs around 80* and upstairs around 72*.Lately I've been letting both Kodiaks go for 18 hrs or more between shakes and reloads.Oh I do buy oil for my hot water.I buy 5 gals at a time and that lasts me 2 weeks just using it for showers :D .This summer I'm going to put a hot water coil in the old Kodiak and run it into my indirect-fired water heater.It sits about 8 feet away so it will be an easy run.I'm starting to ramble on so I'll let it go at that :cheers: .

Mike

 
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New Hope Engineer
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Location: Lower Saucon PA
Coal Size/Type: Nut pea

Post by New Hope Engineer » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 9:22 am

my wife can handle the stove when I am not home too,its not that biga deal.it just took her a little while to get use to it.
shaker down,loader up and close the door. ;)
mark

 
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dlj
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Location: Monroe, NY
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Vermont Castings Resolute
Baseburners & Antiques: Glenwood Baseheater #6
Coal Size/Type: Stove coal
Other Heating: Oil Furnace, electric space heaters

Post by dlj » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 9:26 am

Lisa,

Well, I sort of am and am not a newbe. I burned coal every day for years when I worked as a blacksmith. But not to heat my house, only to heat iron and steel....

I heated several houses with my current coal stove, but burning wood, not coal. As a kid growing up, we had coal fired furnaces and even a coal fired hot water heater in one place. But what do you really remember from being a kid?

I started buring coal to heat my house when my wife and I bought the house we are in now. So that's two winters. Last winter I used my Vermont coal stove for the second half of the winter and then for the first part of this winter. It wasn't big enough to heat my whole house. Now I'm running my old Glenwood and that is big enough to heat the whole house. In fact I'm pretty surprised how well it heats this house since I live in a one story ranch. Somehow it creates the right air movement and even my back bedrooms are comfortable, even in the worst cold we've had.

Since I put the Glenwood in, my oil furnace has not kicked on at all.

After last winter, I calculated out how much we would have spent in fuel oil if we hadn't put in the coal stove and it was a bit over $3000 in heat for the season.

My Glenwood will go through an easy 50 pounds a day when it's really cold out, and more like 25 pounds when it's not so cold. We keep our house around 70, and the living room where to stove is, I don't measure but will eventually. It's probably up in the high 70's. We like it a lot.

I'm guessing we will burn between 3 and 4 tons of coal in an entire winter, depending upon how cold it is.Here we pay about $240 a ton delivered, or I can pick it up for $220 a ton. Since I don't have any way to pick it up right now, then I'm looking at just under $1000 a winter to heat with coal. Thats one third the cost of fuel oil and the house is a whole lot warmer.

I'd like to pick up direct and save money that way. Got lots of research to do on that....

dj

 
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brckwlt
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Post by brckwlt » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 9:27 am

I started burning coal in my AA-130 in the beginning of oct 2009. So far I absolutely love it. I must admit it has been one big giant learning curve. However I love every moment I get to spend with my coal boiler and trying to understand it better.

Before I switched to coal the NG bill was 5500 a year. I will save about 55-65 percent using coal this year. I am very grateful for finding this forum and for all of the wonderful members who go out of their way to lend a helping hand or their advice.

Most important my house is always warm and never cold.

 
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samler17
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Location: Port Deposit, MD
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harmon Mark III
Other Heating: Heat Pump

Post by samler17 » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 9:33 am

I started burning this year and I can tell you I love it. Once I got the kinks worked out with the door seals and the baro set up correctly, and no more CO it's been great. I'll be burning for many years to come.


 
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Paisan
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Location: Mogadore, Oh
Hand Fed Coal Stove: D.S. 1600 Circulator
Coal Size/Type: Nut&pea

Post by Paisan » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 10:01 am

This is my second year and I love it. My DS keeps the house nice and warm. I love watching the guy next door feeding his outdoor woodburner. It's a pig! It eats wood and keeps him working hard to feed it. Anthracite Rocks!

 
cabinover
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Location: Fair Haven, VT
Stoker Coal Boiler: Hybrid Axeman Anderson 130
Baseburners & Antiques: Sparkle #12
Coal Size/Type: Pea, Buckwheat, Nut
Other Heating: LP Hot air. WA TX for coal use.

Post by cabinover » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 10:42 am

We installed a used AA130 this past fall with pex to the house from the garage. The house maintains 74°F day/night/24/7 unless we turn it down.

Last year we spent about $2600.00 on LP. From what it looks like this year we'll be into coal for around $1300.00 and $600.00 for LP for water, cooking, and dryer use.

Just wait until next year when:
1. We install an indirect water heater.
2. We do something different with all of the wasted heat under ground. I bet there's at least a ton of coal wasted this year heating the earthworms.

Sure wish I could use a stove but it's just not a viable alternative in my house.

Still warmer and more comfortable than we've ever been.

 
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SMITTY
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Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520 Highboy
Coal Size/Type: Rice / Blaschak anthracite
Other Heating: Oil fired Burnham boiler

Post by SMITTY » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 11:15 am

I'm on my 5th season of burning. Started off with a Mark I in September '05, & burnt Kimmels bagged nut up until this season. As I have mentioned in several different threads, this current load of Blaschak bagged nut is an entirely different animal than the Kimmels. This year I've got less coal usage, doubled burn times (24hrs + -, depending on how hot I run), less trash in the bags, less ash, & less clinkers. When I started this season by purchasing 4.8 tons in October, I didn't think I'd make it the whole season, as last year I ran out the first week of March burning 5.25 tons! Lit the stove on November 28th at 19:00 -- So far, I'm on track to having coal left over for next season! :verycool:

The only thing I am doing differently is keeping the ash door & air intake shut when shaking to keep the flyash down. This seems to have also cut down on the amount of buildup on the baffle plate & h/w coils, and I would imagine, in the pipe as well. Oh, and I just installed a brandy new Field Controls Type M baro to replace that Type DR that's been on the oil boiler since '96.

At the end of the season, I will completely disassemble the stove, & bring all removable metal parts upstairs where it's dry. The hot water coils will come out, get cleaned & be put along side the pipe, doors & grates. Took me 5 seasons to learn NOT to leave these things to rust in my sauna-bath basement. I also have a couple cans of LPS-3 to prevent any rust from forming this summer. As a note to the newbies reading this: my basement is a river year round. Fieldstone foundation, 2/3rds dirt & 1/3rd concrete. Most people wont have to go this far with rust prevention.

Here's me new baro! :D

Attachments

Coal, type M baro.JPG

It's a nice unit! Very sensitive. Installed with Permatex Ultra Copper RTV - no screws.

.JPG | 91.6KB | Coal, type M baro.JPG

 
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oliver power
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 50-93 & 30-95, Vigilant (pre-2310), D.S. 1600 Circulator, Hitzer 254

Post by oliver power » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 11:24 am

Hi Lisa, Do I count?? I've been burning my first "stoker" (boiler) for 1/2 a week now. So far, I'm really liking it. Let me clear this up some. I'm really liking the "Hot Water Heat". The Keystoker boiler is also running very good, but has nothing over my "Hand Fed" HITZER 50-93. As a matter of fact, the HITZER has one up on the Keystoker boiler; it doesn't need electricity to run. I still have to empty the ash bucket twice a day, just like emptying the HITZER ash pan twice a day. I'm talking 24 hour days here. The Keystoker hopper would probably go 2-1/2 - 3 days, although I keep it topped off. The one thing I noticed very quickly is the difference in the ash. The ash from a hand fed sets on the grates, and burns down to a powder (flyash). If not carefull, flyash can go all over. The stoker ash is more like rice crispies. Because of my years of emptying the ash pan of a hand fired stove, the stoker ash is a piece of cake. The only reason I went with a stoker boiler is; I needed electricity to run the circulating pumps anyways. If it wasn't for needing electric for circulating the hot water, there's no way I'd replace my HITZER with a stoker stove.

 
RMA
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Post by RMA » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 11:50 am

SMITTY wrote:I'm on my 5th season of burning. Started off with a Mark I in September '05, & burnt Kimmels bagged nut up until this season. As I have mentioned in several different threads, this current load of Blaschak bagged nut is an entirely different animal than the Kimmels. This year I've got less coal usage, doubled burn times (24hrs + -, depending on how hot I run), less trash in the bags, less ash, & less clinkers. When I started this season by purchasing 4.8 tons in October, I didn't think I'd make it the whole season, as last year I ran out the first week of March burning 5.25 tons! Lit the stove on November 28th at 19:00 -- So far, I'm on track to having coal left over for next season! :verycool:

The only thing I am doing differently is keeping the ash door & air intake shut when shaking to keep the flyash down. This seems to have also cut down on the amount of buildup on the baffle plate & h/w coils, and I would imagine, in the pipe as well. Oh, and I just installed a brandy new Field Controls Type M baro to replace that Type DR that's been on the oil boiler since '96.

At the end of the season, I will completely disassemble the stove, & bring all removable metal parts upstairs where it's dry. The hot water coils will come out, get cleaned & be put along side the pipe, doors & grates. Took me 5 seasons to learn NOT to leave these things to rust in my sauna-bath basement. I also have a couple cans of LPS-3 to prevent any rust from forming this summer. As a note to the newbies reading this: my basement is a river year round. Fieldstone foundation, 2/3rds dirt & 1/3rd concrete. Most people wont have to go this far with rust prevention.

Here's me new baro! :D
Smitty,

Are you saying that you have an increased efficiency in your burn due to the change in coal, the Mk I vs. MkIII, or the barometer ?
Also, couldn't you dry-up your indoor pool with a sump pump ?

Bob

 
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SMITTY
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Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520 Highboy
Coal Size/Type: Rice / Blaschak anthracite
Other Heating: Oil fired Burnham boiler

Post by SMITTY » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 12:08 pm

It was the coal, because I burnt Kimmels when the Mark III was brand new. The only difference was I was burning more of it (much bigger stove). But when I switched to Blaschak, it just made the Kimmels look like total garbage in comparison. I should have noted that this is season #2 for the Mark III.

As far as the basement goes, I'm on my 7th year in this place, & I've learned that the sump pump just wastes electricity. I have 2 of them -- one pumps from the dirt section to the sump, & the other from the sump to outside. I found that by leaving the sump pump off, it rises to a certain level & wont go any higher (unless the pipe gets plugged .. which happened once). It just drains into the pipe by gravity. The sump is on the opposite side of the house from where the water comes in, so not much I can do to stop the flow once the water table reaches that level. Nothing I can do about it that wont require thousands of dollars in heavy equipment. And even if I fixed all the water infiltration, it's still fieldstone foundation -- so the air will constantly wick moisture out of the soil.

It will cost too much money & be more work than I'm willing to put in. I just live with it. Welcome to the poor man's life .... :lol:

 
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mikey55
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Post by mikey55 » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 4:45 pm

this is my second year with my keystoker boiler and it has been great.at this rate of coal usage between 5 and 6 tons a year
my 4500.00 invesment (self installed) will be paid back after year 3.compared to mwhat I would have spent in oil. had some adjustment issues to start the year but people here helped me get it fixed. thanks again.do you guys think it would be wise to use the stoker for domestic hot water in summer? or should I just switch back to the oil ?just a matter of swiching one wire.i just don't know about the stoker idleing that long is it good for the boiler ?how about is it efficient? last year I switched back to oil but used more than I thought I would. darn kids and wifes long showers lol.

 
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labman
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Location: Franklin County, Pa
Hand Fed Coal Stove: harman mk II
Coal Size/Type: nut

Post by labman » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 5:07 pm

After many years of wood burning, we returned to coal last year in December. At frist I was ready to quit. But with the help I recieved here, we have been doing pretty well. We stil lose our fire now and then. But it isn't a big deal anymore. Throw some charcoal in and in 10 min we have fire again. I forgot how nice a coal fire was. I had a AA130 and a Estate Heatrola in my 5000 sq. ft. shop in the 80s and 90s and we used coal all the time. We went from $3000.00 a winter to about 1200.00 by switching from oil. I also don't miss all the cutting and splitting , hauling and carrying of wood that we used for the past 28 years.
We are loooking forward to getting a MKII next year to replace our MKI to make it easier yet. Hope in the future to get a coal furance piggybacked to my oil burner here in the cellar. Hot air heat.


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