Coal Chute Into Garage, Then Into Basement. PICS

 
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davidmcbeth3
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Coal Size/Type: nut/pea/anthra

Post by davidmcbeth3 » Wed. Mar. 04, 2015 6:09 pm

Awww, don't ruin your lawn...and a truck will ruin it.

I would suggest doing what you originally wanted but only have a pull out chute and dump it in by hand ... bags would be cleaner and the coal delivery could be able to bring the coal right near it (hand truck/not forklift that would be too tall to get in needed by coal delivery).

Then just open the bags and dump.

Not that bad IMO.


 
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SWPaDon
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Post by SWPaDon » Wed. Mar. 04, 2015 6:40 pm

How about building a conveyor?

 
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plumb-r
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Post by plumb-r » Thu. Mar. 05, 2015 5:07 pm

Geo-thermal is sill just a heat pump. They can not put out the hot air that a fossil fuel burning unit of any kind can. Piss warm air! Many of the houses I have seen with geo-thermal have either wood stoves or fireplaces to back up the geo units in cold weather. Just saying. :)

 
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tikigeorge
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Post by tikigeorge » Thu. Mar. 05, 2015 7:12 pm

Install a casement window on the side of the house like I did. I have one that can be removed, got it at HD. Have your coal supplier locate the window, he'll know where to put it so his high lift truck can get the best angle.
Pave the side of your house for the future site of your RV. Grass problem solved!

 
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McGiever
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Post by McGiever » Fri. Mar. 06, 2015 12:41 pm

gbig2 wrote:Original poster here, for what it's worth, I never did the coal thing. Geothermal is the way to go. This would have been a huge mistake, I realized there's no way I'm going to shovel coal, it's ridiculous when you realize how cheap geothermal has become to install and that I can heat the house for $500 a year and also cool it for under $100 and not have to shovel coal.
He seems pretty darn happy, He only showed back up here because someone resurrected one of his old threads.

 
gbig2
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Post by gbig2 » Fri. Mar. 06, 2015 1:05 pm

lol, regarding the piss warm air comment and I know you are just joking... Who cares how warm the air is, bottom line is I set the thermostat for 71 and don't have to touch a thing other than change a filter every couple months. The only backup I have is a heat strip in the heat pump and it's only ever kicked on briefly when it's below zero. So I'll take my piss warm air over shoveling coal any day. Not to bash coal, just saying geo worked better for me, for what's it's worth...

 
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blrman07
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Post by blrman07 » Fri. Mar. 06, 2015 2:29 pm

This is a five year old post. Since you installed the geothermal what are your electric bills now compared to before?

When will you hit the break even point on the geothermal system?


 
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windyhill4.2
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Post by windyhill4.2 » Fri. Mar. 06, 2015 2:45 pm

I for one , care about how WARM the air is,in a leaky ,drafty,cold concrete slab floor room like we have our coal stove in there would be a HHUUGGEE difference in the comfort level between the radiant HEAT from the coal stove vs the coolish air from the geo-heat pump. We heated this room for 5 yrs with a wood stove & then went with an outdoor wood burner & circulated that heat via hot air,for 8 yrs we were cold in this room no matter the air temp in the room & that was with HOT air,the cool air from a heat pump would have turned us into icicles in this room.

 
gbig2
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Post by gbig2 » Fri. Mar. 06, 2015 2:51 pm

Base electric bill when no A/C and no heat are needed, say May or June, is about $115. Rest of year would go something like this assuming average temps in Summer and Winter:

July- $145
Aug- $165
Sept- $130
Oct- $120
Nov- $140
Dec-$180
Jan-$ 210
Feb-$260
March-$180
April-$160

Was stuck in a propane tank lease so was paying over $3 per gallon., so over $2000 per year. If we include the $5000 added value to house, then my upfront costs were $6000, so I'd say I'm pretty close to that break even point right now.

* note --we set the temp in Summer at 77 and at 71 in Winter.

 
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windyhill4.2
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Post by windyhill4.2 » Fri. Mar. 06, 2015 3:00 pm

We heat & cool to 75*. The $5000 added value ~~ it only counts if you are paying extra property tax on that increase.

 
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McGiever
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Post by McGiever » Fri. Mar. 06, 2015 4:37 pm

Geo may not be the ultimate heat for everyone, but after all, a lot of people struggle to get what they want out of their coal heat as well...it's not all peaches and cream, ya know.;)

I have geo and I also have AA_130 boiler looped into the geo plenum...so I have personal experience with both. Geo is 20 years old and boiler is in it's 4th season.
Why I have both systems, electric utility changed my rate advantage any I desided to boycott them and I had a powerful hankering to burn solid fuel again anyways. ;)

I take offence when someone who has no experience with something and yet wants to say it's no good.
Now, I do respect anyone who says it's not for them...but please don't go trying to poison everyone else. :roll:

 
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blrman07
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Post by blrman07 » Sat. Mar. 07, 2015 8:15 am

Just trying to figure out your statement. You said you only had 6k upfront cost if you included 5k increase in home value? Does that mean that you only spent 1k to put in your geothermal?

 
titleist1
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Post by titleist1 » Sat. Mar. 07, 2015 9:11 am

we'll see if i'm close....

initial cost ~$16k out of pocket
30% tax credit got to the ~$11k number
~$5k home appreciation
resulting in ~6k bottom line cost realized after sale of home.

If you are looking at replacing a system, as a long term investment it should be considered.

I looked at doing geothermal about 12 years ago and crunched those same type of numbers, costs have hopefully come down for the equipment since then. Up front cost was around $22k out of pocket for our location. Self employed working from home would get us some write off / depreciation my accountant figured out, but the geothermal 30% tax credit didn't start until 2008 so that didn't apply. The home appreciation didn't really come into play since this is the 'last' house we planned on living in. We were still losing electric quite often for about a half day at a time, some bigger snow storms it would be for a week at a time so I still needed the hand fed coal stove. The payoff took too long for my standards and we went with a central AC / high efficiency propane furnace for ~$5k. Today I'd probably look at multiple ductless mini-splits instead.

Visiting and talking to a couple friends who had a geothermal at that time, they both loved it in the summer for cooling purposes and liked it during the shoulder months for heating. But in the colder months of winter one had a pellet stove and one had a wood stove to make it feel warmer in the house.

 
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McGiever
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: Warm Morning 414A
Coal Size/Type: PEA,NUT,STOVE /ANTHRACITE
Other Heating: Ground Source Heat Pump and some Solar

Post by McGiever » Sat. Mar. 07, 2015 6:13 pm

What I did 20 years ago, is called an open system, pump and dump. It uses a drilled well (pump) and a drain field (dump)...it was a DIY project for the most part. 24/7 365 days a year my systems thinks it 53 degrees outside (my ground water temp here) ...no anti-freeze needed.

Contractors are the downfall of the Geo movement, nobody in my area wanted to do one. They are just too content with a 2 man job of changing out old for new units...slapping in an air to air heat pump(day-day and a half job...easy money)....too much bother doing a Geo,unless the contractor can find a wealthy home owner and buck up and keep going back for a few weeks of work and deal with hiring sub-contractors for digging and/or well drilling. Too many headaches, and there are lots of change outs out there to keep them fat and sassy...why change up a good thing.

 
gbig2
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Post by gbig2 » Sun. Mar. 08, 2015 8:11 pm

Titleist1, you nailed it, exactly correct. Exactly correct, excellent long term investment. I kept telling my wife that it would be a poor financial decision to NOT put geo in. Excellent return on our money. This unit satisfies our heat needs year round. I have a Bosch unit with a COP of 4 if I remember correctly. Others make an excellent point about power failure, if power fails we are screwed as we have no backup. That said, the power is stable here, and we did consider that. It was one of the reasons I initially looked at coal. But we've been here 11 years and lost power a total of probably 60 seconds in all that time, so not too concerned.


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