Furnace running all year?

I have a hand fed coal stove now and love it. I'm pondering putting my oil burner curb side once it goes and replace it with a coal furnace. Just curious if the furnace runs all summer long for hot water?

I believe you mean a boiler ... as a furnace heats air ... so no hot water there ....

But anyway if you did get a coal boiler, you could definitely kick the burner to the curb ... but you'd have to burn coal all year long if you want hot showers. With a stoker boiler, the amount of coal you burn all summer is tiny. You just set the feed rate for whatever temp you desire. When your not heating the rest of the house, coal usage goes way down.

Thank you for the correction, new to these systems. How exactly does a stoker differ from a boiler? How little coal are we talking when burning all summer, less then oil? Is there a better way to produce hot water?

A stoker is a feed mechanism, the boiler is full of water and absorbs the heat from the coal fire. How much coal you burn for summertime hot water will depend on many things...for comparison I burn 20-25 lbs per day to make hot water for a family of three.

The stoker is the mechanism that feeds the coal into a "pot" or "plate" to be burned from a hopper - completely different from a hand fired which, as the name hints, needs to be hand fired (fed). Boiler just means a heating unit that uses water as the medium of heat transfer, whereas a furnace uses air.

I couldn't tell you how much coal as I've never owned or operated a stoker stove or boiler. Someone will be on at some point with more info on that. Plenty of experienced stoker folks on here.

EDIT: Yeah what Rob said ...

Thanks guys...I feel smarter already!

Tcalo, I just finished connecting my domestic hot water to my Axeman Anderson 260 and I intend to run it year round. I'm oil free now and I'm very pleased. I have an electric hot water tank set up in line but not running, it is intended for a back up in case I need to shut down the coal stoker for maintenance etc.

Here is a thread if you're daring,...it's a bit lengthy!

New (to me) Axeman 260

I would recommend, as townsend mentioned, that you keep your oil boiler for backup heat/hot water in case you become ill, are out of town, etc. Also your oil boiler shouldn't "go" at all if it's maintained properly. On a pressurized forced hot water heating system you shouldn't have any problems that kill the boiler unless it's poorly maintained - allowed to leak and refill etc.

Just a couple more things to make life simpler.....plumb your boiler in series with the new coal stoker or hand fed boiler and then all equipment is at operational temp, and no stagnant water is ever left out of the circulation loops'. You have a much bigger thermal mass that is easily heated by the solid fuel boiler, and any radiant heat from both boilers will create a warm basement in the winter, and keep your basement dry all summer. I have run 24/7-365 for 40 years on the same equipment. It pays to keep this equipment operational except for repair cycles.

Thank GAWD you got the lecture about furnaces and boilers.....(pet peeve of mine) Furnace...think 'POLITICS' :LOTS of HOT AIR, not really efficient; hot and cold...... air, drafty, dusty

Hi Tcalo

I have a Harman VF3000 stoker boiler and I run it year round. It supplies my hot water as well as my heat. In the warm weather I burn between 7 and 10# of coal per day. With a 250# hopper, I could go at least a couple of weeks in the Summer without having to fill it. We empty the ash pan about every third week also.

Another benefit to burning year round is that you never have to worry about summertime corrosion. The most important thing is to have a good drafting chimney since draft will be very minimal in the warm weather.

Hope this helps

Bill

I would like to burn all year for the benefit of much less expensive domestic hot water but the heat gain in the house just from the boiler running would offset my savings in electric use for the A/C to overcome it. Also we recently became empty nesters [list=] [/list] and my domestic hot water use is much less. Think I'll just pay some electric and give the coal boiler the summer off.

coalkirk wrote:I would like to burn all year for the benefit of much less expensive domestic hot water but the heat gain in the house just from the boiler running would offset my savings in electric use for the A/C to overcome it. Also we recently became empty nesters [list=] [/list] and my domestic hot water use is much less. Think I'll just pay some electric and give the coal boiler the summer off.

same here Coalkirk. The heat comming off my boiler doesn't feel like much at all. But, it does work against the central air I had installed. Or, should I say the central air works against the boiler. I find the central air cools the house just fine. Problem is, the basement is also very cool. The triple aquastat on the boiler triggers the stoker to push more coal in order to maintain boiler temp. When the central air is not on, the boiler uses hardly any coal. I figured I went through approx: $500.00 in coal during the summer months. That's a lot of money just to keep the boiler running. The electric hot water tank is cheep to run. I may end up enclosing the boiler in it's own little insulated room. This way I can keep it going year round. Oliver