New guy

Hello all , i am from the bellefonte pa. area . just purchased a home and am looking to purchase a coal stove to heat it with . the house is a 1500 Sq.' ranch and has 2 propane heaters already . i was thinking about replacing the stove in the living room with a direct vent stove since there is already a hole in the wall there . Don't have any real experience with coal stoves but have some friends that have them . i was looking at the Harmon DCV-500 but there pretty pricy . wouldn't mind a good used stove but am unsure what to look for , have been looking on Craigslist and pennswoods but haven't found anything yet . Thanks Bill

Hi Bill and welcome!! what do those propane heaters heat? water? or air or forced hot air?

Hello
I think to answer correctly need more information.
please send us the pictures of the house and the scheme.

The propane heaters are free standing units that were used as a supplemental heat source . the house has electric baseboard and a heat pump hot air system in the basement . one of the propane heaters is located in the living room/kitchen approx. 500 sq.' and the other is downstairs in the basement that is 2/3 finished .

I"ll try and get a layout of the house on here . I don't close on the house until Nov. 15th . just trying to figure out what direction i want to go in with a heat source .

I don't know what your local propane and electric prices are, but generally speaking either way is a very expensive way to heat a home. The Harman stove you mentioned is a nice unit, but the price tag is around $4k isn't it?

Does the house have a chimney?

Rob's right the Harmon is a nice stove but it is pricey and the customer service hasn't been what you'd like in the past. Fortunately, there are a lot of other makes that can do the job and give you great customer service. Hizter and DS stoves come to mind. Before you buy anything check out the archives using the search button in the upper right corner. I'm sure there is input there on a lot of different makes and models of stoves. Good luck, Lisa

Welcome to the world of coal burners! Do not be hasty in your stove purchase. I'd start looking at the local papers and Craigslist for suitable replacements. I would suggest a stoker stove, however the hand fed units are terrific.
Hitzer is a fine product also. Leisure Line, Keystoker, Alaska....all good products. Harman if you can find one reasonably priced, but be careful, all that glitters isn't necessarily GOLD.

Oh, before your significant other turns her nose up at the styling of the best stoves, let her experience the warmth and consistency of a coal stove......or better yet make a deal with her , and let HER pay the first couple of months electric heat and propane bills and see if that gets her attention. Just a thought you might consider.

Welcome to the wonderful world of burning black rocks. We are all in agreement that you will see some substantial savings by ditching the propane stoves and going with coal. If you can provide some photo's of the layout, capacity of the stoves your plan on replacing we can all help you with decisions on which way to go.

I started burning coal 7 years ago in a coal fired hot water heating boiler before I knew about this website. I could have saved myself lots of hours sitting on a bucket in front of that beast trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I was over thinking the process. Once I returned to the thought lines of you only need three things for a successful anthracite coal fire. You need the proper size coal, controlled adequate air flow coming from underneath the coal, and the proper appliance to suit your desires.

The hardest of all three is figuring out your desires about what you want to accomplish. Start with that before wandering into the maze of options available. One phrase you will see is " This is not rocket science." It's true; don't over think it.

wjamesm wrote:The propane heaters are free standing units that were used as a supplemental heat source . the house has electric baseboard and a heat pump hot air system in the basement . one of the propane heaters is located in the living room/kitchen approx. 500 sq.' and the other is downstairs in the basement that is 2/3 finished .

If you replace that living room/kitchen propane heater with a DVC-500, it will put out enough heat so you can bake cakes on the kitchen table, and your dog will die of heat stroke.

Seriously, with a big stove one of the problems is moving the heat beyond the area where the stove is located. There are lots of threads here discussing ways of doing that. Since you haven't moved into the house yet, you might be wise to postpone your decision until you have spent a winter there, and know just how much heat you need and where. The heat-pump hot-air system sounds interesting, since presumably it already has blowers and duct-work to distribute the heat. Some people install a coal boiler, with a heat exchanger in the plenum or duct-work, to take advantage of that already-existing distribution system. Some tie in a coal furnace in series with the existing hot-air system.

Spend lots of time reading old forum threads and you will know better what to do.

yes thats where i was going... to the already plumbed distribution system. a alaska stoker II hot air piped in to the ducts would heat it to toasty levels, thermostat controlled of course. prolly at a figure around 2500

If I had a 1500 sq ranch, I'd seriously looking at stoves in the Hitzer 30-95 or 50-93 range. Hand fired (tending every 12 hrs) I'm heating 2000 + sq. old broken up farm house w/ a 50-93 & staying at 72* in the coldest of weather/ wind, etc. I have kept my elec. HW heater & with a bit of awarenes, my elec bill is about $30.00 per month. There are a lot of options out here. I for one like to keep it as simple as possible. I also deal w/ power outages pretty regularly. Take your time & figure what's best for your situation as stated before. I've seen these Hitzers on CL or even on here for under $1000.00

Wow thanks for all the quick replies folks , i like this site a lot already . like i said i am in the information gathering stage right now . i will get some pics when i move in to the house for you all to see what i am dealing with . I thought about the idea of putting a stove in the basement and tying into the duct work , but the house has no outside access to the basement and the stairs to the basement is an L shaped set of steps so i wasn't sure if i could get a stove down there . plus there already is a hole in the wall in the living room . I am pretty set on going with coal heat and i figure i can probably sell the propane stoves to help fund the changeover to coal . Like everyone said the Harmon is super expensive compared to the other units i was looking at and would probably only get one if i could find a deal on a used one . Being new to coal i have no brand loyalty so i am open to any and all suggestions .

Maybe the place to start is with the house comparables. I have an 1100 sq. ft. ranch kitchen livingroom open floor with the bathroom and bedrooms down the hall. Last yr. we bought a 30 yr. old hand fired beast of a stove for 400 bucks and at this very moment I am finishing new stairs to the basement so I can move the stove down there and pump the hot air through my warm air furnace plenumn. Believe me this is a good problem to have, last winter I installed new windows in my home up here in north Maine. It took a couple weeks, did it myself, in the coldest part of the winter my house was never below 70 with giant holes in the wall. So, my point is, hopefully folks with a similar home can help you with your decisions, remember safety first.

Rob R. wrote:I don't know what your local propane and electric prices are, but generally speaking either way is a very expensive way to heat a home. The Harman stove you mentioned is a nice unit, but the price tag is around $4k isn't it?

Does the house have a chimney?

Thanks for the replie Rob . i called the Suburban propane who has the tanks at the house now , they are 2 100 gal. tanks and they quoted me $2.19 a gal. for opening a new account and then it's $3.25 a gal. after that . the previous owners used approx. 300 gal. a year as a supplement heat source . the house doesn't have a chimney the propane stoves are direct vented through the walls . Right now my electric rates with First Energy are .03 cents a KW hr. for the winter and go back to .07 cents a KW hour in the summer strange i know .