Hello From North Dakota!

Thanks wsherrick, I think it was your youtube videos that brought me to this forum in the first place! I am looking at getting a supplemental Cole's Hot Blast parlor stove, which also claims to be good at burning soft coal.

Now my stove is the same as this one: http://www.dynamitebuys.com/store/pdf/FireChiefBrochure.pdf and the maker claims the "secondary burn chamber" shown in the preceding brochure increases fuel efficiency to around 72 percent. Does anyone know if that only aids with wood fuel, or does it help with coal as well?

I guess I can update this thread with some new pics.



Here's what over 4 tons of North Dakota lignite coal looks like!



Here's my new Condor stove temp gauge...it's really been helping me learn and build better coal fires.



Here's the stove idling low at about 325F...we've been getting mild weather the past couple of days, 15-28 for the highs and lows. Nice to be able to get long extended burn times, 9 hrs of consistent heat without adding! When it was -15 to -23 recently, I had to add every 5 to 6.5 hrs.

Good deal. The secondary air would help if you are burning bituminous or sub-bituminous coal. The Florence hot blast depicted by wsherrick has previsions for heated secondary air. Also many if not all warm morning coal stoves also have channels for heated secondary air.

Wow that's awesome. Did you say $35 per ton? That's crazy cheap man. How long will 4 tons last? Even if you need 10 ton for a winter that's still awesome!! Thanks for the great pictures. Could we see some more pics with a roaring fire? Do you ever get puff backs from lignite? What's the smoke look like? And what's the smoke smell like?

Yeah,ND,inquiring minds from back East need to know ! I be learnin' 'bout Lignite !

Thanks Carl. Lignite coal is sub-bituminous. I was researching and it means it's around 70% carbon, versus 80 and higher for anthracite. It's hard to directly compare because not all houses are insulated the same, and different burn chamber capacities, but I believe even given similar weather here and over east it's difficult to get the long extended burn times many of you achieve. That's a nice plus especially for when you're sleeping!

Lignite coal starts relatively hard/brittle but after a brick is fully ignited it turns very soft and orangish, and can be shaped and flattened. When I drop ash it's difficult not to drop burning bits of coal because the ash and burning coal are both soft and loose, and I gotta drop it regardless because my coal fire suffers if I don't get the ash out. I do get blue flame but mostly at the very start, then it mostly goes away. When I smell hot coals mixed into my ash bucket its smell reminds me of ammonia. I havent gotten puff back yet, the door has a temporary bar/resting spot where you can open it 2-3 inches or so and let potentially volatile gases escape with little danger to your face before you open it completely. Or is puff back exhaust soot shooting into your house somehow? Ive heard of it but not experienced it. Lignite produces more ash than bituminous and anthracite. Because of its lower energy it sells for a lot less than eastern coal, the primary market is power plants so it must be priced attractively enough to sell regardless of its shortcomings. It is around 35 a ton in center, nd. Fargo area is a ways from there, though, so to keep the prices very cheap including transportation it would be necessary to own or hire a large truck and buy say 20 or more tons at once, in that scenario I think it could be around $50 a ton or less, delivered. It's been a very cold winter so far, I think I'll get through jan and feb with this load, and may need a lil bit more sometime in march, if I'm lucky April. That's heating to 70F in day and 65 at night, which is our desired temps.

It's supposed to get very cold again soon, when I get a good 450-500F fire built I'll take a pic and post!

Looks like you've got a good set-up there.

Some thoughts...the baro damper on the oil furnace is a good thing to have...it will help regulate the draft through the coal furnace giving you extended and consistent burn times.
You might want to replace those elbows with "T's" in the stove pipe coming off the furnace so you can inspect and clean the flue more easily.
And as someone else mentioned, be sure to have a couple of CO detectors just to be safe

With a standard grate setup you are going to have problems getting the ideal environment for the Lignite to burn correctly. If I'm not mistaken this coal is what was once known as, "Rosebud," coal. The Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railroad companies wanted to burn this in their locomotives because it was available and extremely cheap to obtain.
They found that standard grates didn't work very well so they spent a lot of money to study and develop a grate that would work for this coal. It was found that a grate needed to have only 15% of its total area open for air entry. They were successful in this endeavor and produced excellent results using this formula. However, locomotives use a forced draft to burn coal. A naturally aspirated appliance would probably have to have a larger percentage of air through the grate to achieve similar results.

Another advantage of the Florence and other Hot Blast stoves is that one could order the stove with a grate specially suited for Lignite. They had a much more restricted air flow through them and lots of flat area to support the coal.
This coal requires most of it's air as secondary air and much less as primary air to produce optimal results.

My shelter stove has a forced draft fan tied to a thermostat...it blows through the middle or over the top of the bed, depending on how deep I load it. It also has an ash door draft spinner. It seems to work but if I get a parlor hot blast I'll definitely have to compare coal usage and heat output between the two stoves. My current stove keeps up unless it's in the -15 and below range, but since that's common in ND I think another stove in the living room would allow me to run them both at lower temps and then I'll get longer times between servicing. Here's the one I'm looking at: http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ram/atq/4228887872.html

He was asking $1000 in late November, now asking $600. A less ornate cole's hot blast without fancy decorations or viewing windows is on Craig's for $300. Anyone have any opinions on the asking prices? Let's assume the parts are there and functional.

That's a small stove. You want a tall cylindrical type. Coles produced an inexpensive stove designed for Soft Coal. Their answer for heated secondary air was a simple pipe attached to the top of the stove which then led downward to the top of the fire pot. The secondary air is controlled by a simple sliding damper in the top. Florence's, Germer Radiant Home, hot blasts and other high end stoves were a lot more sophisticated in their design. Florence's are very common as they sold them for 40 years or more. There are several incarnations of the Florence hot blast. You should be able to get one easily.
Another advantage to a Florence is that many of them were double heaters, that is; not only are they radiant heaters they provide heated convection air also. They are among the best for what you want with the fuel that you have.

Thanks for your knowledge! Expert stove consulting free of charge I will keep my eyes peeled for the makers you mentioned.