Question About Integrating a Coal Furnace?

I feel your pain with the propane bills.. When I switched it was up to $3.29 a gallon. Coal is a third the cost to heat my home plus we're much warmer..

amstel78 wrote: then I could install a PowerVent on the side of the house where my dryer vent and spigot are located.

Everytime you or someone else pulls up in a car they are going to smell sulfur gas as soon as they exit the car. That's the point I'm trying to make. That vent runs 24/7, it never stops.

Perhaps the best thing to do then is to install a chimney vent in the roof next to the PVC vents for the propane furnace?

If that is possible it sounds like a maintenance nightmare.

Richard S. wrote: If that is possible it sounds like a maintenance nightmare.

Yes, you're probably right.

There are two other options:

1. Install the boiler in the garage; lose a spot for one of my cars, and a more complicated issue of plumbing... however the wife probably wouldn't care if there was a metal chimney stack coming out of the rear wall of the garage...

2. Install the boiler in the same mechanical room and have it vented somewhere on the backside of the house. That would then mean a fairly long horizontal run of tubing, and it'd still be a pain in the butt to maintain.

Perhaps coal isn't in my future for now... too many logistics issues?

amstel78 wrote:Perhaps coal isn't in my future for now... too many logistics issues?
That comes out to an annual savings of $4204.00.

Really?? Um, where there is a will, there is always a way...

Well,its hard to guess your basement layout,why not build a chimney outside the mechanical room,it would give your house a more balanced look just like a big rig 2 stacks vs 1 stack,1 stack looks silly. Or,put the chimney at the back of the house,or front corner of the house next to driveway,would be a good place for bulk coal bin in basement.Go with the 220 boiler,you can easy run water pipes to the mechanical room from anywhere,220 has 2 burners,use 1 for summer & lite heat demand,2 burners when demand is high.At $4k+/yr savings it won't take many yrs to pay everything off. Or do like Richard said,install an insert,go to boiler later when you & your wife see the benefits of coal burning,decisions.........Garage install not good idea = fire & gasoline fumes,i think its legal in Pa.if the fire is a minimum of 18" off the floor which is where they claim the gasoline vapors collect.

I can think of three options.

1. If you use the powerventer, why can't you re-use the pipes used for the water heater/furnace that exit to the roof and use them for the coal boiler? This will get those fumes off of the ground and away from people level.

2. I would rather relocate the heating equipment out of the mechanical room and install it somewhere else in the basement than lose space in the garage. Possible to locate the new boiler in the basement where a chimney could be installed in the back of the house? Alternately, you don't have to relocate the air handler. if you use a water to air heat exchanger, you can locate the boiler anywhere and simply run piping to the HVAC equipment to convey the heat to it. Similarly, the hot water for the house could originate from the boiler as well and tie into existing plumbing.

3. Probably an expensive option but you could always keep the boiler outdoors and run piping into the house. This would require you to build a shelter around the boiler. You would have to run piping probably underground as well as provide an electrical connection.

I would NOT use a power vent on any stoker....period! Keep ANY horizontal runs as short as possible and have multiple clean-outs installed for easy checking and service. Too bad Matt doesn't have the LL outdoor boiler ready for prime time yet.......... One thing that becomes incredibly important is ease of refueling, and removal of ashes. IF you choose to dedicate a portion of the garage, it is a no brainer to install a partial block wall and then frame on top of it to the ceiling, drywall or plaster...now fireproof from the garage. This is not rocket science, however the fairer sex might carry a HUGE hammer if it is not to HER liking. You could set up an outbuilding and move in yourself if you can't work it out between yourselves. You would be warm; she would be warm; the boiler is not in the house......the bitching is mitigated (temporarily anyway ).

I don't care where you live, but for heating, there is nothing that compares to hydronics for quiet, comfort and uniformity. There are only two kinds of people looking to heat their homes in our local climate: Those who use a Hydronic system, and those waiting to convert to Hydronics. If you are over three feet tall and ever worked in a 6' basement, there are limitless words to describe hot air heat.......none should be published here. It is not much different from a liquid cooled automobile vs an air cooled model. Yup, your Prius uses electric to heat the rig...and it works fine, but anyone who every owned a VW Beatle or a Corvair back in the day AND lived where -20 was common KNOWS WHAT I JUST MENTIONED ABOVE. Liquid cooling is used on Rolls Royce, Mercedes........Lexus, and so on. I'll bet you never questioned their engineering, have you.

amstel78 wrote:
There are two other options:

1. Install the boiler in the garage; lose a spot for one of my cars, and a more complicated issue of plumbing... however the wife probably wouldn't care if there was a metal chimney stack coming out of the rear wall of the garage...

We did that with ours but the garage was built specifically with the coal in mind. One great benefit there is you are keeping the dust outside the house. Ours is on the far side, here's the layout.
You should consider two things in combination. Where can you put a bin and the flue. Our auger went to the right so the bin had to be on the right side when facing it. The only place to put it was on the far side plus it's a little further away from the new master bedroom. There is an outside wall for a chimney and the easy access to the coal bin for delivery. Here's the nearly completed install:

Lightning wrote:In my opinion, a warm air coal furnace tied into your existing duct work with a hot water coil to preheat your domestic hot water would be your
Simplest and most economical choice.

Lightning is right again (that son ma biatch )... the alternative would be WAY to much money for you.
Right now its worth mentioning you could buy a LeisureLine AK 220 (less expensive and in my opinion more reliable than either of your suggestions) ..and receive a free H/W coil from the factory for it if your willing to test a few temps on the coil for them!

dcrane wrote:... the alternative would be WAY to much money for you.

The initial expense would be great if for example you went with EFM, masonry chimney and piped the whole house for hydronic. Let's say it was $16K total. He's going to save 3 or 4K a year though in fuel costs. In 4 or 5 years he's sticking 3 or 4K in his pocket and he's going to do that for the next 40 years....

If you have the capital costs and you intend on staying in the home for a long time it's certainly something to consider. There is lot of issues with this install because of the configuration of the house, what I can tell you if I was going to be dropping that kind of money on install for full house heating I wouldn't be screwing around with bagged coal or metal chimneys.

Thanks to all who responded again. There's a lot of food for thought here and something I'll have to ponder more carefully. In the meantime, I've got to go outside and clear my driveway. It snowed on us again last night.