At What Outdoor Temp Can You No Longer Use Coal?

 
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stoker-man
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Post by stoker-man » Sat. May. 23, 2015 6:59 pm

I was thinking about using a hand fired coal stove in the winter to lessen my dependence on wood. The guys at the store say that they can't burn when the outdoor temps are above 40. Well, what good is that? I burn my hand fired boiler with wood when the temperature is 100 degrees.

Maybe put the stoves side by side and switch from one to the other as winter ends, using one chimney?


 
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Sunny Boy
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Post by Sunny Boy » Sat. May. 23, 2015 7:12 pm

40F ? If they think that's the upper limit, they either have a really poor drafting chimney system, or they don't know how to operate a coal stove. Their saying that, my guess would be the latter.

My 112 year old coal range works fine up into the mid 80's outdoors, dampered down to idling along, or dampers opened to get the stove hotter for cook top cooking, or hotter oven for baking.

And it's not as airtight as many of the newer coal stoves. Air leaks after the firebox make it tougher to keep a fire going as the weather warms up. The range has lots of tiny air leaks around the edges of the ten removable cook top plates.

And, as strong as it runs in the 80's, I'm sure it will keep burning if it gets hotter outdoors than that. But, I shut it down when I can't take the heat in the kitchen.

Paul

 
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SWPaDon
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Post by SWPaDon » Sat. May. 23, 2015 7:22 pm

Sunny Boy wrote:40F ? If they think that's the upper limit, they either have a really poor drafting chimney system, or they don't know how to operate a coal stove. Their saying that, my guess would be the latter.

My 112 year old coal range works fine up into the mid 80's outdoors, dampered down to idling along, or dampers opened to get the stove hotter for cook top cooking, or hotter oven for baking.

And it's not as airtight as many of the newer coal stoves. Air leaks after the firebox make it tougher to keep a fire going as the weather warms up. The range has lots of tiny air leaks around the edges of the ten removable cook top plates.

And, as strong as it runs in the 80's, I'm sure it will keep burning if it gets hotter outdoors than that. But, I shut it down when I can't take the heat in the kitchen.

Paul
Glad you chimed in, Paul. I was just going to direct him to your 'cooking with coal' thread so he could see the info firsthand.

 
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Post by Pauliewog » Sat. May. 23, 2015 8:04 pm

We heated our water with a coal fired bucket-a-day 365 days a year up until I was 15 years old.

As I recall, there were very few days when the outside temperature was over 100 degrees , but there were plenty of times that little stove chugged along fine with Temps in the high 90's.

Paulie

 
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Post by oliver power » Sat. May. 23, 2015 9:22 pm

I 'll bet they are referring to the "difference" between outside, and inside temps, but don't realize it. I've heard many times how a coal stove doesn't perform well until the outside & inside temp difference is at least 30* - 40* apart.

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Sat. May. 23, 2015 9:37 pm

oliver power wrote:I 'll bet they are referring to the "difference" between outside, and inside temps, but don't realize it. I've heard many times how a coal stove doesn't perform well until the outside & inside temp difference is at least 30* - 40* apart.
OP,
In my mention above, when the outside temps got in the mid 80's. By late afternoon, the heat was really starting to saturate all through this big old house - the kitchen got up in the upper 80's.

By early evening when the breeze dropped off, it was still in the mid 80's outside - the kitchen got up to the low 90's with the back door open. That was 5 degrees warmer indoors than outside, and the range was still idling along fine.

Top plates over the firebox were just over 500F, water reservoir dampers were shut off, oven was about 250F, and the stack temp was about 105F. Mano was holding steady at .005.

Paul

 
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Post by SWPaDon » Sat. May. 23, 2015 9:42 pm

oliver power wrote:I 'll bet they are referring to the "difference" between outside, and inside temps, but don't realize it. I've heard many times how a coal stove doesn't perform well until the outside & inside temp difference is at least 30* - 40* apart.
That is a very good possibility, I've seen where people have stated that. But then again, that depends on several factors.

1) being how tight the house is.

2) being height of the chimney

3) being single stery with basement, or without

4) Type of coal used

5) not only type of 'anthracite' coal, but 'bituminous' is coal also. Sometimes that is forgotten on this board.

6) how warm do you want the house

Too many factors, locations, comfort levels for the general statement of 40 degrees, whether it be 40 OAT, or 40 difference.


 
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Post by Lightning » Sat. May. 23, 2015 10:17 pm

stoker-man wrote:I was thinking about using a hand fired coal stove in the winter to lessen my dependence on wood. The guys at the store say that they can't burn when the outdoor temps are above 40. Well, what good is that? I burn my hand fired boiler with wood when the temperature is 100 degrees.

Maybe put the stoves side by side and switch from one to the other as winter ends, using one chimney?
Sounds like the guys at the store don't have much hand fed coal burning experience. During shoulder months I have no problem idling the hand fed furnace thru daytime highs of 65, without over heating the house or loosing my chimney's draft. Then increasing the burn rate thru the nighttime lows of 35-45 to keep the house comfortable.

Just takes getting thru the learning curve.. :)
Last edited by Lightning on Sat. May. 23, 2015 11:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
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Sunny Boy
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Post by Sunny Boy » Sat. May. 23, 2015 11:26 pm

SWPaDon wrote:
oliver power wrote:I 'll bet they are referring to the "difference" between outside, and inside temps, but don't realize it. I've heard many times how a coal stove doesn't perform well until the outside & inside temp difference is at least 30* - 40* apart.
That is a very good possibility, I've seen where people have stated that. But then again, that depends on several factors.

1) being how tight the house is.

2) being height of the chimney

3) being single stery with basement, or without

4) Type of coal used

5) not only type of 'anthracite' coal, but 'bituminous' is coal also. Sometimes that is forgotten on this board.

6) how warm do you want the house

Too many factors, locations, comfort levels for the general statement of 40 degrees, whether it be 40 OAT, or 40 difference.
I think your both giving the store guys too much credit. I think they just don't know how to run a coal stove like we do. :D

Stoker-man, if you give them the link to this website, we'll teach them what coal stoves are capable of. Whatever brand/model they sell, likely somebody on this site has one and can show them how !!! ;)

Paul

 
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Post by ddahlgren » Sun. May. 24, 2015 12:53 am

If in a wood mentality where it can be started and stopped a few times a day as wanted coal is not for him in my limited experience. For me coal you light and it runs 24/7 until you decide you don't need or want it running. Right now it is around 70 during the day and 50's at night The house warms up during the day and gets to mid 60's at night so nothing needed next year I think the trigger point to start will be 40's at night and 50 to 60 during the day for me. I am betting I could run mine tomorrow when 70 but what is the point of investing the time doing something not needed.

 
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Post by davidmcbeth3 » Sun. May. 24, 2015 3:15 am

I'm shut down now (4-5 days of 75F during day & I shut down --- no heat after that) ... but I can run a very low burn on hot days .... no problemo

 
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Post by blrman07 » Sun. May. 24, 2015 6:46 am

It's all tied to draft and how warm you want your house. I have a vigilant casting stove and the draft is good enough that I could run it when it's 80 outside. I have several evergreen type trees that are huge and cast a shadow on the entire chimney and house. It keeps the brick chimney cool as it blocks the sun from hitting it.

If we wanted to we could run 365 days a year but I just prefer not to have the inside at 90 during the summer. When we had a stoker boiler we ran it 365 days a year as it supplied all our hot water for the house year round.

As far as I know there is no upper outside temp for burning coal. It's just how good is your chimney and how hot do you want to keep your house.

 
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Post by oliver power » Sun. May. 24, 2015 6:50 am

SWPaDon wrote:
oliver power wrote:I 'll bet they are referring to the "difference" between outside, and inside temps, but don't realize it. I've heard many times how a coal stove doesn't perform well until the outside & inside temp difference is at least 30* - 40* apart.
That is a very good possibility, I've seen where people have stated that. But then again, that depends on several factors.

1) being how tight the house is.

2) being height of the chimney

3) being single stery with basement, or without

4) Type of coal used

5) not only type of 'anthracite' coal, but 'bituminous' is coal also. Sometimes that is forgotten on this board.

6) how warm do you want the house

Too many factors, locations, comfort levels for the general statement of 40 degrees, whether it be 40 OAT, or 40 difference.
Yes SWPaDon, You are correct. I believe my comment was mis-understood. Let me try wording it a little different. I've read, and heard many times where a coal stove starts to perform best when the inside, and outside temp difference is at least 30* difference. What I'm getting at is; "This is a saying that has been around many years". I'm not saying a coal stove won't burn in warmer temps. The original poster was told by someone that a coal stove won't burn when temps are over 40*. Who ever this guy was, apparently has no experience with coal stoves. He has his facts mixed up with the saying of temperature differences between inside, and outside. EDIT: I read your quote again. IIt looks like you did understand what I meant. Sorry about that......

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Sun. May. 24, 2015 1:57 pm

55° average low is my light and shutdown window but I'm running a boiler.

 
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Post by Rob R. » Sun. May. 24, 2015 2:26 pm

It all depends on how well the chimney performs in warmer temperatures. I run my EFM through the summer.


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