Hoping for Some Advice on a Stoker

 
n3twrkm4n
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Post by n3twrkm4n » Sun. Mar. 16, 2008 5:07 pm

First off wanted to say "Hi" I've been trolling around reading up on coal stoves for a while now just never registered.

My wife and I just moved into a relatively new home (built in 2003) modular construction ranch 2x6 construction with awesome insulation throughout. We currently have an oil boiler with a 275 gallon tank and a McClain GOLD boiler that runs our domestic hot water and heat. Frankly at 3.59/gallon for fuel oil I don't really want to heat the house with it any more.

My parents have a Channing III in their living room and on setting "1" with the blower on MAX they get the living area of a ~1400sq/ft ranch to 72 degrees. I guess my question is about my setup, I'll be putting the Channing III in my basement which is not finished but insulated to heat the basement and upstairs since the basement is already heated by the oil boiler.

The salesman tried to send me off with a Keystoker 90,000 BTU with a 300+ CFM blower and all the fixins. I thought it was rather overkill since our Ranch is about 1100sq/ft upstairs and about 825 downstairs. My question is will a Channing III in the basement be suitable for heating our home? The keystoker outfitted was about $1,000 more than the Channing III. I planned on getting the plain steel top on the Channing so I can cut a hole in it for duct work at a later point, but for the time being we're going to cut grates in the floor.

Any other recommendations or hints into the world of coal would be appreciated. I hope to just run hot water off of the boiler for now which should bring our fuel oil usage WAY down.

Thanks in advance.


 
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coalstoves
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Post by coalstoves » Sun. Mar. 16, 2008 5:48 pm

With a very tightly insulated house you may not see enough heat traveling upstairs and have an oven for a basement .

 
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Ed.A
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Post by Ed.A » Sun. Mar. 16, 2008 5:48 pm

Welcome to forum, I am a current 1st year owner of a Channing III.
Heating 1600 Sq.ft, I burned 2 tons this year and was very pleased with it's heating capacity. Never had a cold day in the house, unlike my woodstove which the Channing replaced.....thankfully. It should keep you more than happy, IMO
With a very tightly insulated house you may not see enough heat traveling upstairs and have an oven for a basement .
It's true, a few floor vents and a coldair intake should help get it to where you need it, worked very well for me.

 
n3twrkm4n
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Post by n3twrkm4n » Sun. Mar. 16, 2008 6:03 pm

Thanks for the advice. The basement ceiling isn't insulated just the basement walls (as per code in our area). So I think the heat would do well transferring through the floor. I plan on putting in a forced air system at some point but I have to start on something. I forgot to mention that I would be using a Direct Vent rather than a Chimney.

 
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Ed.A
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Post by Ed.A » Sun. Mar. 16, 2008 6:30 pm

n3twrkm4n wrote:Thanks for the advice. The basement ceiling isn't insulated just the basement walls (as per code in our area). So I think the heat would do well transferring through the floor.
Nice, same here, but the vents did have a noticeable impact.

 
n3twrkm4n
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Post by n3twrkm4n » Sun. Mar. 16, 2008 8:14 pm

Yeah, I'll have to experiment with some things. Our basement stairs the door on them has about a 1" gap at the bottom but obviously a forced cold air return would help bring the cold air back down. I saw one setup for heat reclamation where a ducting was put around the stove to reclaim the radiant heat as well. I was impressed but I still need to heat the basement as it's where I work on my wood projects.

Thanks again for the advice, I'll have to call the local dealer tomorrow and get some prices and get that puppy ordered and hopefully working before it gets too warm.

I did have one question, I know opinions and code varies but what is the maximum run for a direct vent Alaska stove? The closest 'safe' wall for the stove is on the front of the house but I could run a duct to the side across 2x10's.

 
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LoschStoker
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Post by LoschStoker » Sun. Mar. 16, 2008 9:38 pm

To get the heat up stairs the air needs to have a way to return. When the basement ceiling is warm
it can keep the air from coming down. Some have put a duct that goes down to with in
6" of the basement floor.
When you get it installed, you can see how it works then experiment. A small fan will push more cool air at the floor return then warm air at the floor supply (cool air more dense)
Of course a fan built in the stove will force the air up stairs with a duct.


 
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Scottscoaled
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Post by Scottscoaled » Sun. Mar. 16, 2008 9:52 pm

Don't mean to be a joy killer but if you haven't purchased a Channing 3 yet why aren't you looking at a coal boiler to tie into your existing heating system. Seems like it would be a better fit. Scott

 
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Tamecrow
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Post by Tamecrow » Mon. Mar. 17, 2008 12:48 am

stokerscot wrote:Don't mean to be a joy killer but if you haven't purchased a Channing 3 yet why aren't you looking at a coal boiler to tie into your existing heating system. Seems like it would be a better fit. Scott
I'll second that. There's no better way to distribute that heat than a hot water system and you have that part set up already.

Terry

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Mon. Mar. 17, 2008 3:16 am

Consider going back to your keystoker dealer, and look into the KAA-2 boiler. Or a Harman vf 3000 boiler,. Both use a similar stoker mechanism [flat bed stoker], and are as mentioned above going to provide perfect heat distribution through your current hot water system.
With the added bonus of heating all of your domestic hot water, you may even want to set it up to run all year long if you are near coal country.

There are many threads on hooking up a coal boiler in with an existing oil boiler, this provides oil backup heat/hot water if you are away, or run out of coal.

A boiler by far will be a much more comfortable heat for you home... read through the 'how do you distribute your heat' thread, and several other similar threads.. the problems of getting hot air to flow around a house are many, and often difficult to fix. But hot water in pipes?? once installed it is a done deal.

If you have open uninsulated ceilings in your basement, I'd start a project and add under floor radiant under the kitchen and bathrooms... you and your wife will really love it!!

Greg L

.

 
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beatle78
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Post by beatle78 » Mon. Mar. 17, 2008 11:59 am

[my 2 cents]

I was in the same situation as you 3 years ago. I bought a Harman Magnum Stoker to heat my house. It's a well insulated RR and the stove is in the unfinished basement with no insulation in ceiling. ~1100 sq ft upstairs and 800 sq ft downstairs.

I found my basement was a SAUNA and my upstairs was barely warm. I cut a couple of vents in and ran ductwork from the stove to the 2 vents. This helped a lot, but I'm still not happy. LSFARM mentioned that I need to cut a return vent at the opposite end of the house and run that return duct into the inlet on distribution blower on the stove. I never did it b/c I decided I need a stoker boiler instead.
I also have a hot water coil installed in my stoker and I do get some hot water from it as well.

Long story short, after reading on this forum I realized I should have bought a Stoker boiler instead of a stoker stove. This way my house will be heated and my domestic water will all come from coal.
NO OIL BILL!!!! :D

I will be installing a boiler this summer and selling my Magnum stoker.

I will be selling my Magnum stoker this summer if you still decide to go with the stoker stove :)

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Mon. Mar. 17, 2008 12:05 pm

BOILER!

 
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Yanche
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Post by Yanche » Mon. Mar. 17, 2008 7:04 pm

Boiler for central heating and domestic hot water production. Many fine boilers to chose from, hand fired or stoker.

 
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Berlin
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Post by Berlin » Mon. Mar. 17, 2008 7:42 pm

definately go with a boiler, water heat is superior to forced air, and of course either is superior to waiting for convection to distribute things evenly.

 
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watkinsdr
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Post by watkinsdr » Mon. Mar. 17, 2008 9:10 pm

This house has the thermal distribution problem solved---installing a coal boiler would be a "no brainer." I concur with Greg: please look into a Keystoker KAA2 or Harman VF3000 boiler. Both are stokers and have rave reviews from their owners in this forum.


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