Would You Replace a Coal Furnace With a Basement Stove?

Ok, let me explain... seasoned coal burner here. I burn 4 stoves at home between house and tobacco shed, and 3 at work on the railroad. Plus, I like to experiment. Not always a good combination. I may have even drug a burning stove out of the house that I didn't like and installed another one while my wife was out a few years ago. Boy, that was a surprise the next morning... ANYWAY, I digress.
I have a 2000 square ft farm house, no insulation on a hill in northern maryland and it is windy all winter. When we bought the place, it had 1 working chimney in the basement and hot air heat. First thing I did was rip out the oil furnace and install a hitzer 82 furnace. Worked fine the first year, but we don't have ducts to the upstairs and it didn't throw enough heat to make it that far. Then I repaired the chimney going to the living room and installed a DS circulator 1500, which I LOVE. I can't believe they are going to stop making them. So, in the worst of winter, the ds isn't quite enough, but when I fire the hitzer too, it's too much. Plus, that sucker doesn't really have a low setting, it eats coal no matter what. On top of that, the fan is really loud and annoys the crap out of me. So I was thinking of swapping it for just a stove in the basement for extra btus when it is really nasty out and turning the current hot air ducts into gravity drops to help circulate air from the basement.
BEFORE I do that, though, I just thought I'd get a second opinion from you guys as to whether or not you think I'd be nuts to tear out a forced air system and 3 year old furnace and go with a smaller stove and a gravity system for when I need the extra heat. I still plan on using the ds in the living room as the primary heat source.
Thanks, Alex.

Wow, so you run 3 hand fed stoves at some points during the winter. Do you really enjoy all that work? How about insulating the house, and running some duct work upstairs? So you would only need the furnace in the basement. Or maybe you would only need the DS on the first floor.

Yes, I run three at home and three at work. No, I don't enjoy the extra work, but, at home, one heats the shop where we bale tobacco and two heat the house. We put new windows in the house this year, and that has made a difference. Hopefully next year we can afford insulation to finish the job. At that point the ds might be enough. But, in the mean time...
Regardless, no matter what I put in the basement, I have to keep a stove on the first floor. We both work outside all year and I fear that not having a stove on the first floor to hug when you come in the house would end in divorce. So, using strictly a furnace is out. Some people say a happy wife is a happy life, but in my case, a warm wife is a happy life.

A couple questions.

Have you tried mixing the coal in the hitzer, and trying to slow the burn down that way? Some on here have mixed like nut and pea to slow things down and seem to have good luck.

Have you looked for a different blower? A three speed like I have on my Clayton furnace may quiet things down for you significantly if you set it on low speed, or maybe you could hook a rheostat to the one you have to slow the speed down.

Buy an Octopus or "gravity" furnace.

Restore it.

Install it in your basement.

While not exactly the original question, if you asked "what I would do", it would be this. Make the duct work just A/C and rip that burnt air unit out and put a coal boiler in with nice big cast iron radiators, at least on the first floor and maybe baseboard hydronic upstairs. Yes it's nice to curl up near a stove, but sitting a cold tush on 160* cast iron has it's joys too. And the kids can make a blanket fort over them... Keep the stove for ambiance.

If a stove on the first floor is a must, I would plan to tighten up the house and insulate. Do you need heat in the basement? Ever freeze pipes?

Swpadon, yes I have looked into blowers. From what I've gathered, hitzer s come with a dayton blower, which seem to have a reputation for being very loud. Replacement would be in the 400+ dollar range. I've also burnt stove, nut, and pea in the hitzer, but it seems that the firebox surface area of the coal bed is just so large that it takes at least one full scuttle just to cover it with a single layer to keep it burning for 12 hours. Then the issue arises that when the furnace is running, the only cold air return in the house is in the room with the ds stove, so it reverses the natural air flow patterns and causes the heat from the ds to stay in the stove room and not circulate into the rest of the house.

And, scalabro, the octopus furnaces fascinate me. I wish there were some available near me, but most people around here tore them out many years ago. I had thoughts at one point of modifying the shroud around the hitzer and the ducting to make it more efficient for gravity heat, but alas time slips away. I have heard there is a company selling new round firebox coal furnaces in northern pa though...I think you can find a discussion about them on the forum here.

About once a month one shows up on Craig's. Sometimes they are free for the taking. There is one for sale cheap right now outside Albany NY with all its tin work and a domestic hot water loop.

Also IIRC member "Pacowy" has one for sale.

Just a thought.

BunkerdCaddis wrote:While not exactly the original question, if you asked "what I would do", it would be this. Make the duct work just A/C and rip that burnt air unit out and put a coal boiler in with nice big cast iron radiators, at least on the first floor and maybe baseboard hydronic upstairs. Yes it's nice to curl up near a stove, but sitting a cold tush on 160* cast iron has it's joys too. And the kids can make a blanket fort over them... Keep the stove for ambiance.

I like the way you think. We don't have or want ac, so the ducts could go away completely. I have looked at boilers a bit, just haven't priced out plumbing all the lines through the house. But you are right, sitting in front, or on, a cast iron radiator is quite nice in February.

Lightning wrote:If a stove on the first floor is a must, I would plan to tighten up the house and insulate. Do you need heat in the basement? Ever freeze pipes?

No, we don't really need heat in the basement. Never had pipe issues so far.

I found 2, maybe 3 octopus style. Nothing real close to you though.

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The Lennox should have had a kidney, I believe.

Lightning wrote:Ever freeze pipes?

Ashokin wrote:No, we don't really need heat in the basement. Never had pipe issues so far.

Holy Dixieland Batman I just looked White Hall up on the map, didn't think they needed heat that far south...

That's (C.I. radiators) pretty much the set up I had in my farmhouse 'cepting I burned wood... (just young and dumb, now old and well a little wiser...) boilers can be found also if one has patience.

The only difference between what you have and what you want is some sheet metal and ducting. Just remember with gravity cold air returns are on outside walls not inside to have the most dense air fall to furnace.

There is a place right down the road from me that has all the radiators you would ever want or need for cheep and they are all functional . I am not to much farther south from you either.