Looking at the Baker line

Just joined the board today. Looking for info on coal stoves as a supplement heating system. Looking at the Baker line.

chemung wrote:Just joined the board today. Looking for info on coal stoves as a supplement heating system. Looking at the Baker line.

Welcome!....Give us some info on your needs:
How big a house?
Where it will be placed?
Chimney?
Experience level? (wood burning, none)
Stoker or Hand Fired? (How much work do you want to do?)

That knid of thing.

it would be better to post this in "Anthracite Coal Discussion and News" forum for a greater response.

Thanks for the welcome Devil5052. I'm going to take spc's advice and repost in the Anthracite Coal Discussion and News forum. I posted here to get myself set up.

I moved it for you into the Discussion section....Welcome!

I just realized that. Threw me off a bit. Thanks.

Ok, here we go:

Our home is a 10 year old 28' x 68' three bedroom modular ranch with an unfinished/unheated basement, located in Susquehanna County NE Pa. We purchased it and moved in last August so we spent a full winter here. 2x6 outside walls, double pane windows and plenty of insulation in the attic. The home has a typical forced hot air LP fired system. After spending the past winter here, we need to supplement our heating system. When the home was built the basement was set up for a chimney but not completed. That is the hole and clean out is there and outside the block comes out of the ground then is capped. A chimney has to be installed.

Experience: I used to keep the hopper full when I was a kid. I grew up in NE Pa. between two working coal mines. I can remember when coal was $15.00 a ton.

Stoker or Hand Fired: I'm Unsure. I'm thinking hand fired.

I'm looking at the Baker hand fired. Probably in the 2800 sq.ft. range. All my bedrooms are located above where the chimney is. I am sectioning off 1/3 of the basement (opposite end of bedroom area) for the garage. The basement will remain unfinished. My thinking is heating the remaining 2/3 of the basement and removing the floor insulation so the heat will rise into the living space.

Well, can't think of anything else right now.

Stoker boiler.

What coaledsweat said! More bang for the buck.

A stoker boiler would heat your domestic hot water, and using your existing hot air ducts and a water-to-air heat exchanger heat the whole house... If you want, you could use the boiler year 'round to heat domestic water.

The use of a boiler allows much earlier use in the heating season as well as much later... with a stove, especially a hand feed stove, when the weather moderates during the days, you will be overheated, or have to let the fire go out, then restart a fire for the cool nights..

I'd go for a stoker feed stove at the very least, and preferably a stoker boiler for the above reasons.

Greg L

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,
i tend to agree,i bought a harman mark3 a couple years ago,love it. but yesterday it was in the 50's here in central maine then dipped into the 20's at night.
the house was 80-82 yesterday,i had to open the front door to let some air in.
when i started to consider burning coal i only thought hand fed because i grew up using hand fed wood stoves or forced hot air furnaces.about a month ago i started to think...damn,i should have gotten a boiler instead,because you dont want to let a coal fire go out if you plan on a re light in a few hours to a day,just take to long and you use about 2 days worth of coal to fill it up and get it going again.
thats the advantage wood does have over coal is that you can re light to take off the chill. i really believe if i had done alittle more research i would have bought a stoker boiler....i may yet, who knows!

Since I'm no expert on boiler type coal heat, I'll plug my setup:

I have a Harman TLC-2000 hand fired in my finished basement with bedrooms above. I have cut floor vents above the suspended ceiling in the basment family room where the stove is located & it heats my whole house 26x44' split entry on about 2 tons of nut coal per year. I can get my stove to just simmer on warmer days so I never am blasted out by the heat. (I may crack a window now & then, but it beats relighting)
Assuming you build a chimney, I like a hand fired because:

1. It's cheaper to buy than a stoker or furnace
2. Looks good
3. Will operate without any electricity during storm caused power failures

Your place sounds ideal for a hand-fired in the basement, once you build a chimney.


My 2 cents

Thank you all for your input. At the moment I have a few projects to complete around the property. During the summer months I am going to work getting a coal system set up for the fall.

Again, THANK YOU ALL!