Extreme Cold House Is Only 59 Degrees??

ad356 wrote:i think if I want it warmer im going to do as I said, add some storm doors and maybe improve insulation a little more. this thing is 90K BTU and the house is 1,600 sq it should be enough heat. I probably have too much heat loss.

It is 90K BTU if it is burning 7-1/3 lbs. of coal each hour. Is it feeding at that rate?

Let's start this off right. First I want to apologize for going places I had no business going. In my eagerness to help a fellow coal burner, I gave out advice that wasn't based on real life experience or common knowledge gained by sufficient research on past threads. It was a stupid mistake. It won't happen again.
My thinking that a stove is limited by the amount of air that can be blown is sound. The practicality of that is that if the user doesn't install an adequate exhaust system and monitor draft, then that amount of air could be disastrous. Each install/installer is unique. It is the owners responsibility to find out what the limit of combustion air is. They need to know what the "balls to the wall" setting is. Adjusting air/feed rates for every situation is on the owner.
I will own the bad advice. It was wrong.

Thank you Scott. Nicely said.

It was not my point to not agree, but was to prevent any harm to the novice coal burner whom may come too quickly to a over simplified conclusion.

McGiever wrote:Thank you Scott. Nicely said.

It was not my point to not agree, but was to prevent any harm to the novice coal burner whom may come too quickly to a over simplified conclusion.

Good thing you did step in. It could have gone the wrong way. Good call.

Scott, thanks very much for fixing this.

lsayre, at that feed rate the stove would need to achieve 100% combustion of the coal for that to be a legitimate number even for input btu's. If you put real world unburned coal %'s and stove efficiency %'s with that feed rate, the max usable output might be more like 57k.

blrman07, in the real world stove manufacturers try to portray their products in the most favorable light, and some do more than others to provide consumers with the type of detailed info needed to fully describe the actual performance of the product. Sometimes forum members have suggestions for filling in the blanks. Likewise, people spoke up when they had concern about a suggestion that had been made, and that situation has been cleared up. These aren't symptoms of people being cranky or something in the water. It's the forum doing a good job of facilitating the exchange of information.

Mike

Scottscoaled wrote: My thinking that a stove is limited by the amount of air that can be blown is sound. The practicality of that is that if the user doesn't install an adequate exhaust system and monitor draft, then that amount of air could be disastrous. Each install/installer is unique. It is the owners responsibility to find out what the limit of combustion air is. They need to know what the "balls to the wall" setting is. Adjusting air/feed rates for every situation is on the owner.

AMEN! to all of this ^ ... The part about the responsibility being on the owner is where things can fall apart. Sometimes it is because a coal stove salesperson doesn't make them aware and is compounded by the new user thinking a coal appliance is like their set the 'stat and forget it furnace. A little research, some understanding and a dose of common sense goes a long way to safe operation.

Some folks don't want to put in the effort to reap the benefits, but then again some folks shouldn't be using a coal stove / stoker just like some folks shouldn't repair the brakes on their car!

I try to give the benefit of the doubt to people that come here to ask questions because at least they took the time to research. I think most here do the same and it can be seen by the patience in answering a lot of repeat questions without a condescending attitude in their posts. I figure the newbies already made a good decision (whether they knew it or not) by trying coal heat so they deserve some friendly guidance. We were all newbies at some point.

Scottscoaled wrote:Let's start this off right. First I want to apologize for going places I had no business going. In my eagerness to help a fellow coal burner, I gave out advice that wasn't based on real life experience or common knowledge gained by sufficient research on past threads. It was a stupid mistake. It won't happen again.
My thinking that a stove is limited by the amount of air that can be blown is sound. The practicality of that is that if the user doesn't install an adequate exhaust system and monitor draft, then that amount of air could be disastrous. Each install/installer is unique. It is the owners responsibility to find out what the limit of combustion air is. They need to know what the "balls to the wall" setting is. Adjusting air/feed rates for every situation is on the owner.
I will own the bad advice. It was wrong.

This is why this site is the best anywhere. Well said, Scott.

Pacowy wrote:lsayre, at that feed rate the stove would need to achieve 100% combustion of the coal for that to be a legitimate number even for input btu's. If you put real world unburned coal %'s and stove efficiency %'s with that feed rate, the max usable output might be more like 57k.

Mike

Since heating appliances are always (to my knowledge at least) rated by their manufacturers with respect to their "input BTUH" we are on the same page here.

That a 90K BTUH input appliance will only yield in the neighborhood of 57K BTUH output is something the buyers/users need to be made aware of.

But either way, 57K BTUH is a whopper load of heat. And if it is pushing and properly burning 7-1/3 lbs. per hour, it is delivering BTU's in this ballpark.