What is the prefered coal size for Gibraltar

Hi all, I'm new to coal heating & have 2 questions.
1) Is there a benefit to using smaller or larger size coal? I have a Gibraltar type coal stove & am using NUT size. Reason I ask is I plan on getting a load soon & wanted some advice from veterans.

2) My stove is in basement. What is the preferred way to get heat to the first floor? Regular floor grates? If so the larger the opening the better or multiple locations better? Thanks for helping out a rookie. Happy new years by the way.

Rich wrote:
1) Is there a benefit to using smaller or larger size coal? .

The smaller size commonly used in hand fired stoves is pea. It will allow you to control the fire more easily but will not produce a fire as hot or get up to speed as quickly as nut.

Both will produce equal amount of heat. just in different ways. Most of my customers that have used nut exclusively find range which is nut and pea mixed preferable.

I appreciate the feed back.

Anyone have any suggestions for air vents / getting heat from Basement to 1st. Floor. I guess what I'm asking is there a Science to this based on Square footage / BTU's of your stove? My stove is centrally located.
Any help on this is greatly appreciated.[/b]