How much coal to buy

I heated a 1900 sq. ft home with 2.5 ton of pea coal using a Surdiac. I just bought a used Mark II so I will be switching to nut coal. Should I expect to use about the same tonnage ?
And one more dumb question , What is the best way to add the coal to the Mark II ? I'm used to a top loader where I just dumped a bucket of pea coal in the hopper. Do you shovel it in or use the bucket to toss it in ?
Thanks

I've never used anything but nut & have heard that pea will burn longer but has less BTU's than nut so I would say you may need a bit less nut than pea, but it shouldn't be a drastic difference.
As far as loading, I think you'll find you have much better control of where he coal ends up with a shovel rather than trying to throw it in with a bucket.
( I have the option of top loading with my TLC but prefer to load it through the door with a shovel)

Hey Zeeman,
I'd expect you will use more coal then the devil as you will be installing in the basement.
My hand fired Harman unit is in a large basement, it heats wonderfully 90% of the house. The basement is never off limits in the winter as it stays warm and especially dry. Great place to dry wet clothes, boots & gloves too .

I do have a 2nd flue in on my main floor but choose not to use it but if I did, I could certainly heat the 1st and 2nd floor with a 50% smaller stove and thus less annual coal use. But I don't think the block foundation of the house would warm the same. I'm a believer in warming the foundation walls to get really great warmth.

Cap wrote:I'd expect you will use more coal then the devil as you will be installing in the basement.

My stove is in our (finished) basement & so it warms 2 floors.

Cap wrote:I'm a believer in warming the foundation walls to get really great warmth.

Only problem with that concept is, as Greg (LsFarm) points out, you are really heating the outside ground around your foundation by doing that & thus wasting heat. (I have insulation & paneling covering the basement hip wall foundation)

The devil wrote at 1015hrs on a beautiful Sat morning:
My stove is in our (finished) basement & so it warms 2 floors.

Well then you better straighten out the Zeeman and his coal usage cause you must be doing it right! (Two floors or three?, Basement counts as a floor, doesn't it?)

As for me,I use my basement as do the kids. While not finished with insulation & panel, I performed a poor man's finish to it. Painted cinder block walls & floor, florescent lighting & some carpets. LS certainly has ancient stone walls in his castle with water piping heating system through out so in his case, he hasn't the need for a dungeon dragon like I do. But I bet his boiler house has lots of radiant heat leaking into the cold Michigan sky. But I think he has an attached workshop too.

Cap wrote:Two floors or three?, Basement counts as a floor, doesn't it?)

Two floors. (basement & first floor) It's a split entry ranch.