Introduce Yourself

Hello Everyone
First off let me Thank Richard for helping me solve my problem getting registered. Also while I'm at it Thanks again for setting up such a site that I stumbled onto in researhing burning coal. A long Thanks to all the rest of you for the wealth of knowlage you all bring to this site. I have been reading and learning from all of you. I just set up a US Stoves Clayton 1600 and learning the coal routine so to speak. A wood burner for years and have been burning two wood stoves (1 up & 1 down)and still a cool house. I can say right now 32 outside with a north 10 mph coming right at the house off the lake and it's 72 in here !!! Sheryls Happy she without a sweater on! I'm not completly ducted yet (work got in the way) but we are up and runnning. I'm ordering the manometer I see the importance it bring to the Coal Culture. I read the thread on manual dampers and baro's, I have both and learning. This isn't wood and I am judging firebox burns by looks and stack temps till the manometer arrives, then I can set the draft properly. I look forward reading more and interjecting from time to time!
Thanks again all
Charles

North Candlewood wrote:Hello Everyone
First off let me Thank Richard for helping me solve my problem getting registered.

Welcome to the forum and glad you got registered, I suspect there many people that failed to register though. It was a bug in the software that was particular to my install. I almost had to resort to sending a video to convince the developers as none of them would believe me.

http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/phpbb3/ticket ... t_id=16174

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... 6&t=612209

Hello: I'm here from Ontario, Canada.
My wife and i bought this, our first, house in 2003 and it came with a combination Oil/Wood/Coal Furnace installed in 1980.
Also, being an old farm house, it has a cistern that has been filled to the brim with coal.
I couldn't find any info at the time about how to burn it so I began my research and found out that the coal we have is indeed Anthracite and that coal fires can be fickle!
The first winter we used the oil burner side. By the next winter oil prices increased by 30% so I decided to burn the wood which was also stacked in the basement and on top of the coal pile. By the 05/06 heating season most of the wood was gone so I proceeded to try the coal. It probably took me most of the winter to figure out how to get the stuff to burn consistently and I haven't mastered it by any means but that being said we've been enjoying a nice coal fire for the past 4 days non-stop. It still goes out sometimes which i believe was my rigorous shaking. I've also ran into the 'Too much draft issue' and the whole bed would be blazing and the house is almost 85 degrees! It still is a learning process but browsing this forum is really helpful and am so glad to have found it!
Most people around here have had coal stoves but not furnaces (big difference?) and the old-timers have helped me out too.
Here's some photo's:

Hello everyone. My name is Ed I currently live in Richmond, VA but I am building a home this summer and finally get to return home to the mountains of Northern Wayne County in Pennsylvania. I have decided to heat my new home with coal instead of wood as well lets see I am to lazy to cut and split firewood. LOL Actually I had originally planned on an outside woodfurnace but after seeing the amount of wood they consume quickly changed my mind. The house I am building will be a 1450 sq ft ranch with a small loft. I am leaning to the LL Pocono or Hyfire 1 with the air jacket. From what I have read here it seems 8 inch flues work better than larger ones. The front of this house is all glass which is why I am undecided on which size stove to get. I also plan on placing a small hand fed stove in the great room. Will the flue accommodate both stoves? Let me just end with a Thank You!! I have spent 3 days reading the posts here and have gathered a huge amount of information.

hey i'm scott, i live near tremont pa. i got into burning coal when i moved up here in 2005 to open my own auto repair buisiness, the building belongs to my best friend, total heated space is over 6,000 square feet....garage has a 18' celing and is 3200 sq ft......when i moved here we were running some ancient hand fired stoves, a sunbeam allertown, some no name thing thing that either ran wide open or out, a 1800's mt penn stove company potbelly stove, and a kenmore coal stove. 2006 was the year of the coal stove bargains........got a heatrola at a yard sale for 20 bucks......worked about a month then the grate broke.....got our money back at the scrapyard lol........i keep a hand fed stove hooked up in the garage (end of the world mode hehe) it's a beautiful warm morning....looks just like the one another member in pa has....great stove but it's hand fired.
november 2006 i got the alaska stoker on ebay for my apartment project i have been working on....it's about 800 square feet....might have to pump some of that heat into the garage once i get the room fully insulated and the dropped celing goes in
right around xmas 2006 someone gave me a efm coal furnace......we had to cut trees down to get to the shed it was in, and take the shed away too (tin shed) after about 50 hrs of laboring, and 350 bucks out of my pocket for parts, i got it running.....right now it's at 4 clicks and it's in the mid 60's out here in the office......the hegins breaker can be seen from the back window of the garage so coal supply is not a problem....yes i love coal country1
and yes i love yuengling beer, you can tell i'm not a native......yuengling is fancy beer in berks county where i came from hehe
stop by sometime have a beer! we got lager on tap
great forum you guys have here! look forward to meeting some locals......i have a message board for lincoln town cars, mercury grand marquis and ford crown victorias.....pm me for the addy if anyone wants to check it out!
scott

Hi my name is Lincoln. I live in Martville,NY which is about 40 miles NW of Syracuse.I am married with no children,2 dogs and 1 cat. I have an old Coalchief stove that I bought used 20 years ago. I have been burning wood in it for the past 19 years at times for total heating.Other times to cut back on the use of my propane furnace. Most of my wood lately has been skid wood from work. I getting to old,beat up and tired to be cutting and splitting,and too broke to pay for all the propane. I just found this site yesterday while doing a search for using coal. With the rising cost of propane and the shortage of skid wood at work I decided to look into heating with coal. I have a Cape Cod style home with approx. 1500 sq.ft.

Hi all,
I'm John and live near Gettysburg PA. I bought a Harman MK II in 1993. The reason I switched over to coal was because in March of '93 we had a blizzard (I had a wood stove at the time) and I wound up burning skids that I got from work. My firewood had not been delivered even though I had ordered 3 cords the previous September. 3 cords of wood showed up 2 weeks after the blizzard. I vowed that I was switching to coal and did so that summer. Wish I had done it before that.
I work in a small shop that makes Blackpowder gun barrels and reline's, lengthens, rebores, re-rifles, and just about anything else that can be done to a Blackpowder firearm barrel. I get to see and work on a lot of older guns and it's pretty darn neat.
I have a 1972 VW Superbeetle that I am restoring.............well it's been torn apart for 2 years now. Hopefully, I'll "git er done" within the next year.
I am married, have two grown children, a dog, and 3 pain in the butt cats.

Hello,my name is Bill,grew up in the "region", Shamokin PA. I also work in the region,for the largest pierogie maker in the world,Mrs. T's . So I have never left the "region", currently live in Paxinos PA with my wife of 17 years and 2 great kids, daughter and son.
I am on a mission to change my wifes mind about coal. I grew up with coal heat, so did my wife. She says its dirty ,I say I want to be warm,and have hot water. We are on the same page most of the time except for this. I have a Harman P-61 pellet stove in the basement that supplements the heat pump,my compromise.I would like a Harman DVC-500, since the house has no chimney. I am saving my pennies for that right now . My access to coal is a bit better than some of you out there,I drive by the Harmony mine every day, work is only 4 miles from Blaschak's St.Nicholas breaker and as soon as they get the Split Vein breaker rebuilt I am only 3 miles from that.
I love this region of PA. I like tinkering around the house, Drag Racing ,and riding motorcycles. But most of all I like a warm house filled with family,heated by an American product "made" right here in the "region".

Bill

Bill

What is a "pierogie"?

BK

bksaun wrote:Bill

What is a "pierogie"?

BK

Pasta pocket, a bit like a ravioli, filled with any sort of various fillings, usually potato, onion, cheese, etc. You can boil them, fry them and I'm sure there are a few other ways to prepare them. Very yummy!

Not sure of the ethnicity of them (origin). My mom was German and ate them all the time, but aren't they more Polish?

On the other note, Bill, you will find the DVC-500 to produce no more, and probably less, mess than your pellet stove. I have a Keystoker direct vent in my totally finished basement, burning bagged Blaschak. The coal is damp out of the bag, so there's no dust, and the rest of the stove handling only produces minimal ash dust. Yes, I have to run the Swiffer around the basement a little more often, but it's sure worth it. There is NO soot, NO smell, and LOTS of heat. My wife thought I'd lost my marbles when I put the stove in, but now, if she can't sleep, she'll go down to the basement and sit in front of the stove and doze off in the easy chair. Priceless!

Pronounced Peeer-OH-hee (at least by everyone around here)

europachris wrote:

Not sure of the ethnicity of them (origin). My mom was German and ate them all the time, but aren't they more Polish?

Polish, best ones are made at church bazaars by little old ladies, preferably the ones with accents. My favorite is sauerkraut.

I would like to try them, would have to pass on the sauerkraut though, I am not allowed to eat that! My wife say it is a city ordinance! Also not allowed pickled eggs,buttermilk,Wiedeman or Blatz Beer, sardines,beans of any kind and the list go's on.

The ordinance only apply's to me!

Why they pick on me?

BK

bksaun wrote:The ordinance only apply's to me!

Why they pick on me?

It may have something to do with violating the Clean Air Act passed by Congress?

Warning: thread hijack: With enough saurkraut or other cabbage family foods, who needs coal?? you become your own 'natural-gas' producing plant... now , to convert it to heat....

I'll clean up the thread after Christmas...

Merry Christmas everyone..

Remember.... Introductions on this thread please... open a new thread on the appropriat forum for questions etc.

Now, I foresee a 'natural gass' thread in the 'other subjects forum'

Greg L