Introduce Yourself

Welcome Gordon. Well after 30 years of cutting, splitting, stacking and hauling wood, you deserve a break. I kicked to wood habit after 20 years. Good luck with your project. Posting some pictures of your stove would be good. There will be challenges converting a wood stove for coal use. The grates ina coal stove are generally movable to shake down the fire. also, air to a coal fire must enter from below, not above the fire. What type of heating system does your home have. You might be better off to get a coal burner that adapts to yuor heating system. boilers are the best way to go. .

Welcome Gordon, I hope your project works out for you, but as Coalkirk points out there will be issues to over come. Just to let you know I live about 20 mins north of you in Canterbury. I'm sure you know that Mackies sells different sizes of coal, and their prices aren't bad. The cheapest I've found in the area is in Bristol, they are the largest sellers and have the best prices. Good luck with your project.

Hi Guys
Thanks for the reply and I must tell you that I really don't know how all this stuff works so just bear with me while I try and figure out how to answer and retrieve messages and all. My stove is a really large box stove made out of 1/2 inch boiler plate I made a grate to fit inside. I tried to light a fire last night to no avail. Maybe the vent is not delivering enought air underneath the fire. I thought I had it going for awhile but it finally went out. Practice makes perfect. And I am also a very patient man. Try and try again. gordon

Hello Gordon,, converting a wood only stove to coal is very difficult.. not impossible, if you are good at fabrication and steel working..

If you would start a new topic under the 'Hand Feed stoves' forum, you will get more exposure and answers..

Even though this topic is just for introductions, I'll give you a quick suggestion about your new grate... First, the grate has to have ALL the air entering the stove to enter under the grate, with no places for any other air to enter the firebox... In a typical coal stove the air enters the stove through an adjustable vent in the ashpan door. The ashpan and the entering air are all under the grate..

Any air allowed to get around or above the fire will steal needed combustion oxygen from the coal fire, and the coal fire will just go out. Wood doesn't care if the air comes in above the fire, but coal will not burn without the air ONLY coming through the fire from below.. Even a 'hole' in the bed of coals that would allow air to get through the coal bed without feeding hot coals will allow the coal fire to go out.

Post a few photos of the firebox, ashpan, your new added grate, and the stove in a new topic in the Hand feed stoves forum, and we'll do our best to get 'ya burning

Greg L

.

Hello,

I wanted to leave a quick thank you. I stumbled onto this board while googling coal stoves with self feeding. I have been reading but have a lot more to do. Sorry for any goofy questions up front. I am lost, lol.

GR

Hello k9, welcome to the forum. My best suggestion is to read, read some more, and more yet.. Then go to the various stove manufacturer's web sites and look at the products and the cut-away drawings of the stoves..

There is a lot to learn if you want to do the reading and research. If you have specific questions try posting a question on the forum relating to your question..

Greg L.

Great, thank you Sir. going to first stove dealer wed. Looking at the dvc-500. Seems the people that have them like them. Thank you again for the help.

HR

Hi,

I'm new to the forum. My name is Christian. I work as a photojournalist in Bridgeport, CT. I'm originally from Wilkes-Barre. I've been documenting some of the few remaining deep mines down in Schuylkill County since 2005. The mines are slowly disappearing due to regulation from the federal government. My photos have been helping to preserve a way of life that will most likely vanish forever. Interestingly enough, a story in the New York Times this April 3rd tells of a comeback in silver mining because it is now economically feasible to mine, due to it's increase from $5 an ounce to over $17 recently. Maybe there is hope yet for our deep miners in PA. Here are a few sites I'd like to share which showcases my work on the subject:

1) http://www.f-stop16.com/abe

2) http://www.connpost.com/photogallery/ci_4957274 (with multimedia slideshow)

3) http://www.american-journal.org/ (January 2008 issue)

4) http://www.visionproject.org/galleries/ ... esMain.php

5) http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonman24/sets/ (Full collection of my work on the miners)

Please enjoy! I welcome all comments and any resources you may want to share. Thanks.

Welcome Christian, awesome work.

I noticed your links are also in the Anthracite History thread, keep em coming, very interesting and insightful photos.

Hello, My name is Joe from Lake Wallenpaupack PA. I live in a 5400 sq. ft. remodeled home which is well insulated, but my family likes to keep the heat at 70. I am spending about $2000 every 50 days in propane year round. I have an in-ground pool and so the minute the heat goes off in the house, it goes on in the pool. I'm done with propane! I have been doing the research on coal now for almost 3 weeks and came upon the site by accident. Great wealth of info. Tried to search for scenarios but wasn't to successful. i am looking for suggestions for heating options. I have 8 zone hot water base board which also includes some radiant floor heating and concrete/ss holding tank for hot water. I looked at outdoor systems but it appears they don't burn anthracite coal well. I spoke with someone about getting an interior system and building an out house for it and that works for me. I want a system that I don't have to feed everyday. I am not afraid of the extra work, just not everyday based on my schedule. I will want to run the sytem year round if it is possible based on my needs unless someone else has a better idea. Is there someone out there that can recommend or sells complete systems including the knowledge to build the right size house/shed to hold the coal and the unit.

josepapa1 wrote:Hello, My name is Joe from Lake Wallenpaupack PA. I live in a 5400 sq. ft. remodeled home which is well insulated, but my family likes to keep the heat at 70. I am spending about $2000 every 50 days in propane year round. I have an in-ground pool and so the minute the heat goes off in the house, it goes on in the pool. I'm done with propane! I have been doing the research on coal now for almost 3 weeks and came upon the site by accident. Great wealth of info. Tried to search for scenarios but wasn't to successful. i am looking for suggestions for heating options. I have 8 zone hot water base board which also includes some radiant floor heating and concrete/ss holding tank for hot water. I looked at outdoor systems but it appears they don't burn anthracite coal well. I spoke with someone about getting an interior system and building an out house for it and that works for me. I want a system that I don't have to feed everyday. I am not afraid of the extra work, just not everyday based on my schedule. I will want to run the sytem year round if it is possible based on my needs unless someone else has a better idea. Is there someone out there that can recommend or sells complete systems including the knowledge to build the right size house/shed to hold the coal and the unit.

Check your PM's

coal berner wrote:

josepapa1 wrote:Hello, My name is Joe from Lake Wallenpaupack PA. I live in a 5400 sq. ft. remodeled home which is well insulated, but my family likes to keep the heat at 70. I am spending about $2000 every 50 days in propane year round. I have an in-ground pool and so the minute the heat goes off in the house, it goes on in the pool. I'm done with propane! I have been doing the research on coal now for almost 3 weeks and came upon the site by accident. Great wealth of info. Tried to search for scenarios but wasn't to successful. i am looking for suggestions for heating options. I have 8 zone hot water base board which also includes some radiant floor heating and concrete/ss holding tank for hot water. I looked at outdoor systems but it appears they don't burn anthracite coal well. I spoke with someone about getting an interior system and building an out house for it and that works for me. I want a system that I don't have to feed everyday. I am not afraid of the extra work, just not everyday based on my schedule. I will want to run the sytem year round if it is possible based on my needs unless someone else has a better idea. Is there someone out there that can recommend or sells complete systems including the knowledge to build the right size house/shed to hold the coal and the unit.

Check your PM's

20 minutes and your problems are over.

Good day! I'm Fred.... 53 yrs old, live in central Maine. Used to burn wood, but when my wife & I built this house 14 yrs ago we went to an oil fired boiler. Part of the house is infloor radiant, part baseboard. Domestic hot water is a tank heated by the boiler. We're getting some tired of oil prices and at $340 a ton, coal looks to be about half the price of todays oil. So... giving strong concideration to a coal boiler. I'm thinking add on to the garage and pipe the heat into the house. Leave the oil on line and use it as back up or in earlyFall & late Spring. It's looking like my choice will be the S-130 from Alternate Heating Systems in Harrisonville PA unless someone talks me into a better choice.

Looks like a good forum.... thanks for being here!

Fred

Hi, my name is Frank. I'm married with 4 kids (all boys). Born and raised in Shamokin, PA. The heart of the anthracite coal region. I just bought and installed a Keystoker K8. We moved last year from a home heated by coal to an old double home with oil heat (ouch!). This was my first and last year for that! Needed the big boy to heat our 3,600 sq ft home. My first purchase of oil last August was 2.31 a gallon. When December rolled around and it hit 3.00 I told my wife "stick a fork in that oil furnace, cause it's done." No more lying awake at night cringing every time the furnace kicks on. I'm back to heating my home and domestic water for a fraction of the cost, plus we're supporting our local coal miners. It's good to be here.

My name is Gary J. and I currently work with Lehigh Coal and Navigation in Coaldale, PA. I am new to the coal industry, as a sales rep., yet I was raised with a coal furnace in our house. I am very exicted to be working at LCN. We have some of the best anthracite coal. We are currently producing large quantities of all sizes of anthracite. The quality has been very good and if anyone is looking for bulk or bags of anthracite please feel free to contact me at gjohnson@lcncoal.com. Thank you for your interest and I look forward to hearing from you.

Gary