Introduce Yourself

lowfog01 wrote:

bd3 wrote:Hello! I am Bill and I live in Central Kentucky. I am currently researching coal fired stoves for heating my home. I am told wood would be a better alternative but my daughter is highly allergic to wood smoke.

We had a terrible ice storm last year in Feb. and was with out power for a week. Our home is currently total electric so it got pretty cold in here. House was 40 degrees at one point inside. I do not want to live through that again. So, I'm trying to gather information on stove types and suppliers of coal in my area (just south of Lexington).

Welcome Bill,

Forum member "bksaun" is from your neck of the woods. You may want to give him a PC, private call. Lisa

Thank you Lisa. I have attempted to contact bksaun via pm. The message still shows in my outbox. I'm new here and not familiar with the forum operations so I'm not sure if it has been sent or not.

Bill

bd3 wrote:The message still shows in my outbox. I'm new here and not familiar with the forum operations so I'm not sure if it has been sent or not.

It stays in your outbox until he reads it, after that it will not show up in your outbox but in the sent messages. IIRC, you can edit it up until he opens it too.

Hello All,

Mike Here from NW Lehigh County, Pa. About 15 miles from Tamaqua, so I am just about in the heart of the coal region. Decided last year to go to coal when three days before vacation my oil company delivered a load of fuel oil (two 275 gallon tanks) for $1800.00. We were going to North Carolina to visit relatives, and looked at moving there, but my wife decided she wasn't ready to leave the family, so I decided we needed to do something about our oil situation. We had a small Vermont Casting wood stove in our living room but that is about all it would heat. We have a two story colonial about 2100 square feet. So after doing some research on coal stoves I went with the Harman MarkIII. Love it. We have never been warmer. Best investment I have ever made. After finally getting a mason out to move the thimble for my chimney up the wall, because the old stove was a rear vent and no one makes a coal stove that had the same rear vent height, I started using it Dec. 28. I used about 2.75 ton of nut last year running it 24/7 till mid April. Figure I need about 3.5 to 4 ton this year, since I started it up first week of November. Started burning firewood at night in the stove beginning in early October. I am planning on making a coal bin in the basement for next year, since I have been bagging it in feed bags and stacking it on the back porch. When I stumbled across this forum, I saw some nice coal bins that have given me some great ideas.

Still use my boiler for heating my hot water, but I only bought 350 gallons since May 2008. Thinking about changing that as well. Maybe go with a tankless water heater that runs on natural gas.

This is a great forum that I wish I would have found last year. Could have used some of this advice as I was a newbie to coal, but have figured alot out but I am still learning.

Hello, all. I found this forum while searching for information on coal steam boilers, since that is what originally heated the home I'm renovating in Luzerne County. I'm taking some baby steps into heating with coal by installing a Franco Belge stove I bought used. Luckily for this beginner, I could check on the make and model here on this forum. (now off to the hand-fired section to beg for a copy of the owner's manual )

Hi,My name is Tracy Johnson,I live in southeastern Ohio and have been a coalminer most of my working career. I do a little consulting in coal geology/exploration. What I really like is production and operating machinery. Though my underground days are behind me,I ran just about everything ,but a longwall. Maybe the last of the bug-dust shovelers and have done a lot of slate picking at a picking table.Now I operate an end-loader at a coal yard in Wellston,Ohio.I been lurking/reading the forum for a long time,great forum/great info here. Trace.

Sorry for the late introduction.

My wife and I purchased a Leisure LIne Hearth Model Coal stove to heat our 2350 square foot home at the ne dof last heating season. Most of my life growing up the homes i resided in was heating using coal. After only one year in the home and heating bills reaching 600 dollars we decided we had to do something. I have read several topics on this very useful forum and have learned alot. However still alot of learning and reading to do.

I am very glad my wife and I choose Leisure LIne because the customer loyalty/satisfaction they have upheld is top notch.

Thanks
Lou

Hi there, Myself and my family are from western Canada and now live in Lycoming county PA. Gonna be an adjustment as we spent the last 3 years in Arkansas where frost may hit a few mornings a year. The home we bought is about 2900 feet developed with about 900 feet of basement under half of the house. It has an oil fired boiler heating baseboards on 3 zones. I also have a Harman dual fuel boiler in a shed which is also piped into the main system in the house. Unsure of the details on the Harman but I will be posing some questions elsewhere on the forums to try and find out what exactly I have here.
I suspect that I can do the majority of our heating with coal in this Harman boiler. We are treading in new waters as anywhere we have lived, all we have known is natural gas heating. I already have gathered some useful info here and I am sure I will learn alot more!!!!

Hi, I'm Glenn from the area just north of Cooperstown NY, myself and the wife and the dog [ 3 kids grown and gone ] live in a 1860s, 4000sf old farm house, I have been watching this site for the past few years and when oil went to 4.65gal in Aug 08 I knew we had to look for a better way to heat the old girl [ house not the wife ] a few years back we had installed a new oil boiler, boiler mate, and radiant heat that worked great but was alittle hungry, 1800 gal a winter, we were lucky and found a rebuilt 1953 EFM 520 highboy and because I'm a cheap bastard the wife and I did the install hooking it up parallel to the existing boiler so all that the 520 has to do is keep the oil boiler happy and it works very well, burned 10 ton [ $2250 ] last winter, nov 1 - april 15th and we have never been so warm. This is a great site, Thank You who ever runs it.

Glenn

Thanks for all the great info!!
Someday soon I hope to be in a situation where I can burn coal, until then I will get as much info as I can from this site.
Chris in Ky.

Better late than never I suppose. My name is Adam Jones and I live in Harleysville, Pa. no kids just a gf. I work from my home driving tractor trailer 6 nights a week in and around N. and S. Jersey, Philadelphia, Pa. and the Poconos. I was a wood burner for many years but living alone here most often meant- jamming the stove full to the gills prior to leaving for work overnight and coming home in the morning to a cold house (I live in a converted barn) only to have to spend an hour or so getting it up and running again so I could go to sleep only to have to wake up in two hours to load it again!!! You get the trend I'm sure, what a pain in the rear!!! So, I had purchased a used Alaska Stoker Stove 2 from a former co-worker several years ago and finally decided to do the restoration and in my quest for parts I kept coming across this forum and began to read and then joined. This year I now am running a brand new Harman Magnum Stoker upstairs in my 1600sf living space and running my fully restored and heavily modified Alaska downstairs in my 800sf garage. What a difference the coal has made for me, go about my business as I please, just make sure those hoppers are full and have nice empty pans to ash into and away we go!! I am also into complete restoration and repair of wood/coal stoves and have some of that goin on in the garage most all the time..

My name is Vern and I had a long intro that timed out and got deleted. So now you get the short form. I live in northern Ohio, 25 miles west of Cleveland , and Im not in Coal country. Im putting a used Surdiac in as a backup heater. And i hate the cold. And I have been lurking here for over a year. Im in an old 2 story bricked sided home . And have gas heat and city water. And this forum, like all technical info forums . Is great. Thats about it. Im not timing out again. Stay warm Vern

I'm called BigFoot (been called a lot worse)I work for D.O.D At Tobyhanna Army Depot. Most of the time I'm on the road so I should say my wife burns coal,Got a AA130 last year just getting all the bugs out now(or should I say we are learning the work the stove! )I have a 1,852sq ft living space and 624sq ft basement. My house was built in about 1855 give or take a year. Oil was my heat until last year,(2 years ago when oil was top shelf it cost over $4,000.00 to heat for the winter,houes was warm but drafty) last year did a little up dating on the downstairs,and met Mattheus from Carbondale and he put in a coal furnace(AA130&a water jacket on my air handler and a lot of stuff we are still learning to set)coal bin and set me up with 5 ton of Pea coal,it took a little while but my wife has it all down now and is teaching ME,(I'm a sad student but all she had to work with)to take care of the HOME fire, and let me tell you my house has never been warmer! Matt did a bang up job,and I'm really happy with coal. I like all the News I get off this Forum. The damndest thing! in 1980 when we moved into this house I took a coal furnace out of the basement and add the oil. Who knew I would be heating with coal in 2010 I live in Greenfield, PA and think me and coal are going to get along just fine. Bring on the cold!!!!!!!!!!

Hi... Mark Brockmann here. 40, Live in State College PA work for UPS as a loader and driver and just about everything for the last 20. No children nor married, but have a GF, Lori... She's Awesome!
Have a Cabinet shop and partially remodeled house that I heat with 2 stoves. Have used other stoves for wood and coal over the years, but only into coal seriously in the last 7. Attend SC Assembly of God, Paul Grabill Pastor. Since Jan.2009. (one of my better lifes decisions!!) I'm into learning the Word and trying to live it.
I'm also into woods, motorcycles, music, machinery, and woodworking. Just found the forum. Love Coal heat but not sure it likes me. Wondering if the dust or a little flue gas here and there might be messing me up. Hard to say. Had all kindsa strange ailments since I started burning, but I have detecting devices all over the place that never seem to detect anything, except the occassional dead battery! I don't really do forums usually, but this one is different.
My Stoves are both hand fired (Efel Arden Giant, and big double door Gibraltar) and will both burn wood nicely as well with a manual damper. I have a lot of access to no cost (labor only) firewood, but prefer coal really. Its 200 bucks a ton here though. Not so cheap a fuel anymore! $115 when I started burning. Bought both stoves used and had to work on both quite a bit to get en back in running order, but it's all part of the draw for me. My next heater will probably be a boiler. I'm lookin for another Efel Giant. Mine is pretty well used up inside.
Great Site! thanks to all!

Hi everyone, I am in Erieville, N.Y., just southeast of Syracuse. Growing up, we heated with various wood and hand fired coal stoves. After my parents bought our second farm, I too heated with a couple different wood stoves. When my father passed away in '97, to make things easier, my mother and I each purchased a Leisure Line stoker coal stove. They owed us nothing but my mother built a new, efficient house and didn't want to mess with the coal, and I was at a point that I needed to replace mine. In October of this year, I installed a new Hitzer 82FA, and am burning a combination of wood and coal, as I am learning how to use a hand fired coal stove. I think the stove is smarter than I am as the learning curve with the coal is easier than I thought it would be. Still not all they way there but I am gaining. I am really glad I found this board as I have learned a lot and am really enjoying the warm temperatures in the house and reading everything all of you have to say.

Thanks,
Allen Clark

And A Big Coal Burnin'-Goin' Back In Time Hello To All Of You !

Greetings from Northeast Ohio. My name's Bob and I live in Hambden Twp.,Geauga County,Ohio. I feel like I've stumbled onto the Golden Goose of the Coal World. The Internet has two dramatic good and evil sides to it. This is showing to be an amazingly Good Digital Family here. I've already learned alot that has been re-awakening my days as an Instrument and Control Technician at a 5 unit Dirtburner up on Lake Erie's Southern Shoreline. Since I've always tried to remain one of God's Humble Critters,it's also let me know how much I have to learn and study under you here. I've really appreciated the way all of you have had the heart to support StokerScot and Gambler here,among others......Now that's the real Heart of this place,room for those to gut up and bring very deep,intimate and personal things to this Family,and to have the Family circle the wagons around those in pain and trauma and start a Healing process,a "New Normal" so to speak. I will now get off my soap-box and let all of you get back to Common Sense Combustion Central ! Thanx for having me aboard !