How Much Did You Burn Last Year?

I have rebuilt a very old "Motor Stoker" automatic stoker and will be placing it back in service this season at my home. I have no way of knowing how much coal I will use. I was told that one ton per month is a general rule of thumb that can be followed. Please let me know how much you burned during the last heating season. The square footage of your house, insulation level, and location where you live to help me estimate my needs.

Dear Motor,

I burned 50 pounds a day for the entire heating season. I have a Keystoker automatic stoker in a large great room that has a 26' vaulted ceiling. The house is an A-frame with one wall completely made up of glass windows and sliding doors. Essentially, the heat the coal stove puts out simply fights the R loss of the windows.
My location is Southeastern Pennsylvania, Boyertown, specifically. I estimate the cubic feet of this room to be 10,000.

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Best regards,

Ray Wilson

I burned 3 1/2 tons of rice coal from November to March in a Harman VF300 stoker heating 2,700 sq, ft. and producing my domestic hot water.

Burned 2 - 3/4 tons, heating a old, VERY drafty, poorly insulated 150+yr.old house (about 1500+ sq.ft.). Still use oil for hot water, living room (addition off house), & upstairs as needed.

Only used 1 tank of oil (250 gallons) for entire season (Oct. - Apr.) vs. 4 tanks w/o stove. Was much more comfortable with stove (low to mid 60's vs. low to mid 50's inside).

I burned 5 tons last year in northwestern PA. 4,000 sq.ft. home. Stove on first floor. Bedrooms on second floor. The kitchen two rooms away was the coolest room. The house has low-e replacement windows and blown-in insulation. My 2 year old Natural Gas boiler furnace sat quiet and cool in the basement. I didn't even need it.

7 ton from August to August. Burned pea in a Keystoker K6 boiler.

I burned right around two ton from November to March. It was a mild winter though. I am heating 2,000 square feet in central Pa. Single floor home with Harman mark III in living room.
Pap

2.5 Tons from Nov. 7 to May 7th, running 24/7 as primary heat. But, was a mild winter around here in WNY! Going to get 3.5 tons this year. bascially, Zero natural gas usage! !! electric for everythign else.

I burned about 4 1/2 tons here in south Jersey from mid November through March. First year with coal, so took a bit to get it dialed in right. House is about 1200 sq. ft. with a full basement ditto on size there. Using a Hitzer E-Z Flo 50-93,located in basement. Kept the main floor warm at between 68-72, and somewhat warmer in the cellar where the unit is located. It kept the house comfortable with just the natural convection up the stairs and the radiant effect through the floor. Also only used about 150 gal. of oil just for hot water and those times when I wasn't around to keep the stove stoked and the other half let it go out.

I burned a little over 2 tons last year. Keep in mind that last year was relatively mild. Just bought 2 tons for the season. I have an 1800 SK Cape Cod. Not all windows have been replaced yet so there is some heat loss there.

How's this for my natual gas bill!! I am very happy with our stove purchase. I put our stove in a year ago October.

Eveything else in the house is electric and it is not that bad either! I would rather just pay one utility bill.

Granted, we don't keep our house real warm to save energy (63-65), but when home we crank it up a bit more. We kept the gas furnance at 62 most of the time. (Now at 60 in case the stove goes out).

I burnt 10.78 tons of coal this year which was the first year I burnt coal. I ran my boiler from 9-Sept 2006 to 22-April 2007. This averges out to 97 pounds per day. I saved about $750.00. I was hoping to burn less coal especially since the heating degree days are currently running 5% below normal for my city. I can't decide if I should change coal suppliers to see if I burn less. I would have to pay about 60 dollars more per ton.

Motor Stoker wrote:I burnt 10.78 tons of coal this year which was the first year I burnt coal. I ran my boiler from 9-Sept 2006 to 22-April 2007. This averges out to 97 pounds per day. I saved about $750.00. I was hoping to burn less coal especially since the heating degree days are currently running 5% below normal for my city. I can't decide if I should change coal suppliers to see if I burn less. I would have to pay about 60 dollars more per ton.

I don't know your setup or supply but that doesn't make much sense, nor does it seem worth it for the savings/quantity. I burned about 4.5 tons of coal this winter and the savings usually runs about 60% vs. oil heat ($900 vs. $2500). 11 tons is about twice what the average house would need. You have used the equivalent of over 2100 gallons of oil (about $5000) and only saved $750.
There is something strange going on here, are there any new pipes running from your basement to a neigbors house perhaps? If your wife or son is driving a new car they may be selling your coal on you.

Hello Motor Stoker, good to hear from you again!!! Take a look at your ashes, if you have more that say 5-10% of black, unburnt 'coal' in the ashes, then maybe trying a different coal supplier is a good idea.

I have used several different suppliers this year, and have found that the coal quality does vary quite a bit. It seems that even from the same mine and breaker, there sometimes is more of the 'unburnable' coal in the mix.

I'd take a look at your ash pile and see if you have been paying for 'slate' or 'old coal' .

There is often some 'fine-tuning' that can be done, if I remember correctly you have a boiler right? What temperature do you keep your water at?? If you have it up at 180*, you can save a lot by dropping it to 140-150* during the warmer months and only raise it up higher when the weaher gets pretty cold. You don't need to store that much heat, keep the btus in the unburnt coal.

I burned around 15 tons, and had to trailer it to Michgan from Pennsylvania. I still saved several thousand dollars over $1.70 propane.

Take care, good to hear from you again!!

Greg L

I definitely have less than 5% unburnt coal in my ashes. Early in the season I had a much larger percentage of unburnt coal. I corrected this by installing a new auger screw with a 1.5 inch pitch instead of the 2 inch pitch I tried the first time. I also discovered that I had to knock off the chunks of ashes that formed around the perimeter of my burning pot. If I allowed them to build up, there would be more unburnt coal in my ashes. I also had to play around with my air blower adjustment. I kept opening up the intake plate, allowing more air, a half a turn at a time until there was little or no unburnt coal in my ashes.
I did have my aquastat set at 180 all season long because when it was set lower I would run low on hot water during the morning shower rush hour. I still have my tank style gas water heater; in fact that is what I am using now to heat my domestic water. I am going to try to back off the aquastat as you suggested next year and heat my domestic water with the gas water heater all winter just to see what happens. I even investigated installing an aquastat that adjusts the setting automatically based on the outside air temperature.