Does anyone use Wood or Pellet Stove for Heating? (home, school)

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by valentine92

1. We are planning on putting the coal stove in our basement in an unfinished area and have it direct vented. Do they sell any hand fired stoves that can be direct vented?

You'd have to check with what the manufacturer recommends but I'm pretty sure you'll get an emphatic no. A hand fired coal stove can go a minimum of 12 hours as I previously mentioned, they generally have a lot of fuel on the fire if you have a power failure then you're going to be in some serious life threatening danger if you have no way for the gases to escape. CO is not something to mess with and is possible in any appliance that burns anything.

2. If we go with a stoker stove and we loose power will we get a lot of smoke in the home? That is the reason I am asking about the hand fired stove (no electricity needed).

Well anthracite doesn't smoke, you might get a sulfury smell if gases do back up. They allow power venters on the smaller stokers because they have a relatively small amount of coal burning at any given moment and it requires forced air to keep it going. In the event of a power failure the fire will die and eventually go out in a short time.

While on the topic the power venting of a coal stoker isn't very economical and I'm not a big fan of it. It's still cheaper than other fuels but I believe it costs about $20 a month to run the venter. Plus it puts a beating on it and there is lot of maintenance involved. What a lot of people are doing is hooking the coal stove to their existing chimney and power venting their existing primary heat. An oil or gas boiler isn't going to require constant venting nor will the venter require as much maintenance.

Power failures are of no concern at all if you're stoker is hooked directly to a chimney.

3. What size stove would we need? We live in a ranch home with a partially finished basement. Total about 1300 square feet upstairs and 400 downstairs.

A 90k BTU unit would be more than sufficient for house that size. Roughly starting in the $2000 range. That would heat your entire home assuming you could circulate the heat from the downstairs, roughly about 4 tons in a year or about $600 yearly heating bill.

4. Who manufactures the best coal stove for the money? There is a Harman Dealer in Wind Gap that we were planning on seeing since we live in the Lehigh Valley. We have our eye on the Harman Direct Vent DVC 500.

If you stick with the manufactures in Pennsylvania you won't be disappointed. Truthfully they are well made units. It's rare to see any complaints by anyone except really minor ones. The one complaint I do see about Harman's is their customer service. Probably not as prevalent in this area but outside the area a lot of dealers are not familiar with the stoves and Harman won't deal directly with the public. There is actually some humor in this, if you go to their website they have a link to contact them with a picture of a girl with headset but there is no phone number except for the dealers. The product itself is outstanding.

On the other hand if you deal with a company like Leisure Line you could probably get Jerry on the phone himself who owns the company or even get some advice through my forum from him.

5. I was told stoker stoves requires rice coal. I have heard that rice coal is washed twice and bagged and therefore is clean. Do you know if this is true? My son is asthmatic and we do burn wood in the fireplace and he is ok with that so I am hoping that coal isnt any dirtier than wood.

Yes most burn rice, its not washed anymore than other coal. Dust and dirt is just more prevalent in the larger sizes because it breaks easier.

You do not want to buy bagged coal if you can avoid it, bagged coal is roughly double the price as buying in bulk. there are lot of people that deliver it just like getting an oil delivery. Truth be told I could make a delivery faster with coal under the right circumstances BTU for BTU compared to oil. And no I'm not in the business anymore so its not a sales pitch.

The best bet is to get it in the summertime, this is when you'll get the absolute cleanest product. Where you get it can also effect the cleanliness. You can help with the dust by slightly dampening it with garden type insecticide sprayer before moving it. Wet coal burns just as good as dry coal.

6. Can you recommend a coal dealer in the area where we can purchase probably 3 tons of coal that is washed and bagged?

Depends on your area but I'd suggest starting in the phone book. Prices will vary but again if you want cheap stick with bulk.

PS: We were thinking of a coal boiler but since neither of us are mechanically inclined we decided to just stick with a simple stove.

Once set up a boiler is the easiest to maintain, it doesn't require any special skills. The maintenance is about the same whether its a small stoker or a boiler. As I mentioned previously its no different than having a regular gas or oil fired boiler other than adding coal in one end and taking ashes out of the other. In your case though it would be overkill and they are $$$ and there is pretty long waiting list. If you ordered one now you might get it in by the fall. A small stoker would be all you need but people have put boilers in houses that size.

[skittlzski]

Thanks for your responses. I am undecided on what to do. I am not even sure if I should even keep the house. On one hand, I want to buy a hot water heater so I do not have to use the boiler, on the other hand, I don't know if it is even worth putting money into this and staying in this house.

With the high oil, gas, and food prices, I can barely make ends meet. I sometimes think that I should get out from under the house and rent again! Try to find something with electric heat.

[thecoalman]

Electric will be cheaper than oil but you're still no where near the price for coal. Look at this way, if you invest in a new coal stove/stoker today it will pay for itself in one season. A large boiler will take maybe 2 seasons. You can find some real good deals on some used ones too so if you went that route it would pay for itself in few months. It's all gravy after that.

[valentine92]

Thank you for the information.

[mathjak107]

went today to look at some pellet stoves. i was thinking of using one to warm the basement up and put registars in the floor to allow heat to radiate upstairs too cutting the load on our hot air furnace.

i was kind of blown away by the prices. being there just part time it wouldnt pay for us at this point. it was close to 5,000 with installation and you still needed electricity so my idea of having back up heat in case of no power was shot down. the stoves run about 2500-3500 ,plus 400 for a pad for the floor to set it on, plus power vent , plus installation.

on hold for now!

[thecoalman]

If I was going to spend $5k I'd get full coal boiler install. If you have an existing how water system most of the additional expense is already done. You only need to tie it into the existing system. If you don't have an existing hot water system it will probably run you more than $5K.

Having said that $5k for a pellet stove or any type of stove seams a little steep to me even if it includes installation. For example you could get a 70,000 BTU Leisure Line Coal stoker which is pretty similar to a pellet stove for about $1700. Roughly speaking you could heat 4 or 5 rooms with that, in a 2000 sq. foot home probably about 2/3 of your heat if not more.

Stove, Fireplace, Heating, Drums PA, (http://www.valleystoveandfireplace.com/Products.html - broken link)

Flue pipes and other things are additional $100-$200 bucks then you'd need to meet the building codes for where you place it but if you put it in a unfinished basement there would be no additional charge... Setup is pretty simple, it isn't rocket science to install one of these.

If you want to use it as a back-up they have hand fired coal stoves that require no electricity at all.

[Summering]

Funny thing is I just heard on TV that for five thousand many are putting in heat pump systems. That would give you heat and AC...........although they use to say they didn't work as well in the colder regions. The advertisement was from a Tunkannouck location that sold them. ( they stated approx 5,000 to do a home)
I had both a wood burning Vermont Castings stove and a Pellet Stove.
With the wood I could fill my oil tank ( it heated the water also) once per year.
It was a ton of work splitting and stacking the cords, but at the time I thought it was FUN. ( hummmm) I use to stack the wood myself and do eight cords......that wood smelled wonderful. It was great heat, warm, wonderful.......We'd fill the stove to the top at night. It top loaded. The wood was quite heavy to carry in and work with.........but, great heat. When we got wood for free.........our heating costs were just that one delivery of oil.
The pellet stove, we had for 8 years in another home. Those bags are 40 lbs each. Heavy, but......manageable. Great, warm heat also. Lots of maintainance also.
You still must check the pipe for sawdust. Clean the baffels once a week........and once a month take the side off and do a through job. If you don't the pellets won't burn correctly and you'll go look for other pellet companies, thinking it is the reason.
Its not........To clean this stove you need a good vacume, or the tiny particals will fly all over. That special vacume is costly.......but.........needed.
We had both of these stoves on the main levels, and let the heat rise.
The pellet stove needs a battery back up system for when the electric goes out.

[Retired Law 08]

Originally Posted by Summering

Funny thing is I just heard on TV that for five thousand many are putting in heat pump systems. That would give you heat and AC...........although they use to say they didn't work as well in the colder regions. The advertisement was from a Tunkannouck location that sold them. ( they stated approx 5,000 to do a home)
I had both a wood burning Vermont Castings stove and a Pellet Stove.
With the wood I could fill my oil tank ( it heated the water also) once per year.
It was a ton of work splitting and stacking the cords, but at the time I thought it was FUN. ( hummmm) I use to stack the wood myself and do eight cords......that wood smelled wonderful. It was great heat, warm, wonderful.......We'd fill the stove to the top at night. It top loaded. The wood was quite heavy to carry in and work with.........but, great heat. When we got wood for free.........our heating costs were just that one delivery of oil.
The pellet stove, we had for 8 years in another home. Those bags are 40 lbs each. Heavy, but......manageable. Great, warm heat also. Lots of maintainance also.
You still must check the pipe for sawdust. Clean the baffels once a week........and once a month take the side off and do a through job. If you don't the pellets won't burn correctly and you'll go look for other pellet companies, thinking it is the reason.
Its not........To clean this stove you need a good vacume, or the tiny particals will fly all over. That special vacume is costly.......but.........needed.
We had both of these stoves on the main levels, and let the heat rise.
The pellet stove needs a battery back up system for when the electric goes out.

very good info..Hey...welcome back summering...

[Summering]

Thanks.........gosh the mountains looked so tall, tall, sky high, coming home through the Lehigh Tunnel.............I forgot how high they could go.
I enjoyed that state of DE........Well, the ocean I will always love.
Its always good to be back to ones home.....but.........gosh, that was fun, fun!!

[Chad2002]

Growing up/Living in North Central PA, I have had coal/wood stove heat, natural gas, wood pellets, and geothermal.

Coal was cleaner and less hassle than traditional firewood. No splitting and stacking or attracting bugs/snakes around the house in the summer. Inside wood stoves make your house really dusty and can be dangerous. The downside to coal was I found it a pain in the back side to get the fire started...esp when you're shivering in front of a stove at 6am in hopes of not freezing to death in the shower before going to school. Both are like having a dependent, b/c you cant travel or go away for the weekend if you're only heat source is wood/coal. Frozen pipes are a nightmare homecoming.

Wood pellets were my favorite, dust is minimal if you buy the better pellets but order in advance of heating season. The shortage issue seems to be over as there are a lot of new pellet mills in operation now. It's easier to manage too, just load up the hopper and walk away.

Geothermal = spend the winter freezing with high electric bills. at least up here, rumored to be better in areas where winter is a bit milder. The central AC in the summer is awesome though.

Natural gas - cleanest & most convenient, cheap to maintain...but it's become expensive if you're dealing with an older house.

If I build a house, I would do radiant heat with an outside wood burner with some electric baseboards for when I travel or go away for the weekend.