Moving Into The 19th Century

[linus6948]

We have been burning wood for about 25yrs to heat our basement and in turn supplement the rest of the house. This last winter was the deal breaker as we ran out of wood for the first time and feeding our 1970 vintage wood stove is like keeping the steam up in a vintage locomotive. So we are moving into the 19th century and will start burning anthracite coal which is mined locally.

But we will be burning it in a late 20th century way in a coal stoker stove, I asked around among my coal burning friends and learned about Leisure Line Stoves which are made fairly local in Berwick PA and have a feed mechanism invented by a guy named Jerry Steward and I watched a few videos on utube done by him, he actually started the company.

I read on coal forums that a local stove dealer was retiring and selling off his store floor models at greatly reduced from normal prices. I went there and out from the back comes the inventor Jerry and I look at him so oddly surprised that he asked me what was up? and I told him that earlier that day I was watching him on utube.

He laughed and was sort of embarrassed and said he had made them a few years back and had not seen them in some time himself. He then gave me the deal of a lifetime on the stove of my dreams the Hyfire II which he said was the finest stoker he ever developed and he spoke of it like his favorite child. It has twin feed mechanisms/burners that go from 5000-90,000 btus each.

It also had the optional air jacket installed on it so that was thrown in and I can add ductwork to it if I choose to in the future. These stokers burn rice coal and nowadays you can get it oiled with vegetable oil for $5 a ton extra which stops the black dust problem. I now need a coal bin and decided to go with liquid totes which are portable when empty and clean and rot proof.

I got my first two off ebay locally, a 330gal and a 275gal. I will be getting two more in a few week s and will be able to hold over 4 tons of rice coal. The stove hopper holds 200lbs and can goes days as can the ash pan. It will be a big change from constantly feeding that old wood stove, it will definitely be an improvement.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.leisurelinestoves.com/product/hyfire/

 

Edited June 9, 2015 by linus6948

[Don Coatney]

Are there twyers in your coal burner?

[Dennis_MN]

Boy burning coal sure brings back memories when I was a kid during WWII

Our small house was built with the old octopus stove with a stoker feeding it from the back side. We had a coal bin build out of concrete with a door entering right in front of the stoker. There was a draft control on the wall of the basement stairway, just like in the Christmas Story. Ralphies dad used to cuss that thing and smoke and soot came billowing up the vents. The coal bin had a man hole type opening at the end of the drive where the local coal supplier unloaded his pickup. They also came with a load of firewood which they tossed into the basement from a small window in front of the stove. This was used to start a fire in the morning because my mother could never figure out how to keep a fire going all night. We used to huddle in the kitchen with a door closed and the electric oven on with that door open. It got replaced with a oil burner, hot water system when I was a teenager. You must have a walk-out basement if you can transport coal in prefab bins.

[linus6948]

Are there twyers in your coal burner?

Each of the matched feed mechanisms has it`s own 45cfm air blower that blows up thru the burning coal on the burn grate Don, they claim it gets 90% efficiency from the coal.

[Don Coatney]

Back in the olden days I was, as Maintenance Manager at a food plant, responsible for 2 coal fired boilers. These boilers were piston stoker fed with all mechanical drives. The stokers fed the lump coal delivered by rail car onto a bed of grates also known as twyers. Thus my question about twyers.

 

In order to maintain EPA compliance I had to install an opacity monitor. Hope you do not have to do the same. Like many others I grew up with a coal furnace in the basement. On a brisk fall evening the entire neighborhood was filled with the aroma of burning coal and or the aroma of burning leaves. My mother was really glad to finally get a clothes dryer as all clothes hanging on the line had black specks from the coal burning fallout.

[linus6948]

You must have a walk-out basement if you can transport coal in prefab bins.

Actually no I have Bilco doors and concrete steps down to the cellar but I can put the bins right where the firewood was and bring it down in 5gal buckets. Then after heating season I can move the empty bins back behind the barn out of site and stack them up. I really like these totes, they have many uses and I now have found a source for the 275gal size for $40 each and they have a mountain of them.

[linus6948]

Here is a video that shows my model stove with both burners going which brings it up to 180,000 btus

 

[linus6948]

I actually was back at the stove store today with my friend that picked up a new stoker for his basement. It is no fun moving coal stoves around, heavy and awkward. He picked up this stove to replace a 35yr old warm morning static stove that got around 50% efficiency and needed daily attention and the grate needed to be shaken down regularly.

 

http://readingstove.com/heating-stoves/coal-stoves/juniata-stove.php

[pflaming]

You guys hauled coal, my evening chore was to bring two bushel baskets of corn cobs to the kitchen stove. A subset of that was to pick out the white cobs.

[Don Coatney]

You guys hauled coal, my evening chore was to bring two bushel baskets of corn cobs to the kitchen stove. A subset of that was to pick out the white cobs.

Do you have the kitchen stove confused with the out house or did the white cobs go to the out house?

[Ulu]

LOL you guys...

 

I lived in probably 30 different houses in my life all around the country, and they had different heat everywhere.

 

We had coal at my grandma's in Covington KY, oil in Belfountaine OH,  all electric in Moses Lake WA, oil in Duluth MN, propane gas in Baudette MN, electric in Phoenix AZ, oil in Gloversville NY, gas in Cape Cod, electric when I first lived in Fresno, Wood and propane gas when we lived out in Fresno County, & Natural gas in Clovis now. When we lived in an old townhouse in Covington, we had just a gas kitchen stove and a Franklin stove in the parlor. That house was built with reed board inside and shiplap on studs & had no insulation.

 

For about 6 mos when Dad was in Dong Ha, we lived in a garret in Covington which had only a gas cook stove for heat, and indoor plumbing had been added around 1900 by building a floor over the garret floor, so with the already low ceiling of a garret, it was a bit cramped. The garret was the 3rd floor and we had some hillbillies living on the ground floor. I remember coming home from school and wondering WTH was that smell coming from their front porch. I'd never smelled anyone tanning a coon hide before and they had them strung out there on willow twig stretchers to dry.

 

(Down another rabbit hole, huh...? I wrote all that just because I wanted to mention that I hate the smell of coal, and hope I never have to deal with it again!)

Edited June 11, 2015 by Ulu

[linus6948]

Started converting the IBC Liquid Totes into Coal Bins. These totes originally had Plantapon 611L in them which is the base that shampoo and bodywash is made from when it is diluted with water. 14-20% of this amber stuff the rest is water plus botanicals and fragrence.One tank still had about three gallons in it, I saved 2 gallons of it, it sells for $15.50 a quart.

http://www.saveoncitric.com/pl61up1qu1.html

 

I used a pressure washer to clean them out, it made a lot of soapy lather, here are pics of the 330 gallon tank after getting it`s top lopped off.

 

 

 

Edited June 13, 2015 by linus6948

[linus6948]

 

(Down another rabbit hole, huh...? I wrote all that just because I wanted to mention that I hate the smell of coal, and hope I never have to deal with it again!)

 

I also dislike the smell of burning coal, but the claim is that these modern stoker stoves burn the coal so effectively that there is no smell of burning coal whatsoever. I am skeptical but I have spoken to several stoker owners that have confirmed this as true, I hope that it is true and not a "fish-tale".

[Ulu]

It can't be worse than the leaky old cast iron stoves I've seen coal in. Also I guess some coal is worse than others, but I have no clue which type I was subjected to.

 

Living in the desert now, I don't think about it. Heating isn't the life-or-death experience it was in Minnesota etc.

 

But air conditioning?...we live and die by air conditioning.

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

air conditioning is just a reward for a job well done....now get out there and make up proud in all that heat....

[Ulu]

I haven't yet posted the photos of me digging holes, welding rebar, mixing concrete and troweling stucco in the heat.

 

I grew plenty of suntan last week.  

[linus6948]

Went and picked up my first two tons of Rice Coal, I traveled 45mins to buy very clean,high carbon, low ash anthracite from Direnzo Coal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 16, 2015 by linus6948

[Dan Hiebert]

We have an auxiliary coal boiler in our new house here in Maine.  Burns hotter and cleaner than wood.  Haven't found anyone (yet) selling bulk coal, it comes in 40# bags.

[_shel_ny]

We had a centrally located furnace. No duct work. One large register in the floor between the living room, and dining room.

 

Wood in the fall, then a load of coal went down the coal shoot into the coal bin.

 

Water pipes for the kitchen sink were located on an outside wall near a window. I can remember numerous times when hot rags had to be wrapped around them to thaw them out.

 

I burn wood in a small air tight stove on the living floor. Backed up by a forced air oil furnace in the cellar for times when the temps dip below 10 for a time.

 

This past heating season i used the wood very little. After spending over $2000 on oil, I will be burning more wood in the future.

 

Today before it rained, I went across the street to the neighbors woods to collect a truckload of sticks that had snapped off 2-3 months back.

 

They have already warmed me 3 times. Cutting them up. Carrying/flipping them to an accessible point. Then loading them into the truck.  Will unload them now as it has stopped raining. Cut/split/stack another day.

Edited June 16, 2015 by shel_ny

[Ulu]

 . . . They have already warmed me 3 times. Cutting them up. Carrying/flipping them to an accessible point. Then loading them into the truck. . . . Cut/split/stack another day.

 

So 3 down 4 to go?

 

(Survival was a lot more work when I lived in the snow belt.)

[linus6948]

I made my second run to Direnzo Coal yesterday for another two tons of Rice Coal, I now have 8200lbs of coal here, 4100lbs in the basement and 4100lbs in the plastic totes/bins along side the barn. I will draw out of the outside bins in the Fall thru early Winter and save the 2 tons in the basement for when the snow and ice arrive. So getting in a Winter`s worth of heat took me less than 2 days labor and cost less than $700. The firewood cutting,gathering,splitting,drying,moving and stacking took weeks of work and then you are a slave to feeding the wood stove. The Bride is very happy that we are done with the wood stove and I can never again sign to her that old standard "Throw Another Log on the Fire" I know it by memory, it is a classic.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 18, 2015 by linus6948

[TodFitch]

. . . So getting in a Winter`s worth of heat took me less than 2 days labor and cost less than $700. . . .

Hmmm. In my poorly insulated 1958 house with single pane floor to ceiling windows it cost us $310 in natural gas for last winter which includes the domestic hot water and running the gas dryer. Not a whole lot of labor turning the thermostat to the heat setting, certainly less than two days of labor for that.

 

I guess I'll continue to live here with the dying landscaping in my yard waiting for the next earthquake.

[Plymouthy Adams]

here in mid Georgia I do not lie when I say I never turn my AC off...it stays on one setting in AC mode year round

[Don Coatney]

I recently had a new high efficiency gas furnace/central air unit installed in my house. Part of the package included a new programmable thermostat and I rejected that. I need a programmable thermostat like I need another hole in my head. We are retired. We have no time constraints.  If it is too warm in the house we turn the AC down and if it is too cold we turn the heat up. No programming required. I am of the age where the importance of comfort in my home far exceeds any increased I may pay in utility consumption.

[TodFitch]

here in mid Georgia I do not lie when I say I never turn my AC off...it stays on one setting in AC mode year round

When I lived in LA we had AC and the summer electrical bill was quite large. Where I am now there are only a couple days a year where AC would be nice. Generally opening the doors and windows when the afternoon breeze from the bay starts up is enough to keep things comfortable. Typical electrical bill for us is actually slightly higher in winter than summer as there are more hours where lighting is needed.