Coalpail.com Forum

I burn all wood still but I want this to be my last year of it. I have a passive solar home in S. Adirondacks that is about 3700 sq. ft. with no basement since that is my heat sink. I have been slowly learning about coal heat and I can not stop reading posts to this site. Thank you and I admit my addiction! I will have a hand fed coal stove for next year, I can not take doing wood any more. I am heating my home on a Cawley/LeMay 400 only so I have some ideas on what I'm looking for but hope to find answers to all my questions through my new addiction

How many BTU's are needed? With that small space you have you may be able to tuck a smaller stoker in that corner, no learning curve just warmth, with the ability to crank it when necessary without cooking you out of the place. Also do you have an open floor plan, and how many levels. Welcome to the forum, keep the questions coming.

Thank you for your reply. I usually burn three full chord and one face chord. I guess that puts me in 50m BTU range for a whole winter. My house is not open floor plan but could be more open easily. First floor has four distinct rooms, the kitchen, dining, living and library (which has a good working fireplace in it). Each room is around 20x20 ft. It's a post and beam and ceiling height is 8ft. The second floor has four bed rooms and the all have up to 18 ft high ceilings and one of the rooms has a loft built about 10 ft off floor.

I also have a "play" room on first floor that is connected but I only run this room about .75 of a year due to it not being integrated into the passive solar part. I would like to get this room open all year too...

I'm open to any suggestions so thank you again.
eippw
New Member

Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2014 6:46 pm

eippw wrote:Thank you for your reply. I usually burn three full chord and one face chord. I guess that puts me in 50m BTU range for a whole winter. My house is not open floor plan but could be more open easily. First floor has four distinct rooms, the kitchen, dining, living and library (which has a good working fireplace in it). Each room is around 20x20 ft. It's a post and beam and ceiling height is 8ft. The second floor has four bed rooms and the all have up to 18 ft high ceilings and one of the rooms has a loft built about 10 ft off floor.

I also have a "play" room on first floor that is connected but I only run this room about .75 of a year due to it not being integrated into the passive solar part. I would like to get this room open all year too...

I'm open to any suggestions so thank you again.
eippw
New Member

Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2014 6:46 pm

A Base Heater with a 16 inch or larger fire pot or an Oak Stove of similar size with an indirect back pipe. They will fit on your hearth easily to give you the maximum heating punch while taking up the least amount of floor space. They are quiet, efficient and reliable and best of all require NO electricity or noisy, grinding parts to function, can burn different sizes of fuel and many of these are able to burn wood in the spring and fall if you want to just to knock off the morning chill.

Hi William, thank you for your advice. I have read many of your contributions to this site and already have a page of notes on things I want to learn more about -- which I love to do. Currently I make my living teaching Math and I can't wait to have a beautiful stove to work around. I also appreciate the videos on how to use the the Glenwood Base Heater on youtube which has helped me visualize "how" to burn coal properly and what to look for in a quality stove.

I am only interested in the hand fed stoves since I am a self admitted purest and do not like fans, only radiant heat. One question I have, if you have the time to consider it, should I be looking to put the Base Heater where my fire place is located (which is dead center of the house with chimney going through to the highest spot on my house) or should I look to put it on the hearth where my current wood stove is (corner of kitchen)?

I put in a pic of the fireplace for comparison.

Thank you for your consideration.

eippw wrote:Hi William, thank you for your advice. I have read many of your contributions to this site and already have a page of notes on things I want to learn more about -- which I love to do. Currently I make my living teaching Math and I can't wait to have a beautiful stove to work around. I also appreciate the videos on how to use the the Glenwood Base Heater on youtube which has helped me visualize "how" to burn coal properly and what to look for in a quality stove.

I am only interested in the hand fed stoves since I am a self admitted purest and do not like fans, only radiant heat. One question I have, if you have the time to consider it, should I be looking to put the Base Heater where my fire place is located (which is dead center of the house with chimney going through to the highest spot on my house) or should I look to put it on the hearth where my current wood stove is (corner of kitchen)?

I put in a pic of the fireplace for comparison.

Thank you for your consideration.

You are quite welcome. The stove would go best right in the middle of the house. It looks like the stairs are right behind the fire place. You couldn't ask for a better spot for natural convection to the upstairs.
You can keep a smaller stove in the kitchen if you want. It also depends on where you do most of your living in the house. If everyone stays in and around the kitchen area then that's where at least one stove can go. Base Heaters are more than just an appliance, they are focal points and they draw people to them. So where ever the stove is, the people will follow.

Excellent, thanks! I am working toward it and I can not wait to find my stove.