Cookin' With Coal

windyhill4.2 wrote:16 degrees here this morning,wishing we had a coal stove in the house,with these temp's & strong !! winds,OWB will eat lots of wood per hr.,homemade jam on homemade bread eaten near a hot coal stove - doesn't get any better. Wife & I were discussing coal cook stove + heating last nite,unsure if we want to go with cook stove and hope to be able to heat 1200 sq.ft.,poorly insulated with crappy windows,OR go with a handfed stove with a flat top that could do some cooking on top.I've tried to calculate the BTU's on cook stove,seems neither of your stoves are putting out more than 60,000 BTU's per hour which would seem low to marginal at best. We don't mind tending more often if that would work,and not over heat the stove. David

David,
I did not know that you were going to try to use the cook stove as your only source of heat, I thought it was to supplement. I do know that some people use a cook stove for their main source of heat and I am sure it would do a fine job 90% of the time. You might have to use the OWB during the coldest times of the winter. A lot of how effective the cook stove will be is how your house is laid out. Is your kitchen centrally located in the house? How well will you be able to move the heat around the house is a major factor to consider. If I were making this decision, I would make it by looking at a cook stove to be a supplemental heat source, not a primary one. Of course, taking all of the a fore mentioned factors of air movement.

Randy

Photog200 wrote:

windyhill4.2 wrote:16 degrees here this morning,wishing we had a coal stove in the house,with these temp's & strong !! winds,OWB will eat lots of wood per hr.,homemade jam on homemade bread eaten near a hot coal stove - doesn't get any better. Wife & I were discussing coal cook stove + heating last nite,unsure if we want to go with cook stove and hope to be able to heat 1200 sq.ft.,poorly insulated with crappy windows,OR go with a handfed stove with a flat top that could do some cooking on top.I've tried to calculate the BTU's on cook stove,seems neither of your stoves are putting out more than 60,000 BTU's per hour which would seem low to marginal at best. We don't mind tending more often if that would work,and not over heat the stove. David

David,
I did not know that you were going to try to use the cook stove as your only source of heat, I thought it was to supplement. I do know that some people use a cook stove for their main source of heat and I am sure it would do a fine job 90% of the time. You might have to use the OWB during the coldest times of the winter. A lot of how effective the cook stove will be is how your house is laid out. Is your kitchen centrally located in the house? How well will you be able to move the heat around the house is a major factor to consider. If I were making this decision, I would make it by looking at a cook stove to be a supplemental heat source, not a primary one. Of course, taking all of the a fore mentioned factors of air movement.

Randy

Sorry , Randy I did not give much info on our heating system on this thread,just on the introduction thread. We have a big OWB built by Mennonites in Danville,Pa.their rating is 600,000 BTU's,takes in excess of 6 wheelbarrow loads to fill totally,which will not last 8 hrs on real cold nites,15 degrees and colder especially with wind like today,gusts to 40 mph.This OWB heats a 1987 trailer 14x70 decent windows& insulation,inlaws live in it, our lawn & garden equipment repair shop is a mostly block building,good insulation in ceiling,3 overhead fiberglass doors & poor windows,30x40 ,our house is a 1972 trailer 12x60 with additions on one side,looks almost like a 24x60 rancher,very poor insulation,lousy windows.We will still be using OWB but were hoping to heat our house with coal to make less demand for wood - constant job !!!!!! Yes we can just supplement with coal cook stove,which will set in our living room as that's where the chimney is & where wood stove was when we moved here in 2001,we used that small Schrader for our primary heat,it had a Magic Heat in the stack which helped move air around.We could feed the hot air from the stove into a heat vent backwards thru the duct work.Love following this forum with all the input from many sources,& especially this thread,thanks for the info so far,we're still thinking. David

I forgot to add that we also do the DHW with OWB ,which we fired up Sept.2006 ,its the only heating system for all 3 buildings,this OWB was a big mistake comparing to coal heating,but lots better than oil,propane,etc.,when we installed the owb we were able to get free scrap wood from a nearby truck body builder but thanks to some liptard who tried to injure himself in a dumpster at company's expense no one can get scrap wood anymore. David

windyhill4.2 wrote:I forgot to add that we also do the DHW with OWB ,which we fired up Sept.2006 ,its the only heating system for all 3 buildings,this OWB was a big mistake comparing to coal heating,but lots better than oil,propane,etc.,when we installed the owb we were able to get free scrap wood from a nearby truck body builder but thanks to some liptard who tried to injure himself in a dumpster at company's expense no one can get scrap wood anymore. David

You sure do have a lot to think about! If you put in the coal stove for your heat, you then have to think about how you are going to heat the other buildings.

I wish you all the best in your decisions, if I can help answer any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Randy

Photog200 wrote:

windyhill4.2 wrote:I forgot to add that we also do the DHW with OWB ,which we fired up Sept.2006 ,its the only heating system for all 3 buildings,this OWB was a big mistake comparing to coal heating,but lots better than oil,propane,etc.,when we installed the owb we were able to get free scrap wood from a nearby truck body builder but thanks to some liptard who tried to injure himself in a dumpster at company's expense no one can get scrap wood anymore. David

You sure do have a lot to think about! If you put in the coal stove for your heat, you then have to think about how you are going to heat the other buildings.

I wish you all the best in your decisions, if I can help answer any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Randy

We had hoped to replace the owb with Leisure Line's ocb they are working on,i had talked to Matt/LL,very helpful,took the time to talk to me!!!,we couldn't get financing for that project,hate to add that much debt anyway.We will still have the owb to heat with,just that if we go with coal heat in our house it will take less wood in the owb.Eventually we will have no choice but to replace the owb,they all rust thru after x yrs.If I calculated rite on BTU's per pound x the amount of coal you & Sunnyboy are using , we should be able to heat our house with cook stove only, if not real cold & or windy,the wind really comes thru the crappy vinyl windows installed in 2000/2001 before we bought & moved in July 2001.Yes,lots of decisions,lots of thinking,but we will stay tuned to the greatest forum to expand our coal burning knowledge.We are gradually tightening up house & shop,hope to do a few windows in house soon,which will help.Thanks again for info & we really appreciate the personal experiences of you guys who are using coal cook stoves to cook &heat. David

Sunny Boy wrote:Yesterday was canning jams, today was my first attempt at baking bread in the Glenwood to go with it.

Turned out nice. Bread has a harder top crust than I would have liked. This model only has the one shelf height - midway up - which put the top of the loaf close to the top of the oven. The hotest area. Next time I'll set the bake pan on a rack in the bottom of the stove. But, the inside turned out nice and soft, with no big pockets.

And, until I fix the leaking seams of my oven, I can't get it as hot as the bread recipe calls for, so I just baked it about 10 minutes longer.

Paul

Sure tastes good with fresh made black raspberry jam spread on a slice of still warm bread ! Sunnyboy if you keep talking/showing the home made bread with home made jams,you might have some other members stop by to sample,but central Pa. to central N.Y is too far to sample even home made bread, I guess we are just going to have to get our own coal cook stove & see what we --- no, what she (my wife) can pull out of the oven,i can scramble eggs & cook oatmeal,but that's about it.Seriously, we're enjoying the cookin' with coal show,very interesting what can be done. We gave up TV because of expense,time,crappy shows,etc.this thread with it's good pictures is a very good replacement.If we do decide on a coal cook stove,we will have to try to learn how to post pictures of food done in it,see if we can make your mouth water like mine is looking at your pictures.Am curious,will the oven hold fairly even heat,say for length of time to roast a 15+ lb.turkey ? You seem to have fairly consistent heat on at least the left 2 burners,Thanks again for the info. David

Sunny Boy wrote:Yesterday was canning jams, today was my first attempt at baking bread in the Glenwood to go with it.

Turned out nice. Bread has a harder top crust than I would have liked. This model only has the one shelf height - midway up - which put the top of the loaf close to the top of the oven. The hotest area. Next time I'll set the bake pan on a rack in the bottom of the stove. But, the inside turned out nice and soft, with no big pockets.

And, until I fix the leaking seams of my oven, I can't get it as hot as the bread recipe calls for, so I just baked it about 10 minutes longer.

Sure tastes good with fresh made black raspberry jam spread on a slice of still warm bread !

Paul

Yum, the bread looks good! My oven is the same as yours with the shelf in the middle of the oven. I just put a roasting chicken the the oven and I put a cast iron trivet in the oven and set the pan on it. If making bread, I put a cookie sheet in the oven upside down and then I put the two bread pans on another cookie sheet and slide it in on top of the upside down cookie sheet. With the loaf pans on a cookie sheet, it is quick and easy to turn the loaves around for even baking. The upside down cookie sheet keeps the bread up off the bottom of the oven. I also made a sheet metal heat shield that I put in the oven that slows the heat down from the firebox on the left of the oven. So far that is helping...I will take some photos to show what I mean about that.

Ok, now to the repairs I made on the oven today. I let the fire go out this morning and let the oven cool. I then re-cemented the seams in the oven. Just finished curing the cement in and what a difference it made in the stove! I was shocked at the difference...yesterday I had the air intake dampers fully open and could only get the oven to 300°. Today, with the air intake dampers closed, the oven was at 450°. I was able to bring the temps down to normal baking temps by using the check damper.

Randy

Ok, just went out to the garage to take photos showing the shield I made and the smells are AWESOME!

You will see the heat shield I made on the left side of the pan. I drilled a few holes in it so it does not stop all heat. It does seem to help shield the initial blast from the firebox.
Randy

Sunny Boy wrote:That bird's lookin' real tasty.

Good idea with the heat shield.

My stove's oven wall has a similar bump-out under the firebox. The bread was cooking faster on the left side, so I turned it around part way through the baking. I should try baking with it lower in the oven like you said, plus with a shield like that.

Paul

The chicken turned out nice and juicy but the vegetables dried out. I think I need to cover with foil for the first half to keep some moisture in there. (Don't know why I did not think of that in the first place)

The shield is working pretty well for me, the oven temp is now just uneven from front to back. I guess that is because the heat comes down the front of the oven first and then travels around the back and then up and out. I still have turn the bread around half way through but cooks more evenly now.