Coal Stove in Superinsulated House

Sailfish · Post by **Sailfish** » Sat. Jan. 10, 2009 3:16 pm

I ordered a Hitzer 354 to use in the camp we are building in Central Maine. It's a tight super insulated space, R-35 walls and ceiling. I'm sure I have to bring in air for this stove to burn. I wonder what size duct I should use to let this stove to breath? Any Ideas?

Post by **franco b** » Sat. Jan. 10, 2009 3:43 pm

If it were an oil burner it would have an opening equal to the smoke pipe. For coal I think 1/2 the smoke pipe size would be plenty.

Richard

tsb · Post by **tsb** » Sat. Jan. 10, 2009 3:50 pm

I'll bet it leaks a lot more than you think. Otherwise you would
have to sleep with a window open.

TSB

Sailfish · Post by **Sailfish** » Sat. Jan. 10, 2009 4:18 pm

It's just the walk out basement of 1 1/2 story barn type structure. We'll be working on it for a few years. That stove is actually going upstairs. I just wanted to finish one level first so We had a place to stay. The house is designed tight and will rely on air handlers to switch out the air. I don't have a whole lot of pics but here's one that shows the 10 foot high three sided walk-out basement. 10" of solid concrete. No air getting through those.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/reelkarma/ ... dytoGo.jpg

Sailfish · Post by **Sailfish** » Sat. Jan. 10, 2009 4:50 pm

After talking to some of the locals we decided to pay particular attention to insulation. My neighbor rented me his house for the duration of the build. I went up in the spring after a lot of the snow melted off. Here's a pic of his house.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/reelkarma/ ... 0027-1.jpg
Makes you want to dump some more coal in yer stove eh?
I'm excited about ordering the stove even though I won't get to use it till next heating season.

Freddy · Post by **Freddy** » Sat. Jan. 10, 2009 6:16 pm

I was going to say with a house that tight an air to air heat exchanger is usually part of the design. You mentioned "air handler". If by that you mean air to air heat exchanger you might not have to have a separate air feed for the stove. Other than that, to answer your question, I'd use a 4" air supply.

Sailfish · Post by **Sailfish** » Sat. Jan. 10, 2009 6:49 pm

The house is just a shell this season. I'd like to have a pro design the air for me. There's plenty of room for ducts and equipment. Thanks for mentioning these units. Looks like something I'd like to incorporate into the build. After the horror show we had with the power outages around here I'm now a staunch believer in the blackout proof heat you can get from a coal stove. Especially when the temps will tickle 30 below zero.

MountainPreacher · Post by **MountainPreacher** » Tue. Jan. 13, 2009 6:00 pm

Sailfish wrote:The house is just a shell this season. I'd like to have a pro design the air for me. There's plenty of room for ducts and equipment. Thanks for mentioning these units. Looks like something I'd like to incorporate into the build. After the horror show we had with the power outages around here I'm now a staunch believer in the blackout proof heat you can get from a coal stove. Especially when the temps will tickle 30 below zero.

If you have a dryer inside, vents in the bathrooms and even a vented hood over the kitchen stove, you will have plenty of air available for the stove.

Freddy · Post by **Freddy** » Tue. Jan. 13, 2009 9:24 pm

MountainPreacher wrote:vents in the bathrooms and even a vented hood over the kitchen stove, you will have plenty of air available for the stove.

Unless of course you happen to turn them on. Hence, the need for an air to air heat exchanger.

WNY · Post by **WNY** » Wed. Jan. 14, 2009 7:22 am

yes, with the spray foam, you have to have good air exchanging. My boss built a new house (last year) with the spray foam installed and has all kinds of moisture problems on the windows, mold starting on the ceiling in spot, it's TOO tight. No air handler at all, just mostly radiant floor heating.

baldeagle · Post by **baldeagle** » Wed. Jan. 14, 2009 9:36 am

Sailfish: WNY has an excellent point about being to tight, mold etc. We restored a 1860's farm and added an addition to it inthe Laurel Mtns. of Western Pa. After "gutting" the entire structure added R 30+ to the attic. The walls on the second floor have 3-4" of Foam sprayed in, with housewrap outside, a then layer of 1" tongue/groove insulation over the outside
walls, covered with vinyl siding. First floor about 1/2" spray insulation, additional fiberglass in walls and outside the same-
housewrap and then tongue and groove styrofoam. Except for days in the 20's and below the 354 is barely working -front vents closed atutmatic damper only and fan off. The rear autovent is open maybe 3 x 1/2", as someone mentioned a 6"
fresh air pipe will be oceans of combustion air .. if you have not already purchased the 354, look at the Hitzer models that
have a gravity hopper and independent shaking on the grates ..... you are going to have a lot of heat on 40 & 50F days. You may only need one side of the firebox, I have seen some on this site disconnect part of the linkage on their stoves during warmer weather; I plan to use just one side of my 503 this spring. it has two separate grate handles so should be quite simple. Good Luck, baldeagle