Air Filtration for Your House.

Hey all,

Second year burning coal and I have learned a ton on this forum! Thank You all for contributing as every little bit of info helps! Love the heat and love the price! My question is about air filtration. I notice over time I get a thin layer of ash dust in the house. I'm careful when shaking the stove down and getting the ash out of the house, but it is inevitable. The fire has been burning for about a month now and I am starting to notice it. Dusting and all that takes care of seeing it, but I am more bothered by breathing it. I'm wonder what you all do or suggestions you may have. I have been looking around some at air filter systems but there is such a range in sizes and prices, I wanted some opinions. What do you all do, if anything?

Thanks!

**Edit, I did do some searches and didn't really see too much on this. Lots of air filter stuff on air heating systems. We use hand fed stoves in the house. **

It is not necessarily from the coal stove....run a wood stove and see what you get, besides soot particles building up on the ceiling. Any hot air system creates dust, even furnace style heaters with filtered air. It is amazing how much dust comes from mundane things like clothing etc.

Kevin

klook has a point.

Some here get an ash vac and run that close by while loading and shaking, or even use a hepa filter running near the stove. One simple thing you can do to help the ash dust is a cookie sheet under the ash removal door to catch a lot, but not all, of it. Dont ever have a fan on when shaking or dumping ash. Just simple things but they do matter. Some stoves do create more ash than others but none should be real bad if you take as much care as possible. But if all those steps don't work I think a hepa filter close by may be what you need to do if it bothers you.

If you have a solid floor and not carpeted, a mopping every couple days would help too.

More on my point, I have no solid fuel appliance running here for most of the year. I have a forced hot and cold air system that is filtered. I am looking at a i860 romba to clean the dark bamboo floors as we both work. The dust is incredible and we have no pets and the house has been basically redone inside, and cleaned. When the sun shines thru, you can see the stuff in the air and it billows of of couches and chairs etc. Dust is a fact of life no matter what you use for heat. I have had every type of system at some point.

Kevin

Thanks for the replys. I get it, "Dust Happens". We dust, we vacuum, we swiffer, all that stuff. I have a hepa filtered vac and use it. I've burnt wood for years and been around long enough to realize that Dust Happens... I posted this because I have noticed a big difference in fine ash dust coating everything since switching to coal. I am not complaining about the ash dust as I get it. I am more looking to see if people use any air filter systems or like those air cleaners you see on TV that sit in the corner. That is all. By the way, love the romba! It helps! Thanks!

Get a thermostat that has an air circulation option. That way it does two things. It cleans the air and distributes the temp evenly throughout the house.

Just a little update; bought a smallish stand alone tower unit from Amazon that had some really good ratings. Its a hepa filtered, sanitizing tower. It came about a week ago. I have to say, for an inexpensive unit, it does a nice job. Noticeable difference in the air particles flying around the house. Even my wife made a comment about less dust....

The ionizing cleaners that the dust sticks to a metal sheet?...
With tighter houses...
what enters the , stays in the house...
A good drafting chimney will pull most if not all the coal particles into the stove...
Watch yourself during coal operations and minimize particle production...

CapeCoaler wrote:The ionizing cleaners that the dust sticks to a metal sheet?...
With tighter houses...
what enters the , stays in the house...
A good drafting chimney will pull most if not all the coal particles into the stove...
Watch yourself during coal operations and minimize particle production...

No ionizing sheet, just a paper filter...
CC, I'm sure you know those old Cape houses, 1884 house is as tight as, well not at all, its built on a pile of rocks...
Not if I throw the filter out ...
The Chimney drafts great...
On it!...

By the way CC, I am pm'ing you...

SawDustJack wrote:Thanks for the replys. I get it, "Dust Happens". We dust, we vacuum, we swiffer, all that stuff. I have a hepa filtered vac and use it. I've burnt wood for years and been around long enough to realize that Dust Happens... I posted this because I have noticed a big difference in fine ash dust coating everything since switching to coal. I am not complaining about the ash dust as I get it. I am more looking to see if people use any air filter systems or like those air cleaners you see on TV that sit in the corner. That is all. By the way, love the romba! It helps! Thanks!

Some years I ran a hepa filter stand-alone filter and some years I didn't. They do seem to help some. Not sure how much really, but there is a difference. I'm not too sensitive to dust, grew up on a farm. I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger... But my wife seems to like it better when I run the filter during the winter when running the coal stove. There are lots of small tricks to keeping the dust down, like taking the ash pan out before shaking down, after the last shake down has cooled down in the pan. Different stoves seem to be more prone to "leaking" dust when shaking down than others. If you have folk in the house that are more sensitive to dust, the filters do seem to help. Mine is a stand-alone Vornado with two HEPA filters in the base. Nowadays, I set the thing on automatic and just let it run 24/7 when burning coal. The filters last a long time. wife seems to be happier that way... Lot's to be said for that no matter what the filter actually does...

dj