Sent a couple emails to coal stove/furnace manufacturers recently....do they not work in the summer? (Reading, Leisure Line) Haven't gotten any responses yet... Are there any good "coal furnace heating/ducting 101" resources out there?
I need to pursue supplemental heat for my 1890's 3200 sqft home before the oil guys start filling my tank!! Current price $4.59 gallon!
I have a one-pipe steam radiator oil fired system in the home. Last winter we kept the thermostat very low and luckily the rooms we used most often were above the furnace room and stayed comfortable while the rest of the house was chilly (Freezing if you ask my daughter). We ran a oil-filled electric radiators on timer to take the chill off in the upstairs bedrooms before going to bed. We still burned a lot of fuel oil. A lot less than when we tried to keep the whole house at 65 degrees the winter before. AND we thought $2.79 gallon was bad!
Been reading just about every post on this forum and I don't think we are ready to take the 100% plunge and replace our boiler. In my mind a basement coal furnace may be what we want to install. Looking for prices for the 90,000 BTU LL pocono and 180,000 BTU hyfire II. What else would I have to buy? Can I get away with running a main duct down the center of the basement and feeding each room with a take off from there? What about return cold air?
Located in the Lehigh Valley...where is the least expensive rice coal nearby? bagged? bulk?
Still need to convince the wife that if we do nothing we are going to have enormous fuel oil bills come winter? Where will the price of fuel oil go?
No Response to Emails to Coal Stove Manufacturers?
- WNY
- Member
- Posts: 6307
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 14, 2005 8:40 am
- Location: Cuba, NY
- Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Keystoker 90K, Leisure Line Hyfire I
- Coal Size/Type: Rice
- Contact:
I know I never recieved anything from Keystoker back when I was looking either. I did end up buying a 90K Keystoker, (Local dealer), but also bought a LL Hyfire from LSFarm (Greg) on here. Actually happy with both. They both work just fine heating our big old house.
Jerry from Leisure Line is on this forum (screanname "Leisure Line") and can answer any questions you may have concerning their products. I have ordered parts direct from him and had them delivered within a couple of days.
Jerry from Leisure Line is on this forum (screanname "Leisure Line") and can answer any questions you may have concerning their products. I have ordered parts direct from him and had them delivered within a couple of days.
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- Member
- Posts: 1923
- Joined: Mon. Oct. 02, 2006 8:59 am
- Location: Berwick, PA and Ormand Beach FL
Welcome to the forum 4tees! The manufacturers are quite busy right now due to high energy costs. As you will read elsewhere the back log for delivery of boilers, stoves and furnaces is an average of 2.5 months from now. Also these factories are small and for the most part non-automated, they are designed to keep over head low for the lower sales rates that were in effect up till this year.
Since you are not ready to take the plunge and install a coal boiler to provide steam to your system there are alternatives. As WNY said buying a used stove or furnace for your basement can be effective in cutting your energy bills. Just make sure you do some reading on here about how to get convection loops of air set up to get maximum use of the coal you burn. Put simply you need to pull cooler air from somewhere in the house with the fan on the stove or furnace, once you do that the heat coming out of it will finds it way up stairs.
Best of luck with your search and keep us posted on your progress and learning experience.
Since you are not ready to take the plunge and install a coal boiler to provide steam to your system there are alternatives. As WNY said buying a used stove or furnace for your basement can be effective in cutting your energy bills. Just make sure you do some reading on here about how to get convection loops of air set up to get maximum use of the coal you burn. Put simply you need to pull cooler air from somewhere in the house with the fan on the stove or furnace, once you do that the heat coming out of it will finds it way up stairs.
Best of luck with your search and keep us posted on your progress and learning experience.
Thanks Dave. I guess I will make a few phone calls to request information.
Are you saying that you use both the Keystoker and Hyfire to heat your home? Did you have existing ductwork or did you add it for the coal furnace(s)? Did you duct to the 2nd floor?
I am really looking for a website/dvd/document that shows the layout of existing working systems. It is much easier to copy something that works than try to figure it out from scratch.
My home was also built in the 1890's. There is a small pile of coal in the basement probably from the first heating system used in the house.
I am hoping to reduce my oil usage by over 50% this year. With fuel oil at $4.59 a gallon I would pay for the coal furnace in one season with my fuel oil "savings". Still need to convince the wife. That's why I am looking for examples of existing systems to show her.
Are you saying that you use both the Keystoker and Hyfire to heat your home? Did you have existing ductwork or did you add it for the coal furnace(s)? Did you duct to the 2nd floor?
I am really looking for a website/dvd/document that shows the layout of existing working systems. It is much easier to copy something that works than try to figure it out from scratch.
My home was also built in the 1890's. There is a small pile of coal in the basement probably from the first heating system used in the house.
I am hoping to reduce my oil usage by over 50% this year. With fuel oil at $4.59 a gallon I would pay for the coal furnace in one season with my fuel oil "savings". Still need to convince the wife. That's why I am looking for examples of existing systems to show her.
- CoalHeat
- Member
- Posts: 8862
- Joined: Sat. Feb. 10, 2007 9:48 pm
- Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
- Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
- Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
- Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
- Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert
Hi 4tees and welcome,
Even using stoves instead of a central boiler you can reduce your oil consumption to 0! Just takes a little time and work.
If I had the $$$ and time I would love to install a steam boiler (coal-fired, of course!)and radiators in this place, but I can heat it very well with my 2 stoves. A central boiler is much easier and the way to go, but it can be done with stoves. Look around on the forum, there's lots of ideas and examples here.
Even using stoves instead of a central boiler you can reduce your oil consumption to 0! Just takes a little time and work.
If I had the $$$ and time I would love to install a steam boiler (coal-fired, of course!)and radiators in this place, but I can heat it very well with my 2 stoves. A central boiler is much easier and the way to go, but it can be done with stoves. Look around on the forum, there's lots of ideas and examples here.
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- Member
- Posts: 381
- Joined: Mon. Jan. 23, 2006 7:30 pm
- Location: Berwick, pa
- Contact:
Hi 4tees,
Received your e-mail Wed, answered Thursday.
Jerry
Received your e-mail Wed, answered Thursday.
Jerry
- Richard S.
- Mayor
- Posts: 15183
- Joined: Fri. Oct. 01, 2004 8:35 pm
- Location: NEPA
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Van Wert VA1200
- Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat/Anthracite
Email is really tough to rely on especially for sites not set up properly. Most of the smaller comapanies will have sites with the email address accessible to the public. Trouble is that its also accessible to spammers who will harvest the address. Eventually you'll be getting hundreds of emails to the same address and it quickly becomes a chore to sift through them. It's a common mistake I see frequently.4tees wrote:Sent a couple emails to coal stove/furnace manufacturers recently....do they not work in the summer? (Reading, Leisure Line) Haven't gotten any responses yet...
The solution for the company is simple, you provide a form to fill out. The form is submitted to a script which contains the email address. The spammer never sees the email address so they can't spam it except through the form. I use a simple method to prevent bots from sending email through the scripts I've created, it asks a question that only a human can answer.
If for example you send me an email through my contact form it's immediately sent to special folder in my email client and I know its not spam so it gets attention very fast.
That is at least one explanation as to why you won't get a reply from someone.
The other may be that server is set up poorly. Some ISP's will drop email into a blackhole. For example if I send an email though my server and it did not have the correct reverse DNS the email will be deleted by most ISP's and other email services. I have no way of knowing that you never received it and you have no way of knowing that it was sent.
Lastly spam filters are generally good but they are not perfect, it's entirely possible for a legitimate email to end up in a spam box..
I didn't mean to imply that these companies were non-responsive...I was guessing it was the flood of requests from people like me who are taking the current fuel oil price X last winters usage and having their jaws hit the floor.
Jerry, Thanks for your response. I will email you more questions...
Jerry, Thanks for your response. I will email you more questions...
These guys are flat out. I have a leisure line coming that I bought direct, and a keystoker furnace bought through a dealer.
Stove comes in August, boiler comes in Sept. Take the plunge, oil is not getting cheaper. You will see 5-6 gal when it gets
cold. I'm spending 14000. on equipment and 22.5 tons of coal, set up ready to go. Coal should last three years, equipment
10-20. My fuel cost for the winter should be about 1500-1600. Vs 8000-10000. with oil. Equipment breaks even first year
then it is all juice from there on out! Dive in the water is WARM. Good Luck!
Stove comes in August, boiler comes in Sept. Take the plunge, oil is not getting cheaper. You will see 5-6 gal when it gets
cold. I'm spending 14000. on equipment and 22.5 tons of coal, set up ready to go. Coal should last three years, equipment
10-20. My fuel cost for the winter should be about 1500-1600. Vs 8000-10000. with oil. Equipment breaks even first year
then it is all juice from there on out! Dive in the water is WARM. Good Luck!
- stoker-man
- Verified Business Rep.
- Posts: 2071
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 19, 2007 9:33 pm
- Location: Lehigh Valley, PA
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: 1981 efm wcb-24 in use 365 days a year
- Coal Size/Type: Anthracite/Chestnut
- Other Heating: Hearthstone wood stove
I only know of two bulk coal suppliers in the Lehigh Valley and that's RD Fuel on 17th in Allentown and Dries and Reichard in Emmaus. I'm sure there are more.