Coalpail.com Forum

adirondacklady wrote:For those here who think I may be crazy or weird, don't condemn me for being prepared

No one said you were crazy or weird. You asked if it was possible to run your stove without electricity...I think the consensus is that it may be possible, but it isn't practical or cost effective.

adirondacklady wrote:Enough said. Guess I will ask my questions elsewhere.

You won't find a better resource for coal burning than this forum.

Amen Rob...

I agree some of those responses were a little over the top, I'm sure no one meant any harm

Don't get me wrong...I really appreciated the responses I got from the members here. That's what I love about this forum. Everyone is always helpful. It's just those few that responded with negativity about how I am living that deserved that response. I'm not judgemental so don't judge me I say to those few. I appreciate the help everyone.
Adirondacklady

I for one didn't think you were crazy! As a matter of fact I was impressed that you had thought this independence from the power grid through. My comment is that you have the best of the stokers for your situation, and the only way to make it better would be to get a hand fed unit and bypass the complexity of inverters, batteries, etc. You will be able to sell the coal and stove if that is your plan, and get nut coal and a hand fed. Don't think you need the latest and greatest hand fed either. If you are serious (and I think you are) I'll PM you with stoves and models to look for that will be inexpensive and reliable. My hat is off to you for being a forward thinker, and remember the folks on the forum 'Have your back' and I don't mean a knife in the back. Extraordinary amount of knowledge and skill here, so please don't go away.....we may be asking YOU how to do this next year!

Here is a thought........... that I asked a building inspector today: If I build a Tepee, what flue requirements does the city of Concord, NH have? He is still churning over that one.....I can't wait for the reply.
He damned sure thinks someone might be crazy!!!

Thanks! Yes, I would be interested in knowing what models of hand fed stoves I could get. I heard someone here comment that a hand fed stove doesn't need to be stoked but every 12 hours. Is that true? Is that just for the large stokers that people install in basements? And what is "nut coal"? Never heard of it.
I have been on this forum since I bought my stove a few years ago and love the advice I get here. I have had many help me in my "newbie" status with my stove. This year has been quite challenging, though. I bought 5 ton bagged coal (knowing prices would be going up) from a new distributor since my old one went out of business. Unfortunately I realized once into the burning season that the coal was not oiled/washed and was heavy with dust. My living room is coated with a fine black dust. I can't wait til this week to start washing things down now that spring is here and I just shut the stove down for the season. What I was doing was wearing a face mask/goggles, and had my vacuum wand setting on the hopper to suck in as much dust as I could when I filled the hopper. It did cut down on the dust, but not by much. I'm looking into oiling the coal myself by creating a coal bin and mixing it up that way. What a Pain!
Again, thanks!
Adirondacklady

A stoker stove is slowly but continuously fed coal via a motor driven stoker mechanism (generally via a belt loop, upon which the coal burns, with ashes falling off the end of the belt and into an ash pan), and a hand fired stove is manually hand fed its coal in bulk loads, generally twice a day. With a hand fired stove you need to manually shake down the ashes into the ash pan (also generally twice a day).

Examples of hand fired stoves include several models by DS Machine, Alaska Kodiak, Hitzer 50-93, Keystoker HF-90, and many others.

or get an AA boiler...
It uses pea coal...
A hand fed can burn pea...
Then get a TT load of good pea...
Best of the automatic world...
and covered for that EMP...

deleted...

coalnewbie wrote:

And you have to admit that it does offer a solution to running a stoker without electricity.

Something weeds or not the idea of running a coal stove off a grandfather clock is the coolest new idea this year..... now somewhere in my basement is ......

You would need far heavier gearing and and far heavier weights than any tall case clock. Think hundreds of pounds or more.

Ok math guys, if I could hoist a 1 ton weight about 25 feet high suspended on a cable and geared down to drive a generator as it descended... How many kilowatts could I get out of it??

Lightning wrote:Ok math guys, if I could hoist a 1 ton weight about 25 feet high suspended on a cable and geared down to drive a generator as it descended... How many kilowatts could I get out of it??

No guarantees, but if the one US ton weight was in a state of free fall from a height of 25 feet it would generate:

P=E/T (power = energy/time)

E= MGH (energy = mass x gravity x height)

M = 907.2 KG
G = 9.8M/Second^2
height = 7.62M
T= 1.247 seconds to free fall 25 feet from a standing start

P=907.2*9.8*7.62/1.247
P = 54,327 Watts = 54.3 KW

The real trick however is to gear it down and see how many KWH this would become if it was geared to fall the same 25 feet over a full 24 hour period instead of in 1.247 seconds.

I'm not sure if you would just take 54.3 KW and divide by 24 hours to get a final answer of 2.26 KW/hour of energy. About the energy equivalent of a 3 HP (horse power) engine.

Question is...
Who would be moving that 1 ton weight BACK up 25 feet...

CapeCoaler wrote:Question is...
Who would be moving that 1 ton weight BACK up 25 feet...

It shouldn't take too much effort with a chain hoist.

Yeah Yeah, chain hoist 2 KiloWatts an hour thats pretty decent!