Coalpail.com Forum

This my first year and my wife and I are thinking of keeping our pocono going. Our basement is very dry and she still hangs clothes to dry there. are we wrong or should we shut down? We do have to have to shut down to service YES or NO?

You obviously know that you can really utilize a slooooow burn with the Pocono. You are not making hot water with that unit...or perhaps you are....but having a super dry basement is a wonderful thing in the humid, sticky weather summer brings.
If there is no noticeable or objectionable heat issues, sure, keep her sparked up! ...and yes, you do have to shut it down to clean it out and service the stoker and chamber. Many of us burn year-round and would have it no other way.
If you are worried about the forum members screaming at you not saving any money doing this, then it is a personal issue. I recommend that you do what is comfortable for you and your family......and don't worry about those naysayers.

Thanks Whistle. I am in the learning process.

Yeah what whislte said, if it works for you then by all means.

I hated using dehumidires in my finished basement, they dryed it out ok but the heat they generated was unreal. I installed a mini-split AC unit last year and that solved that issue, but it wasn't cheap.

just make sure you got the chimney draft to keep the CO from escaping into your basement.

(that's my problem once it warms up outside and my stove idles too long)

Still burning here. Going through a bit less than 15.5 lbs. per day (on average) to provide the homes hot water needs. Also keeping the well tank, water softener tanks, and water filtration tank that share the room with our boiler dry. Before the coal boiler was added to the room it was a wetlands certified swamp during the summer months. I guess you could say I drained a swamp without a permit.

And for Smitty, it even had a decent sized frog living in it about 2-3 years ago. I found it in the corner behind the two softener tanks sitting in about 1/4" deep water. Gathered it up and escorted it outside.

I'm still burning for hot water purposes but it is a challenge. I burn more then I would like to but I prefer it over oil. It does keep my basement dry versus a dehumidifier.

Still burning for heating domestic hot water. Adding 100-125 lbs to the hopper each Saturday. Cheaper than using my oil boiler to heat my indirect hot water heater.

Still burning for domestic hot water. Current consumption is 20-25 lbs per day depending on the load.

I'm still running my KA-2 and enjoying ALL the hot water and a really nice dry basement! We had thought about a dehumidifier but the KA-2 solved that problem. Also we estimated it would cost about $20 a month just to run it.
Also got 5 tons of rice delivered last week. Made 1 more 1.25 ton coal bin. So now I have 6.25 ton capacity in the basement.

That's cheating Kungur, I think even SMITTY might be enjoying a much more then normal dry basement right now. poor froggy

Also keeping the Harman stoking. Heating domestic hot water. Usage depends upon how much wash is done that week, on average probably about 3/4 of a Homer bucket daily. Keeps the basement dry, no dehumidifier needed. Next year thinking about heating the pool(24 foot round ag).