Coalpail.com Forum

Purchased another LL Pioneer (used) and want to make it into more of a free standing furnace type stove. I wanted to make a jacket to put around it and/or find a larger blower to move the air around the shop a little more. The shop is 1500 sq ft. with 11 ft ceilings and fairly well insulated. Any suggestions or advice? Thanks.

The Pioneer already has a blower.
Put coal in it and light it.

Thanks tsb... I was hoping to put a larger blower on with more cfm as those little blowers may not cut it, but I may just hook it up and see how it does and go from there.

Now you're thinkin my young friend. Yo dude

I thought you were looking for my shop heat source. Oh well I guess I am on my own. Just kidding you know I want a furnace. Over 300.00 in oil for the shop already. I think I can heat the shop to around 50 all the time and just turn up when I know I will be working out there. If I went with a coal furnace. I think it will cost less than the oil does now even though I just heat when I need it with the oil. So just watching for the right deal on a used coal furnace as I do not use the shop all the time.

just adding a higher CFM fan to a stove will not increase the stove's heat output. The air is forced over the heated surface too fast
to pick up enough heat, so the output air is too cool to be much good for heating..

You might get more heat from the stove if you take a length of dryer vent hose and hang one end from the ceiling, and drop the other end on the floor near the inlet to the stove's blower fan.. This way you are heating the hot air off the ceiling, reheating it, so it gets much hotter.

A ceiling fan will help force the hot air off the ceiling too.

If your stove is off in a corner, or not near where you work, then the radiant heat off the sides and top of the stove are wasted, You can make a
sheet metal enclosure for the stove sides and top and duct this hea tto your workbench area..

Just some ideas
Greg L.

Thanks Greg, I know some stoves this size have an optional larger cfm blower (this one comes with a 265 cfm). I know I don't want to go too big, just looking for some ideas as to what is "too big". I like the drier vent idea though! Thanks!

I had a heat jacket custom made for my Hyfire and put a 500 CFM blower on the jacket, ducted to both sides, with a separate temp. switch, and still use the stock blowers with the coaltrol. It works great.

mikey55 wrote:I thought you were looking for my shop heat source. Oh well I guess I am on my own. Just kidding you know I want a furnace. Over 300.00 in oil for the shop already. I think I can heat the shop to around 50 all the time and just turn up when I know I will be working out there. If I went with a coal furnace. I think it will cost less than the oil does now even though I just heat when I need it with the oil. So just watching for the right deal on a used coal furnace as I do not use the shop all the time.

*mikey55*,
Question for ya...do you still have the KA-6 listed in your profile?

If so you only need a couple pipes to the shop and you're all set.

McGiever,
Yes I still have the ka6. It works great for the house. Shop is about 75 feet away. Not sure the stoker would do house, dmhw, and shop. House is about 1700sq ft and a full basement. During this cold snap seemed to be maxing the ka6 out. The stoker works so well and less expensive than oil. That is what got me thinking on how I could use it in my shop also.

If the concern of making a bonnet is using too big a blower and blowing all the heat off, wouldn't a regular furnace have the same problem? Isn't that what the fan limiter switch is for? It blows off all the heat, and then the blower turns off. Why couldn't a fan limiter switch be installed on my makeshift "funace"? Just like what WNY was talking about...

Well, it's like this- if you ran it all the time, I'm sure it would work fine in your shop.If you turn it on and off, then you may have problems. I would try it the way it is.