Coalpail.com Forum

Hello! I'm brand new to the forum, and brand new to coal as well! Just bought a Keystoker Koker-Lite, going to use it to heat my 1800 sq. ft. ranch. I've already got 'er up and burning in the basement, and had some questions about the best way to tap into my existing ductwork. The Koker sits right beside my Ducane propane furnace (going to keep as a backup), so its "fairly" easy access to the returns and supply lines of the existing ductwork. Just behind the hopper, in the basement ceiling, is a centrally located cold-air return. It uses 2 floor cavities to reach the return vent in my living room, and is tapped into the main return trunk with (2) 8" round pipes. The main trunk is 5-6 ft. away from this location. Would that be a decent place to draw from? And how exactly do I connect that return line to my blower on the lower rear of the Koker?

As far as running a line from my plenum to my existing supply trunk (which is about 3 feet to the right, and 2-3 feet above of the Koker). Do I need some means to block the air-flow from heading back into my old propane furnace? Any help would be great! Looking forward to this coal new world...

Yeah, just connect your new stove to the existing ducts and then put some sort of dampers in the old ducts to make sure the coal stove output/input is directed through the appropriate route(s). For my set up I used 5/8 plywood cut to the dimensions of the ducts I plugged up, then just wrapped the edges of the plywood with sticky backed foam strips in order to make sure the plywood sealed around all sides to the ducts.

Welcome to the FORUM my friend. PIX kh, we gotta see pix

I'm not wanting to cap-off or eliminate any individual ducts, just curious if I need to block off the area of the main supply-trunk and or return-trunk that goes directly into the propane furnace? I would think that if I tapped into a cold-air return, and then fed it back into my main supply trunk, that somewhere inside the propane furnace there might be some "air confusion" and/or air running backwards through the propane furnace?

And I'll work on some pics this evening...

Let me know how you like your koker lite. I was thinking about getting one.

Welcome kirklehook to the smart heaters club! I installed an old box stove directly below my cold air return run in my basement. The stove is located under the bedrooms part of my 1100 sq ft ranch and has a small blower. I made an inexpensive plenum and connected my stove to the vent above and it quietly blows hot air through the return vents very well, if my basement was insulated the output would most likely be double so the radiant heat is sucked out the cinder block walls. If my oil furnace becomes energized, the air it uses to carry the heat throughout the home is preheated therefore the furnace does not run long. If I had the stove next to my furnace I would pump the hot air into the furnace output directly.

So you're blowing directly into your cold-air return. Hmmm.... Thats a great idea! Preheating the air would definitely cut down on the run time of your other furnace. However, I plan on using my Koker as the main heat source, and only using propane if for some reason my Koker goes down. Which is why I was curious if the air would sometimes run backwards through my propane unit if it isn't blocked-off in some fashion.

[quote="kirklehook"]So you're blowing directly into your cold-air return. Hmmm.... Thats a great idea! Preheating the air would definitely cut down on the run time of your other furnace. However, I plan on using my Koker as the main heat source, and only using propane if for some reason my Koker goes down. Which is why I was curious if the air would sometimes run backwards through my propane unit if it isn't blocked-off in some fashion.[/quote]

You see, if I pumped hot air into the hot air vents and the furnace came on, the 2 hot air currents coming from two different directions would create turbulence. The furnace blower would eventually win and cause the hot air from the coal stove to back up. That could cause my coal stove to overheat because it would not be able to wash the heat away from itself, thus losing the heat and wasting coal.

I'm not familiar with your unit, but if your blower is strong enough you can pump your heat through the main plenum and let the propain contols in the furnace plenum blow the heat throughout your home!

My Koker 160 goes into the cold air return without any baffles & the propain furnace is wired in so that if extra circulation is needed the propain furnace fan only will kick on & give more volume as long as the coal furnace is keeping the temp up there is no reason for the propain furnace to kick on. Hope that makes sense the way I explained it, it's been working well for 5 years now.

So it basically pushes the warm air through the cold air return vents, as well as back through your other unit and through the supply vents as well? Did you tap into the main cold-air return trunk-line, or the nearest cold-air return duct? And is the 160 larger than the Koker-Lite?

My koker is alongside the other furnace with the main cold air return between & it ties directly into the main, the air for the kokers blower comes from both a return truck line with filters & the basement floor with a filter. I'm not familiar with a koker-lite so I can't say what the difference would be.

Koker-Lite is just a smaller version of the Koker. Just spoke with a tech at Keystoker. He said that pushing the hot air from the Koker into the existing cold-air return is a viable option, but recommended tapping into the main supply trunk (as close as I can to the propane furnace) as a better option. I asked about air being pushed back into the Koker if the blower on the propane unit turns on, and he said that it shouldn't be a problem. Said that the air will travel the easiest route, which wouldn't be back into the Koker. It makes sense, but I find it difficult to believe...

And by the way, you guys are great! Learning so much today!!!
And SamHill, you're in Linesville? If from Andover. Small world...

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Here are some pics...!