Looking to get into using coal heat

Hi! I'm looking to get a coal stove or warm air furnace and get away from expensive electric heat. I'm debating about getting a furnace since I feel like that would heat the house better. I'd like to put it in the basement and since my house is pretty big (4100 Sq ft), I just don't think a stove would work. If I go with a furnace, I could close off the vents to the basement so the heat would go to the first floor vents and rise to the second floor. The only thing I would be concerned about is not being able to use a furnace if the power goes out.

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!

I guess conventional wisdom would be to buy a boiler but I do use a furnace in my 6700 sq ft home and i am very happy. I think that telling us your location and estimate the quality of the insulation and from there the discussions can let rip.

Welcome to the board.

Welcome.

You make it sound like there is already ductwork installed (electric furnace?). If so, adding a coal furnace is the way to go and should be straightforward.

Does your home have a chimney?

There are many options and variables depending on the floor plan, construction, etc. But certainly coal is cheaper than electricity everywhere--and pollutes less. (They use the cheapest coal for power plants.)

I have central air heat with natural gas, but my radiant coal stove is just cozier all over, so I rarely turn on Dragonessa. But you have a big house and you do have a basement, so you have more choices. If the layout works, I would do it with two large coal parlor stoves (or one large one in the day areas and one smaller one in the back area. I enjoy having them around and so does everybody else. I do some cooking on them too. Furnaces blow air around (of course), and that just doesn't feel radiant like a fire.

Your idea to use a stove in the basement and let the heat rise can work for many homes. But you can't sit by the fire unless you go down there.

Thanks for the responses!

I live in the eastern panhandle of WV. Insulation quality is average I would say.

Yes, I have an electric furnace currently. Kept the house around 62 last winter and the electric bill was still over $350 for one month. Ugh... And no, there is no chimney.

I'm currently thinking about getting a hand fired stove for heating the basement and having a furnace to heat the rest of the house. I'm thinking if I get a hand fired stove, at least I would still have a decent source of heat when there is no power as well.

Are you planning to put up a chimney?

Hi,

I’m kinda new to the terminology here on the pail...in the above Sept. 4th message: “so I rarely turn on Dragonessa.” My Q: What is a dragonessa?

I have a forced air furnace (whole house) stove as well and thinking about adding another radiant stove in the parlor to augment the cold spots

That is just the name we have for my gas furnace. If you look inside it the amount of gas roaring up in flames is appalling.

Inksmere wrote: ↑

Fri. Sep. 06, 2019 7:40 am

Hi,

I’m kinda new to the terminology here on the pail...in the above Sept. 4th message: “so I rarely turn on Dragonessa.” My Q: What is a dragonessa?

I have a forced air furnace (whole house) stove as well and thinking about adding another radiant stove in the parlor to augment the cold spots

I still have questions myself about using central forced air furnace with parlor stoves. The only intake for my furnace is near the stove. This has considerable force. It no doubt pulls heat from the stove and adds it to the circulating heat (I sometimes turn it on fan only to circulate the stove heat), but it may also pull air from the stove intake, decreasing draft--perhaps even pulling out ash and dust into the air. They say it can be a problem to run opposing draft such as kitchen vent fans, bathroom vent fans--but on the other hand the furnace intake is blown back into the rooms, so the in and out should be equal.

This year (second year) I will try to reduce coal dust in the house (using anthracite). I have been looking at posts here about that. The number one step I think is to be sure the draft is strong in the flue before loading coal--open the primary and open the ash door, maybe even put a bit of wood on to get the chimney hotter if the coal is low. Other tips--
Put some coal on the fire before shaking--then the cave that has formed under the coal collapses and helps push ashes out (down to the pan or out through the flue).
Wait till the dust has settled before opening again (and new coal is good and hot) to fill it up.
Avoid over-slicing the grates--stirs up ash and wastes coal.
Use the cover that came with my ash pan when I empty it.

You’ll definitely be happy once you make the switch. My house was built as “all” electric with a monthly payment plan of $250. And that was when I bought it in 2000. I swapped out the range and put in a wood stove and dropped the bill more than half. Got tired of all the work involved with free wood and switched to coal. Best decision I’ve made....

Anyway. You have an electric furnace with air ducts throughout the house. In my opinion your best bang for the buck would be a coal furnace or a large radiant heater that you can make a duct to attach to the existing duct work so you can heat the whole house.

Power loss is sometimes a major concern. For me, I put in my house a Hitzer 30-95 which is hand fire with hopper which has a blower that only gets turned on when the temps dip into the single digits. In my garage i had a Alaska Channing stoker with battery backup. Large 12v deep cell with an ac inverter. I didn’t loose power so I can’t say how long it’s good for. Anyway. You can put a battery back up w/inverter on any stove that requires electricity to operate.

Your electric furnace has no chimney, so you would need to consider your options for that. The stoves location in the basement and placement of the chimney will be crucial to making your decision. A double or triple wall stainless steel chimney is an optional- however with coal it’s life expectancy is 3-5 year so I’m told. A brick chimney with clay liner would be the best way to go. If your handy and can take on a chimney building task you could save quite a bit over paying to have one built. The huge advantage with the brick chimney is it should last a lifetime. Last chimney option is a power vent. Which are only used on stokers. Basically it’s a power blower that pulls the exhaust from the stove out, and out the side of the house. No big chimney just a finned blob on the outside of the house.
Lastly. If you were to put a stove strategically on the main floor you could possibly cut your dependence on the electric by 50-75%. And have the comfort and beauty of the stove in the living quarters.

I would like to go with a chimney simply because that would be one less thing to worry about in terms of having to use electricity, but with the location of the electric furnace (which is several feet away from an exterior wall), I'm not sure I will have the option to use a chimney (since I will need to have the furnace close to where all the duct work comes together). Although, I've never done HVAC work, so I could be completely off on that.

Has anyone installed a furnace themselves? I already called one reputable HVAC company and they wouldn't install a coal furnace. I'm planning to try a couple of other companies, but I'm afraid I'll get the same response.

Fletch45lc wrote: ↑

Tue. Sep. 10, 2019 12:30 pm

I would like to go with a chimney simply because that would be one less thing to worry about in terms of having to use electricity, but with the location of the electric furnace (which is several feet away from an exterior wall), I'm not sure I will have the option to use a chimney (since I will need to have the furnace close to where all the duct work comes together). Although, I've never done HVAC work, so I could be completely off on that.

Has anyone installed a furnace themselves? I already called one reputable HVAC company and they wouldn't install a coal furnace. I'm planning to try a couple of other companies, but I'm afraid I'll get the same response.

Someone here might be able to help, but I think most of them probably had an installer. It may be that the only ones familiar with it are the ones who sell the coal furnaces--impossible in most places. An online manual for coal furnace (old or new) may be enough to go on. However, my local wood stove store is factory trained with installation and codes for installation, so I imagine yours should be too--more likely than an HVAC company. It may have to be somebody who is a factory authorized dealer with a showroom of stoves. You don't say where you are located.
It may be possible for you to have both electric and coal furnace connected to the ductwork, since the electric does not use a chimney, as long as the fumes from coal cannot back into the electric furnace and thence to the ductwork. In that case you could use electric when the coal is not in use and closed off.

This sounds like my exact situation last year. 4200 sq/ft and 2 dual fuel (propane over HP) almost new systems....one first floor, one second floor. I ended up installing a coal stove in the basement and opening the return ducts on the basement ceiling. I simply blocked the return between the house and the opening with a piece of cardboard so all of the return was coming from the basement. I leave the basement door open and is the new "return". I have to chock it so it won't pull closed. Simply put, it removes the heat from the basement and pumps it to floor 1. I only used 27% of the propane from the previous year just heating my first floor with coal! I actually got a call from the propane provider...they thought I switched!! Burned 3.5 tons. Now, I only use coal from around first/second week of Dec to end of March. I typically use 1200 gallons of propane per year. Everything is propane except the dryer. Last year, about 320 gallons. I'm going to forgo the economics of this with the volatility the propane market it can range from .89/gal(what I paid this year to fill all my underground tanks)to 2.89/gal(our local historic high like 7-8 years ago??). Also when using my dual fuel systems I run the temps at 68deg. On coal my first floor is 72-73. House is new and insulated very well. I pay $1160 for 5 tons delivered.

In your situation, the only unfortunate thing is you need to construct a chimney. I was lucky as PO already did that. I would go with a stove and forget the furnace. Construct a make-shift plenum and duct it into your existing furnace. See how you like burning coal first. One step at a time. Stoves are cheap...$800 bucks gets you a Harman Magnum. You don't say, at least my quick read the construction of the house? Multiple floors? Occupants? Again, our kids are gone so basically, the top floor of the house is unoccupied..so we keep the dual fuel system up there about 50deg in the winter.

Sorry for rambling...too much coffee this morning!!
Don

62*?????????????????? Coal will spoil ya. Even a fireplace insert would change all that!! LOL

if you loose power regularly -> get a generator with an automatic change-over...

yes, i installed my own coal furnace in parallel with my propane unit...separate stack -> shared ducting.