When Is It Worth Shutting Down for a Few Days?

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Dark Jedi
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Post by Dark Jedi » Fri. Oct. 31, 2008 4:04 pm

This is our first year with our stoker and so far we love it. It has been running about 2 weeks with some nights in the 20s and most days in the 30s and 40s. Looks like we have a stretch of 50s and 60s starting today. When is it worth just letting it go out and restarting when it's cooler? Seems like we're just burning coal to keep it going today, and if it were going to be 40s tomorrow that would be OK but we're looking at a few warmer days with cool nights (30s & 40s). What do you more experienced folks usually do? (BTW, I use the starter bags so I'm not concerned with difficulty restarting.)

 
kootch88
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Post by kootch88 » Fri. Oct. 31, 2008 4:09 pm

Jedi,

This is my first year with coal and so far we shut down whenever we are expecting a couple of nights in the high forties, otherwise we keep her burning. We did pretty much the same thing with our wood stove in previous years. Our house heats up pretty well during the day with the exposure we have, so each house is obviously different.

 
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JohnnyAsbury
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Post by JohnnyAsbury » Fri. Oct. 31, 2008 4:16 pm

I know what you mean. I have stopped, and started my stove several times now. Thought about shutting it down today, because its so mild out. I also use the coal mice, and have about 20 on hand, so thats not an issue either. Ive been burning 20 lbs a day when its calling for heat, and 10 lbs a day, to let it sit at an idle. This year im just playing with it, but maybe next year, I will use my oil heat for the short burst of heat needed in October and part of November, and then lite the stove just once. Fortunately, I have tons of southern exposure, and it really helps to heat the house.


 
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SuperBeetle
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Post by SuperBeetle » Fri. Oct. 31, 2008 4:24 pm

I just let Harman MKII set and "idle" when it's 60 during the day and 30 at night. If I get too hot, I open a window or use a fan. That stove will set there and just idle for a long time. When I need some heat, I open the draft control as needed and I have the heat that I need.

 
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mozz
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Post by mozz » Fri. Oct. 31, 2008 7:08 pm

One bad thing about shutting them down is the fly ash is somewhat corrosive. Mostly when dampness is added to the flyash it will start to rust things such as the stove pipe and metal surfaces. Figure out how much pounds a day it uses on idle and calculate it out. The closer you are to the source of coal the cheaper it is. If my Leisure line used 10 lbs a day, it would cost me 90 cents a day to keep it running. A coal mouse is about a dollar so it would cost me more to shut it down and relight! Somebody will chime in with pictures showing you how the rust looks. I lit mine once last year then shut it off 5 or 6 months later.

 
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WNY
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Post by WNY » Fri. Oct. 31, 2008 7:12 pm

I usually just keep mine running, just back the feed down a bit, just so it doesn't go out, we get down in the 30-40's at night and the house does cool down...


 
mjwood0
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Post by mjwood0 » Fri. Oct. 31, 2008 10:21 pm

I've lit mine three times in two years. Went out once during a power outage one year. That's it. I clean it while it's idling, and while most likely not advisable, have even removed the blower motor on my power vent while it's running to clean out that end of things. Only takes about 5 minutes from start to finish so I didn't see too high a risk.

It's much harder and uses more coal / coal mice for me to re-light every time we get warm weather.

 
Dark Jedi
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Post by Dark Jedi » Sat. Nov. 01, 2008 10:32 am

We also live near Binghamton, MJ, so I'm sure you know what the weather is like. It can be 20s today and 50s tomorrow this time of year. My original intent was to start the stove and let it run all winter, using oil to take the chill off when necessary. The coal stove is in the front (west side) 0f the house, so the back is a little cooler but tolerable because we don't mind it cool and the back side gets lots of morning sun. We've had a couple mornings in the 20s and a couple days in the 30s and the coal stove has been doing the job of heating the whole house. Before we got the coal stove I would normally run the oil furnace one cycle in the morning when it was in the 40s and that was usually good for the day (since we're gone by 8), especially if it was uper 50s or 60s. I don't mind doing that. Our oil furnace burns .75 gallon per hour, a cycle on a morning in the 40s takes about a half hour. That roughly translates to about $1.30 to run the furnace once during the day, twice that to take the chill off at night also. So, from a cost point of view, it is clearly cheaper to just run the coal stoker all the time. Coal costs me $225/ton plus tax. So far we've been burning about 200 lbs in a week, but it hasn't been really cold yet. Since the Coaltrol runs the stove for me, I don't have to worry about putting it to "idle" but I can look at the Coaltrol and tell when it is feeding the minimal amount - all day yesterday when it got into the 60s. We keep Coaltrol set at 65. The forecast is for low 60s all next week, but a variation of morning temps from 20s to 40s. I anticipate burning less that 200 lbs next week.

Is it bad for the stove to be on minimal feed all that time? (I like the idle of cleaning then - make sense.)

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