Southerner Needs a Primer

Hello to the Coal Pail Community ~ I'm a southern builder who bought a home in the Berkshires just over a year ago. Being in the mountains of the northeast, the home is presently being heated via a wood stove and a propane furnace. I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anyone here, but the cost of propane and the entire process of burning cord wood -- from the acquisition of wood to the time spent tending the fire itself -- are major issues. A friend of ours, in Ithaca, NY, has been telling me to look into burning coal for quite a while...and, this year, to make a long story short, our wood supplier has made things tough on us...so I'm now seriously considering a change to a coal stove.

The builder in me has been looking at the way the present wood stove was installed -- in the basement -- and I'm immediately wondering about the best way to drill the hole for the chimney thimble through the 10" thick concrete basement wall? Although we intend on continuing to use the walk-in basement for our heating equipment, we don't like the present location of the wood stove; hence, my question about drilling through the basement wall.

As for the stove itself, we've got our eye on an Alaskan brand stove, which uses a 6-inch exhaust pipe. Although I'm a rookie when it comes to stove heating, I do understand that a proper chimney thimble will have a larger diameter (OD) than the exhaust pipe itself, so my next question is just how big the hole will have to be for the new coal stove thimble? The OD of the thimble being used with our wood stove is just over 11-inches, so I'm anticipating the need for a very large hole...but I digress and defer to the community.

If anyone might be able to give us a primer on what's involved with installing a proper chimney thimble, we would be very grateful for the advice. Have a great day ~ Hand

You went north, I went south....The thimble size does not have to be larger then the stovepipe. If on an outside wall exposed, the cold will hurt the draft. Coal does not put out a lot of flue heat, like wood. Keeping the flue warm will ensure good draft.
Welcome to the forum. I am sure others will chime in with good advice. You came to the right place.

Kevin

Thanks for the quick response, Kevin. Although the questions I posted relate to a house in the Berkshires, I assure you that my heart -- along with the majority of my family -- is firmly in Dixie. I've been to Chattanooga many times, but not Harrison itself. Regardless, you're obviously no stranger to the mountains, so you should know why we want to make "the switch." Thanks again for contributing to the thread. Have a good one ~ Hand

Welcome to the forum!
Are you planning for a brick or block chimney or a insulated SS chimney? Brick / block with a tile liner will last forever. A good quality SS should last 20+ years (at least mine has). As Kevin mentioned, since the wall is concrete you don't need to oversize it to account for insulation like you would a framed wall. Whatever flue size (OD) the stove calls for should be the size of the hole.

Keep in mind the coal storage when looking at the stove location. Make it as easy as possible for loading from a storage bin or pallets of bagged whichever you end up using.

Watch out for these guys....you start with a hand fed and pretty soon you are installing a boiler....and getting a baseburner for when you lose power!!

You've come to the right place, theres lotsa people here to help you with that.. Could we get some pictures of your current setup and describe more of what you want to accomplish.

You'll be much happier burning coal

Titleist1: Those are great questions...Well, being a novice to the particulars of coal chimneys, the answer is...I don't know. We presently have a (round) stainless steel chimney that rises vertically out of a galvanized thimble, sitting atop a Simpson rest/wall bracket. The stainless chimney flue pipe stays very cool to the touch, so, no doubt, it's proper insulated piping. Am I wrong in thinking that we should use the same type of stainless chimney pipe? The first response I received indicates that we need something that doesn't cool the exhaust gasses down, but, once again, I defer to the forum. By the way, I've already been thinking about what to do when the power goes down. The house is the mountains; hence, my thinking about winter black outs.

Lightning: I will do my best to post photos, if I'm allowed to. Thank you for participating.

Black 6" pipe from stove to thimble--8"-10" would be fine (which ever the 6" will fit through)-pack around black pipe inside thimble with pink insulation--slip beauty ring over pipe to gussy it up & light er up-- Yep--PIX would really help. Look at the HITZER 50-93 along with your Alaskans---hand fired with a hopper would be your best bet as far as power outages--tending every 12 hrs in real cold weather--this season I'm still tending every 24 hrs in a 200 yr old post & beam broke up farm house tightened up best it can be. Hope some of these suggestions help H.

freetown fred: Thanks very for posting. I've got an update for the thread. I removed a large painting that was covering a brick lined wall in the basement and, viola, there's a large piece of plywood covering -- what clearly appears to be -- an opening for a stove pipe. I was wondering why the area under said piece of plywood was tiled and why the brick lining ran around an inside corner. Most of you are probably thinking that it should of been obvious, but I trust that you understand why an old southern vet like myself might have missed it.

Another important thing to note is that the hole in the brick wall is located directly under the fireplace on the floor above the basement. I did have the sense to test the fireplace prior to the purchase and, yes, it draws nicely...but I'm definitely scratching my head about how the old owners of the home used a stove that [apparently] shared the fireplace flue? Does anyone have any thoughts on this new development?

I also have an opening in my basement for the chimney directly under the fire place. Its likely that the chimney has TWO flues in it

Lightning wrote: ↑

Wed. Jan. 15, 2020 6:13 am

I also have an opening in my basement for the chimney directly under the fire place. Its likely that the chimney has TWO flues in it

Yes it should and you may be able to see the two liners sticking out the top of the chimney.

Hand,
Knowing the approximate build date of the house/fireplace along with the pictures will help. In the New England area, older fireplaces sometimes had a covered opening in the floor of the hearth to a large ash pit below. Ashes from the previous nights' fire were swept into this opening. The door near the floor in the basement was used to remove the ashes at end of season. In my house the fireplace opening to the ash pit was removed/bricked over during a later renovation.

Where does the propane furnace exhaust go?

I hate to (read) like such a rookie, once again, but the propane is burned in a fancy boiler system that heats water on demand. The vent for those spent gasses is located on a wall in the same room that our wood stove is in -- but they do not share a flue. The magic piece of plywood I wrote about is located fairly high up on a wall in an entirely different part of the basement.

gaw wrote: ↑

Wed. Jan. 15, 2020 6:21 am

Yes it should and you may be able to see the two liners sticking out the top of the chimney.

From the ground, the "liners" look like ceramic (square) flue pipe, gaw.

Nice on the find & ceramic square on roof top----more then one or just one? H, the only stupid questions on here are the ones we don't ask!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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