Topic: wood in a coal burning fireplace?

[heffay]

we were told when we moved in that the fireplace was designed for coal (many coal mines underneath us).  they said if you burn a wood fire make it small or it will fill the house w/ smoke.
with the bit of research that i've done i think it may have more to do w/ the fact that there are no doors on the fireplace rather than coal vs. wood.
our utility bill doubled recently (123.00 to 251.00)so we nixed the air conditioning and we're gonna build fires in the fireplace (in the winter!) instead of setting the mood w/ the candles that are in it now.
the flue seems plenty big, about 2 feet by 4 inches.
i'll put doors on it but i think that should probably do it... what are your thoughts and suggestions?

[heffay]

and maybe relocate the speaker wires and burn the initial creosote log to clean it up a bit.   

[tbpmusic]

It probably hasn't been used in some years, so be safe and call in a chimney-sweep dude.
It's one of the leading causes of home fires.
The small cost is good insurance, best to play it safe.
Coal can seriously accumulate crud.

bill2

[heffay]

It probably hasn't been used in some years, so be safe and call in a chimney-sweep dude.
It's one of the leading causes of home fires.
The small cost is good insurance, best to play it safe.
Coal can seriously accumulate crud.

bill2

probably will and the prop. manager may actually pay for it anyway.   

[Glenn Stauffer]

I'd get the chimney cleaned regardless of what you do.  I've actually never heard of a fireplace for coal burning that wasn't some sort of inset stove - maybe it is a western thing since the coal is different out there from the anthracite coal common in these parts.

I can't think of any reason why the draft requirements would be any different for burning coal than burning wood - if anything, I'd think coal would require more of a air draw.
Anyway, I'd get andirons or a fireplace grill.  I wouldn't worry about doors on it; personally I hate screens too except that they keep the sparks from catching stuff on fire - both doors and screens block too much of the heat.

Personally, I'm looking into installing one or two multi-fuel stoves this year.  Our fireplaces are no good for heating - way too inefficient.  But gotta do something to allow us to effectively retire the oil furnace since that'll be like burning $20's for heat.

[Drewery]

A few years ago I was in a shop where the guy had a corn burning stove. It gave off an amazing amount of heat for almost nothing in cost. I suppose another bad use of food used for energy instead of feeding people, but anyway I've never seen such a system for sale anywhere. Whatever happened to those stoves I wonder.

[rhos1355]

Heffers,
Forget the fireplace; more than 40% of the heat goes up the chimney spout anyway. We had our wood burning stove installed last year.
1) calculate the volume of the area you want to heat. On the web there are sites that will convert this value into Kilowatts require to heat that area.
2) get a chimney sweep to clean out the chimney.
3) have a chimney soundness test made to check for leaks.
4) Buy the appropiate stove (gas, wood, coal or combined wood and coal) correct to the Kilowatt outage value required.
5) Get the supplier to install it himself or suggest an approved installer for you. Make sure the installer puts in a chimney liner (very expensive - £900=$1800, but safest option) and insulates it.

Light stove, sit as snug as a bug all winter. Most efficient way to heat your living room/house.
Ours is only 4 kW and boy does it kick out some heat.

[Glenn Stauffer]

A few years ago I was in a shop where the guy had a corn burning stove. It gave off an amazing amount of heat for almost nothing in cost. I suppose another bad use of food used for energy instead of feeding people, but anyway I've never seen such a system for sale anywhere. Whatever happened to those stoves I wonder.

I think the trend is toward multi-fuel stoves so you can buy wood pellets, corn, and "biomass" which can be wheat, cherry pits, and other things.  Doing a quick check, it looks like corn vs wood pellets is pretty much even.  Corn is down to $6+/bushel (56lbs) and wood pellets cost around $350/ton in eastern PA - on a BTU basis, that puts them about even with a small advantage to corn at current prices from what I've read.  The nice thing about the multi-fuel stoves is that you have options and can get fuel a variety of places all season long.

[Rocking-M]

Hef, you shouldn't need a chimney liner if the flue was originally built with one. Most all since the 40's have been I think.
Just have it checked closely for cracks when you have it cleaned.

If your going the indoor stove route check Vermont Castings out. They are great stoves and really efficient.
A Soap Stone one if you can find a deal is really a nice set up.

[heffay]

Keep warm.

being that denver came one degree from breaking the all time heat record yesterday and on thursday the longest string of days over 90 record was broken (and still going)... i'm not having much trouble w/ that one ichi!  the whole "no air conditioning" test is incredibly hard when the AC is just sitting in the garage.     <that is sweat, i don't cry.   

thanks for all the help guys... i'd pretty much come to a lot of those conclusions as well.  i think it may have been more a ploy by the property manager to just keep us from using it.

i'll call her and ask her to have it cleaned/checked... i think i might want to cut all the ivy from the top of the chimney as well.    

[alltherightpills]

A few years ago I was in a shop where the guy had a corn burning stove. It gave off an amazing amount of heat for almost nothing in cost. I suppose another bad use of food used for energy instead of feeding people, but anyway I've never seen such a system for sale anywhere. Whatever happened to those stoves I wonder.

My uncle built a new garage onto his house and is using a furnace called "A-Maize-ing Heat" that obviously burns corn.  It has a hopper with an auger that automatically feeds the corn into the furnace when needed.  He ran pipes in the concrete floor so it heats the concrete rather than the air in the garage, so when he opens the garage door it doesn't take very long for the room to heat back up.  He is a farmer though, so he just sets aside some corn for the winter.  It is a pretty cool system, though with the price of corn at an all time high, I am not sure if he is saving money or losing money by doing this. 

[martino1972]

boot out fireplace,put in wood stove.........
we had times where it was minus 42 celsius(-43.6 f) where we had to open a window,so bloody hot the woodstove was..

[heffay]

don't forget guys... we rent.  unless, they pay me to install said stove... its fireplace or nuthin'.

but yes, i understand the stove vs. place... i grew up in KS in a 100+ year old farmhouse w/ nothing but a woodstove.  the ranch i work on in southpark has stove heat too... very efficient if you know what to do.

[Uncle Ernie]

Wood In A Coal Burning Stove

Sounds like an old Loretta Lynn song- 

[Bodi]

Umm.. so buy a sack of coal?

[heffay]

Umm.. so buy a sack of coal?

if you had any idea of the amount of diseased trees that have died in the last year in colorado, you wouldn't have said that... funny still.   

the one lump in my stocking every year never does go very far. 

[Rocking-M]

Hey Heffay, if you did go the stove route it could be a simple install so you could take it with you
when you get your place.