# Heating with wood/coal stoves



## Grafton County Couple (Sep 20, 2018)

My wife & I have begun to explore alternative heating options and are interested in hearing from those among you who have experienced heating with combo wood/coal and or coal stoves.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

We have used a wood heater since 1979. It's a vintage Earth Stove.

It has been a fantastic heater. It still has the original fire brick.


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## hiddensprings (Aug 6, 2009)

we put a wood stove in our house last winter and absolutely love it. My furnace rarely comes on unless we are really, really below zero. We have plenty of wood on our property so other than chopping and splitting, there's not much to it.


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## Grafton County Couple (Sep 20, 2018)

Thanks for your responses. We switched to wood heat some years ago and have really enjoyed it. I apologize for not being more specific when posting and have since edited it.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

If it makes a difference make sure you are covered by your Insurance.

big rockpile


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## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

I LOVE my wood stove.

http://www.quadrafire.com/


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## GTX63 (Dec 13, 2016)

Here is the one we use. Love it. Haven't had the furnace on for 8 years. Wood heat does not compare to gas/electric forced air.
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## ridgerunner1965 (Apr 13, 2013)

I wish I could get coal here. coal can be used in a wood stove if you use it sparingly. a handful here and there.


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## Grafton County Couple (Sep 20, 2018)

ridgerunner1965 said:


> I wish I could get coal here. coal can be used in a wood stove if you use it sparingly. a handful here and there.


Our local Tractor Supply carries 40lb bags of nut coal (anthracite) for $6.29 a bag.


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## Meinecke (Jun 30, 2017)

We had wood stove and loved it but the all over the year wood gathering, hauling and stacking etc made us think and we ended up with a pellet stove from tractor surprise...and so far no regret...
It sits on a UPS so that we have still heat if power goes down and the reduced hauling and dirt is a real benefit...


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I burn wood.
my 3100 step top is just a smaller version of the stove HDRider posted above.

I wouldn't mess with coal , collect split and stack your wood under a roof for best results if you can.

did some price comparison the stove has paid for it's self years ago even when we figured chainsaws and wood splitter in we are still well ahead and the heat , we can keep the house so much warmer than we could burning oil. 

to keep the house 67 degrees based on previous usage this years oil price would have been about 2250 dollars.

the furnace goes days without kicking in when it does run it is generally for a short time in the morning before I get the fire built again if it isn't too cold out say 22 for an average I can wake up once in the night to feed the stove 

it takes my son and I about 4 hours to cut split and stack in the shed a heaping truckload of wood about 2/3 of a cord I need about 6 of those truck loads to heat for a season.

figuring 24 hours of labor doing something I enjoy 

if you are going to just buy wood your probably ahead burning pellets.

if you dread wood cutting or splitting then buy your heat.

always burn your stove hot for the first loading or two before dampening down , you need a good bed of coals before can load it up, make sure it has all caught well before you damper down. this also helps to keep the creosote down and dry easy to run the brush a few times once a year or even every other year.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Maybe a total of 8 years in my life we have not heated with fire wood. I think the add on wood furnace was the best investment I made in a heating system. I unhooked our electric furnace in 1994 when we were thinking of a new Natural gas furnace.

Not some don't like messing with fire wood I how ever like working with it.
when we first moved here I was buying a 10 cord 8'x8'x4' load of mixed logs from the saw mill a 1/4 mile from my folks. Would take my equipment trailer up there and the next week go retreve it and bring it home to cut up.

They stopped doing their own logging and started buying saw logs from loggers so that dried up. I have my own woods so started culling stuff not fit for lumber many ice damaged Maples. Then EAB hit so all my Ash trees died been cutting them and burning for nearly 20 years. still have a few left for next year to cut yet.

Once all those Ash trees are gone I will start culling out the Elm. No one wants it for lumber and it makes good fire wood plus they die off from dutch elm stuff. 

 Al


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## ridgerunner1965 (Apr 13, 2013)

I have heated with wood for all my life really. my dad heated our house with wood when I was a sprout. I always helped him cut and split it.

when I movd out on my own into a crappy triler house with propane heat I about froze to death.

my dad said hey we got some sycamore trees, if you cut them down and load them in the truck we can take them to the mill and sell them for railroad tie logs. you can have the money and build a addition on your trailer and install a wood stove.

you would have to know my dad, he always had a answer for any problem. I cut and sold the logs and got 200$ for them.

me and dad poured a cement floor and I built the addition. installed a chimmeny made from old well casing. and I had free heat and it was the best thing I ever did. that frigid trailer was now toasty warm all winter.

later I built a new house and moved the same stove into it. still using it 35 yrs later.


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## Grafton County Couple (Sep 20, 2018)

Thanks for your responses everyone. After doing some online research, contacting sellers re: prices (stove & coal), my wife and I have decided to stick to heating with the wood stove.


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## diltine (Dec 26, 2018)

I tried using it but not efficient in terms of price. Better if wood only and could even last long plus we don't have to buy them since we just pick or cut some from the nearby woods.


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## Revolvers&coal (Feb 10, 2019)

Grafton County Couple said:


> Thanks for your responses everyone. After doing some online research, contacting sellers re: prices (stove & coal), my wife and I have decided to stick to heating with the wood stove.


I know I'm a little late to the thread but I've burned pellets, wood and coal. All three are good heat but I've settled on coal. Price,time saved splitting wood and long over night burns were the deciding factors.


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## Revolvers&coal (Feb 10, 2019)

One other thing i forgot to mention. If you go with a hand fired coal stove,you can always burn wood during the day and burn coal over night.


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## CKelly78z (Jul 16, 2017)

We have burnt about 5 cords of wood a year for the last 25 years, and love it.

When we moved into our farmhouse, I called the propane company to see about getting our 1000 gallon tank filled. They said that they filled it 2 times each of the previous years, and the P.O. used an average of 2100 gallons to stay marginally warm in an uninsulated 2000 SF house with no wind breaks. 25 years ago at $1.19 a gallon(now twice that price) they were spending $2500 a year for just heat (water heater, and cook stove are electric).

We put up a triple wall 6" stainless chimney, and bought a Regency large woodstove that is advertised as having the most 3/8" thick steel on the market (650#, and hard to move). Our stove pays for itself every year we operate it, especially when you consider the $2.50+ a gallon price.

I have looked around for lump coal by the load, and in our area, it is expensive, i'm not going to buy 40# bags at retail price either.


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## weaselfire (Feb 7, 2018)

The problem with coal is delivery and storage. In some areas, the cost of delivery will kill you. In others, it's dirt cheap.

Wood is similar except you can cut it yourself if you have it available. Then it beats the cost of almost everything.

Jeff


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

if you have a good sourse for good coal ,its hard to beat . i live in coal country and its getting harder to find but i can drive and buy a pickup load . it makes a good heating fire that lasts . no creostat build up in the chimney ,but coal stoves are getting hard to find , as is coal


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## ydderf (Dec 15, 2018)

We have heated with wood for 19 years with electric back up for overnights away from home (they work on either end of the heating season) during the worst of the winter we have friends who will feed the wood stove. We use Fir primarily this year I tried some aspen it works well also.
Our stove is a huge old cast iron monster brand unknown. The fire box is 21 inches square with 20 inches height when loaded with care it will burn for 10 or 12 hours when unattended. I have a square box fan that blows the heat down the hallway to the bedrooms and washrooms. During the worst weather I have a small electric heater to warm the bathroom before showers.
We get ;lots of comments about smelling like a fire but when we mention we heat with wood people are all smiles and tell us they enjoy the smell.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

GREENCOUNTYPETE said:


> if you are going to just buy wood your probably ahead burning pellets.
> 
> if you dread wood cutting or splitting then buy your heat.
> .


I am not overly fond of cutting and splitting wood, but even less fond of working at some brain dead job for endless hours to buy my heat. Its hard work but for a small house it really doesnt take that many total hours to process enough wood to heat it. Whole lot less hours than it takes to earn the money to buy fuel.

Saying that yea, old enough I can see the day I will probably burn pellets. Its cheaper than propane if I could even get propane delivered.... And hey at that point if I have to fill the hopper one coffee can full pellets at a time with can in basket on my walker, so be it. Give me something to do to feel important.


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## ridgerunner1965 (Apr 13, 2013)

yeah I don't know what ill do when I cant heat with wood.

im 53 now and have done it all my life.my dad did it too and still does.

I have propane heat and electric but that costs money, wood is free.

I even cook with wood about 50% of the time.

there is a wood pellet shortage here now. it seem to get worse every year.


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