How Efficient Is It? Isn’t It Really Dirty? Is It Safe?
Winter’s just around the corner and if you live in the north, you may already be thinking about how cold it was last year and how much you paid to heat your home. Maybe you have a friend who uses a coal stove and swears by it. He says he was toasty all winter, he spent less than $1,000 to heat the whole house for the winter and he never had to get up in the middle of the night to stoke the fire. How does a coal stove work? Is it cost efficient? Isn’t it really dirty? Is it safe?
How Does a Coal Stove Work?
A coal stove works much the same way that a wood stove works. There’s a firebox that has a slotted metal floor, allowing air to come in from underneath. There’s typically also an ash pan underneath. The stove has venting to allow you to control the amount of oxygen coming into th firebox, which lets you control the amount of heat the stove produces.
Coal stoves come in two styles—the hand-fired stove that requires that you manually add coal to the fire and so-called “stoker stoves,” which automatically feed coal from a storage bin and will often be tied to a thermostat.
Because coal burns longer, you can typically add fuel to the fire before you go to bed and it will still be burning when you get up.
Doesn’t a Coal Stove Produce Smoke and Leave Soot in Your Home?
Not necessarily. Modern coal stoves are designed to burn hard coal, or anthracite, which typically burns with little to no smoke and leaves no coal dust. If you burn bituminous, or soft coal, though, you can expect both soot and smoke. Coal does leave far more ash than a wood-burning stove, so you’ll have to empty the ash pan on a regular basis.
Isn’t Coal Inconvenient?
You’re probably imagining a big pile of coal in your back yard or a coal chute in your basement. That’s not how the coal is provided for home coal stoves, though. It typically comes in 40 lb. bags and there are many companies that will sell you a skid (usually about a ton of coal). The cost of a skid can vary from approximately $375 to $650, depending on where you get it. Most experts estimate that it will take about two tons of coal to heat a 2,000 square foot home for the winter. Helpful hint—if you live near Amish country, you can probably get your coal cheaper. Most Amish families use coal stoves and there are Amish who sell coal as well.
Is a Coal Stove Safe?
Because anthracite coal produces carbon monoxide gas, it’s essential that you properly vent your stove and that you install carbon monoxide detectors. When properly installed, though, a coal stove can be as safe as any heat source.
