Andrea?

[Username1]

Well While I continue to search CL for a working time machine, I only have today's
energy to look at. And while I have seen many pictures of really smokey smoke stacks
from many years ago, my experiences with coal are quite different. I can hardly tell when
my stove is running, both inside, and outside. But when any of the neighborhood wood stoves are
on I can tell, And the roofs of the oil burners are all pretty dirty compared to mine....

I am sure most stoves are not really that efficient, especially from many years ago, and
smokey fuel rich fires were sources of lots of smoke.... But coal needs a good draft,
and fuel rich air starved coal fires go out, they tend not to smoke.... I think most
of the smoke from what you remember was non anthracite coal fires, or mixed fuel
fires, like yours was, or really poor fire place designs....

I guess I just can't imagine living with something that smokes inside....
Or did I just get lucky....

.

[stusnyder]

Originally Posted by Username1

Well While I continue to search CL for a working time machine, I only have today's
energy to look at. And while I have seen many pictures of really smokey smoke stacks
from many years ago, my experiences with coal are quite different. I can hardly tell when
my stove is running, both inside, and outside. But when any of the neighborhood wood stoves are
on I can tell, And the roofs of the oil burners are all pretty dirty compared to mine....

I am sure most stoves are not really that efficient, especially from many years ago, and
smokey fuel rich fires were sources of lots of smoke.... But coal needs a good draft,
and fuel rich air starved coal fires go out, they tend not to smoke.... I think most
of the smoke from what you remember was non anthracite coal fires, or mixed fuel
fires, like yours was, or really poor fire place designs....

I guess I just can't imagine living with something that smokes inside....
Or did I just get lucky....

.

We have a heat pump, but when it gets real cold, we fire up our harman magnafire coal stove. It's self feed, wall mount thermostat control. Has harmans version of the coal - trol. When the thermostat is not calling for heat, the feeder stops for 10 minutes, then runs for 2 minutes, and continues like that untill the thermostat calls for heat, then the feed kicks on full bore.
Keeps the house within 2 degrees of the thermostat setting. It uses rice coal. the hopper hold 100 pounds.
Our prices are a bit cheaper than yours. We are right in the heart of anthracite country. And you never see nothing out of the chimney, just heat waves.

[decojoe67]

Great to see a classic early post-war tabletop TV in a period photo. 9 out of 10 times it's always a console. It's strange that so many small 7" sets were sold, including the 3" Pilot's, but you almost never see a period picture with one of those in them.
BTW, the Pontiac pedal car would worth a couple of thousand dollars today.

[Username1]

Originally Posted by stusnyder

We have a heat pump, but when it gets real cold, we fire up our harman magnafire coal stove. It's self feed, wall mount thermostat control. Has harmans version of the coal - trol. When the thermostat is not calling for heat, the feeder stops for 10 minutes, then runs for 2 minutes, and continues like that untill the thermostat calls for heat, then the feed kicks on full bore.
Keeps the house within 2 degrees of the thermostat setting. It uses rice coal. the hopper hold 100 pounds.
Our prices are a bit cheaper than yours. We are right in the heart of anthracite country. And you never see nothing out of the chimney, just heat waves.

Great to hear it ! I'm sure the stuff I use comes from there !

My stove I made myself, it's in it's 5th iteration, each rebuild makes it a little
more efficient. And it's made as a furnace, not an actual stove. It has provisions
to make it automatic, but right now it's manual feed, with appliance timers
running all the fans. Same as the air handler, timer over-ride so I can
have the coal stove heat the house or solar, and the coils stay off...

No smoke here either, you can't tell when it's on by any smell, just when
you start it with wood first off....

As mine is manual, I can use any size coal, last year the local guy ran out of
rice, I generally use nut, he has it, they all seem to have nut pretty abundantly.

Funny note: Watched the Honeymooners last night, Norton and Ralph took a
civil service exam, one question was about math and heating, and they gave
coal cost at $15./ton..... Ralph made $62./week as a Dus Briver....(another episode)

.

[stusnyder]

[QUOTE=Username1;3122715]Great to hear it ! I'm sure the stuff I use comes from there !


No smoke here either, you can't tell when it's on by any smell, just when
you start it with wood first off...

I found a easy way to light mine off. I use a 120 volt heating element out of a rv refrigerator, just bury it in the coal, plug it in and turn on the combustion blower. Within a few minutes you got a line of coal burning. Unplug and lift it out of the coal.

[Steve D.]

Not to dwell on the pedal car, but it is a 1956 Pontiac. Similar to the '55 but the side chrome trim, ect, is different. The '55 is on the left. '56 on the right.

-Steve D.