Learning Coal

Learning to keep a coal burning furnace has definitely been experience. First we had to clean out the furnace, clean the bonnet and clean the chimney. Having never seen this down before it was a neat experience to say the least. Mountain Man climbed on the roof with this wire brush with lots of extending poles and started sweeping the chimney till he reached the bottom, where his dad was shoveling out the soot in the basement at the base of the chimney.

You have to make sure you have enough hot coals to burn the coal so Mountain Man started with a nice hot wood fire and then adds coal when that is nice and hot. We only have to start a fresh fire a couple times a season when we have to clean the whole furnace. It has also been a journey figuring how much airflow it needs to make it warm or to let it cool down. This furnace has no thermostat, just a fan that starts blowing when the temp in the furnace reaches 250 degrees and then shuts off when it gets down to 150!! So when its hot, it's hot, we have had to open the doors because it got to 85 degrees in the house. 

Mountain Mans dad says that it should take about 3 tons of coal and right now coal is going for $70 a ton.  So no too bad when our electric bills in Illinois ran about $100 a month from November till about March. I really do enjoy poking around at the fire and adding coal when its needed, however it isn't much fun getting up in the middle of the night or early in the morning to check it. We will get the hang of it soon and maybe won't be checking it as much!