The flood did some damage to the coal stove this past September. During the flood, the stove sat in 18 inches of water for three days. The water rusted the stove and then stained all the brick with the rust from the stove as the water receded. (The stove sits on, what is now, a rusted brick platform...it's as awesome as it sounds). Now I have a hideous rusted coal stove with rusted brick that does not currently heat our house. We are still waiting for the coal stove company to come inspect it and tell us if it can be used.
This is the picture the Alaska Stove company has on their website.
I assure you that no functioning coal stove looks like this, nor is it ever the focal point of a room. Most coal stoves are hidden away in a part of the basement that no one wants to see. What this pictured coal stove is missing is the buckets in which you have to shovel the ashes into twice a day, the soot and ashes that stain the floor, the shovel, matches, coal starters..... oh and the two or three tons of coal it takes to heat your house for the winter.
It's cheaper to buy the coal in bulk. It is delivered by a huge dump truck that backs up to the cellar doors and pours it into the cellar/coal room. Then you must store it in huge bins, water it to keep the coal dust at bay, then shovel it into buckets (morning and night) to carry it to the stove to shovel into the stove to heat your house.
I have been able to convince Jim that it is not worth the effort to have it in bulk, so we buy it in 50lb bags. We go through about a bag a day, depending on outside temperatures. Every morning Jim drags out a 50 lb bag of coal into the family room and shovels it into the back of the stove and then removes the ashes from the front of the stove that shares a room with our TV and toys. It is very messy (I just figured out this year that a shop vac is probably the best way to clean up coal).
Did I mention this is a stove that burns real fire from real coals to heat my house? AND it actually requires electricity to run, it has to be plugged in to run the fan that blows on the coals to keep the fire going, Jim shovels hot coals into a big bucket and leaves it there until it cools down and then transports it to the trash outside. As soon as he wakes up, comes home for work, or enters the house the first words out of his mouth are "I need to check the coal."
If not properly maintained the coal will burn out (daily). It is not easy to start the coals on fire, we have to buy special coal starter kits regularly from the hardware store.
However, I must admit that it keeps the house toasty warm. Our basement is usually an unbearable 80-85 degrees in the winter and the top floor stays around 75 degrees.
Since our coal stove is temporarily out of commission we are using baseboard heaters. I am very excited for this experiment to see if it coal is actually worth the cost and effort compared to the cost of electricity.
I really hope electricity wins.
To those of you who have central heat and air, kiss your thermostat. I had central heat and air my entire life and I never had any clue there were other methods to heat or cool your home. I promise if the day comes where I can have central heat again I will never take it for granted!
