How to heat your house with wood or coal.

Winter is just around the corner - I saw leaves changing on my way home today. I had to close a window in my bedroomlast night. This makes me have to consider the impending cold weather.

Many rural WV families still have wood and coal stoves.

In order to heat your home with a woodstove...
First you need some woods - deciduous hardwood (trees that drop their leaves) are good with oak, ash and locust being the best but one can burn just about any wood once it is seasoned (dried out). Green (freshly cut) wood and conifers (like pines and spruces and hemlock) can be burnt too but they are hard to get lit and smoke excessively and dont heat as welland are prone to clogging your chimney.Wood cut at least one year in advance burns better, hotter, and more efficiently.

Chimneys are another topic to touch on briefly. One needs a way for the smoke and poisonous carbon monoxide from burning wood and coal to exit the home( without allowing it to carry the heat out with it). Chimneys should reach above the crest of your roof and be of stone or triple wall pipe and extreme care should be taken that they are cleaned out and serviceable throughout the year .
A by-product of smoke  called creosote will coat your chimney walls and, if allowed to build up, can catch fire start inside your chimney. Chimneys are designed to carry smoke, not fire, so a fire in your chimney could cause it to fall apart and allow the fire into your attic or living space. A chimney should always create a draw or updraft through it.

So you have wood and chimney now you need to decide on a stove the best stoves are those that are of a thick enough metal and tightly enough constructed to seal well because- as I will discuss below, air control is fire control.

Stoves can be made for big logs or small blocks, to get hot and heat up water fast  or cook food or to bank up , shut down and leave for days at a time. All stoves have a draft - which is a door near the bottom that allows air to enter  and ashes to be removed.  They also have a stovepipe near the top or back containing the damper that allows the smoke into the chimney. You use these to control the stove's heat outputand air flow.

Starting the stove - one needs to start with an empty stove. The damper must be open because you want all the smoke to go up the chimney at first. The draft also needs to be open because a struggling little fire needs lots of air to grow. You start with lighting some some newspaper or a cardboard box or paper bags,  once these are lighted and burning small sticks between the size of  pencils and half dollars (this is kindling (dry pine is best for this)) need to be placed above the burning paper. Then, once these are burning, even larger blocks of wood can be added -about this time some serious heat is coming off your smaller sticks so you can shut the draft, partially at least and the damper a little bit. Once your larger logs ignite then you can shut the draft completley and the damper as much as 90% -if the stove starts smoking into the house it means you have shut your damper too far -open it some. And always open your damper when you get ready to open the door of the stove so the smoke will not spew into the house but don't forget to shut it once you shut the stove or it will allow theheat to go up the stovepipe withthe smoke.

Coal stove operation is exactly the same to this point only witha  coal stove , once the larger block of wood have started and are buring well, you then pour coal in on top of it (see cautionary not below). Coal stoves have fire bricks and heavy grates that protect the metal from melting from their intense heat .

Never leave your draft open when you leave the stove because, even a wood fire, with enough air going through it can turn your stovepipe red hot or melt the stove itself.

Wood burns and turn to ashes that have to be carried out - so does coal. A poker is used to break up big compacted piles of ash and embers from inside the stove to allow the air to circulate better. Pokers are also used to rake and shake the grate so that the ashes fall down out of the combustion chamber and into the ash pan for removal. Be careful when dumping ashes outside that no live coals are mixed in because  they could start a fire wherever you dump you ashes. If you only burn wood or coal the ashes can be poured in a vegetabel garden lot as cheap fertilizer.

There is one other cautionary note regarding burning coal that is kind of scary when you have a lot of hot coals in your stove and then pour in coal it is possible to smother the fire and cause the coat to expel gasses the gasses can then get a spark and blow up (small explosion inside stove) . This causes your damper to blow closed an your house fill with smoke.  beware when adding coal to a hot ashes only add a littl at a time and try to make sure there isn't trash or paper mixed with your coal.

 Always keep your stove and stovepipe a safe distance away from walls and ceilings and watch for hot sparks falling out of your ash pan and draft. a large flat metal street sign can be used under our stove to protect your carpet or floor. There is no better or less expensive heat that that of a hot banked up (full of fuel with hot coals under it and draft and damper shut down tight ) wood or coal stove.

Don't burn plastic, pressure treated woods, painted wood , or petroleum products they are dangerous to breath and will mess up your chimney also glossy paper from magazines and newspapers will not be good for starting fires they smoke too much with foul smelling smoke.