Largest wood stove possible?

[dictum-SKO]

Relate your water weight to a 125-150lb student. 100 gallons is 800lbs, or 6 students. Seems almost irrelevant when looking at it that way.

That's a good way to put it in the proper perspective. That's what I want, a 100 gallon water tank.

 

[dictum-SKO]

I am not interested in coal, because firewood is about 10 gazillon times more available, it's everywhere. Coal is a special order item. Sometimes people pay to remove it from their yards. If you don't have it, you can usually find it. and it's trivial to carry a little bit with, well seasoned hardwood.

I don't think I would use it as the primary source but a nice backup to LP.

 

[Rucker]

My Father remembers well stoking the coal furnace when he was growing up, and remembers weekly coal deliveries to each house on the street, as this was the way houses were heated in Philadelphia in the 1940s.

Let's be real about this and set aside the fear mongering.

Is coal a good idea? I did seriously think about it for our bus. As mentioned already I have used it for many years, both for heating and for steam engines.

The good:
A lot more heat per pound than wood, less tending to the fire than wood.

The bad: way more ash to dispose of. It is not as forgiving to keep burning.

As far as CO, any wood or coal stove will be vented outdoors, and a CO detector is a wise idea.

If the plan is to burn coal buy, or build, a stove designed to burn it. Burning coal in a wood stove does not work well, they are built differently. The primary difference is a wood stove the fire is built on firebrick with the combustion air coming around and above the fire. For coal there needs to be a grate the coal sits on and the combustion air comes up through the grate. I would not even try coal in a cubic mini, just not made for it. But a properly designed coal stove can be done safely in a bus if a person was willing to do so.

Ultimately we chose propane, easy and mess free, with easy availability on the road. If we wanted to use it as a winter cabin parked for many months then a wood or coal stove would have been our choice.

All good points, thanks, especially about ash disposal. I remember a thing about 'Monday morning housefires', prevalent with vacation homes where the weekender cleans out the wood stove on Sunday before leaving, dumping the ashes into the trash--only to come back to a smoking cellar hole because, yeah, those ashes are still hot.

The conversation proves we all have different tolerances for risk and reward. For me, coal stoves are in the same category as windmills for power, and tilt-a-whirl solar panels.

 

[cadillackid]

That's a good way to put it in the proper perspective. That's what I want, a 100 gallon water tank.

everyone is fat these days.. count students for 200 lb a piece


I remember when some dumb-arse burnt down the apartment building i was in the process of moving into years ago.. used his fireplace and after the fire was "out" put the ashes in a plastic 5 gallon bucket and stuck em in the hall closet....

 

[Oscar1]

everyone is fat these days.. count students for 200 lb a piece


I remember when some dumb-arse burnt down the apartment building i was in the process of moving into years ago.. used his fireplace and after the fire was "out" put the ashes in a plastic 5 gallon bucket and stuck em in the hall closet....

Seems reasonable! What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Dirtdoctor]

I’ve lived in a tiny home with a “peanut” sized wood stove. It took tons of wood to heat the area, couldn’t hold a fire over night. Frustrating to have to split wood so small just to feed the stove. Now I have a stove that can take a 16” log. Sure it heats up quickly but it will hold a fire over night and I can heat a small space with a small log. Plus the weight is not that big of a deal- two people help lift it only cause it’s bulky. But I love the ease of building the fire and if it gets too hot I can open a window or roof vent. I will never go small even in a 250 sq foot space
Cheers. Oh and pallet wood is readily available as you travel.

 

[DoubleO7]

"Ultimately we chose propane, easy and mess free, with easy availability on the road. If we wanted to use it as a winter cabin parked for many months then a wood or coal stove would have been our choice."

and that right there is why you don't bother burning coal vs wood in a bus. Would be the same logistics nightmare as running your bus engine on propane or natural gas. You would have to map your route and destinations based on where you can get fuel for your bus as well as for heat.

 

[DoubleO7]

One reason a stove is heavy is the utilization of mass to retain and slowly radiate heat over a longer period of not burning the fuel.