Can I Burn Coal in a Wood Stove? How?
Note: This article may contain affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase following our links won’t cost you extra, but we may earn a commission. Learn more
Both wood and coal are fuels. The difference is that one is found in a natural form that is renewable, and the other is found in fossils that will eventually run out. Both of these can be used to produce heat on the stove. If you’re thinking of burning both on the same stove, you should read this article before buying wood and coal together.
Some stoves are designed to burn wood, some are designed to burn coal. There are also some stoves where both can be burned, such as wood-burning stoves. It’s designed so that you can burn coal if you want.
If you are considering using coal to fuel your wood stove, there are a few things you should know. Burning coal in a wood stove is different than burning wood and may require some adjustments to your stove. In addition, the type of coal you use is important to consider. Here is what you need to know about burning coal in a wood stove.
Burning coal in a wood stove is not the same as burning wood. Coal burns hotter than wood, so you will need to make sure your stove is able to handle the higher temperatures. You may also need to adjust the damper to control the airflow and prevent the fire from getting too hot.
The type of coal you use is also important. Soft coal, or bituminous coal, is the best type of coal to use in a wood stove. It burns hot and produces little smoke. Hard coal, or anthracite coal, is a harder type of coal that burns slower and produces more smoke.
Why Can’t You Burn Coal in a Wood Stove?
Before you know “how to burn coal in a wood stove”, you need to know what kind of stove is designed in which structure. Usually, coal cannot be burned inside a wood-burning stove.
To burn coal efficiently in a wood-burning stove requires an air source from the bottom of the fire, so there needs to be a hole in the bottom of the stove that is not in this stove.
The wood burns well in the ash bed, so there will be a flat base under the wood stove firebox that allows the ash to build up in the fire.
Burning coal requires a source of air from the bottom of the fire. We cannot use coal in our wood-burning stove because it’s not set up in favor of burning coal effectively. There is no ventilation system for fire from below.
Even if any ash is made on the stove bed, it must prevent the flow of air from going into the fire. Coal usually burns hotter than wood, and using coal in a wood-burning stove can often cause permanent damage.
Moreover, coal produces much more ash than wood, which is not the design of wood stoves. That’s why there are separate stoves for this. Such as a wood stove for burning wood, a pellet stove for the pellet, and a coal stove for burning coal. So first of all, our advice is not to burn coal on a wood-burning stove.
How to Burn Coal in a Wood Stove?
If you are thinking of burning coal in an alternative stove, you have to collect two things-
1. Collect Coal Allowed Stoves
If you want to burn coal in a wood-burning stove, it’s known as a “Multi-fuel stove” which you will need. These stoves are designed to allow you to burn a variety of solid fuels, such as wood and coal. These are set up in such a way that air can go to the fire from either the top or the bottom.
Some of the stoves have metal grates at the base of the firebox to help burn wood or coal inside the stove. It keeps the ashes in a separate compartment so that the air doesn’t get blocked here and gets to the beginning of the fire. All stoves that are designed to burn coal must have a grate in the firebox, though all stoves with a grate aren’t suitable for burning coal.
2. Collect Multi-fuel Conversion Kit
There are also several specific models of wood-burning stoves, which recognize your stove to convert a lot of fuel and allow you to burn wood as well as coal inside the stove.
For this, you need to buy a ‘multi-fuel conversion kit’, which converts the stove into a lot of fuel. This kit replaces the base of the wood-burning stove and adds a metal grate, ash pan bogie, and additional air vent to the stove.
This metallic grate and excess air vent help provide coal at the beginning of the fire to allow coal to burn, and its ash pan bogie collects any ash during a coal fire.
If you want to burn coal on your stove, you should first make sure that the stove is a multi-fuel stove, and has a grate. Our recommendation is you never burn wood and coal at the same time.
Finally
So, the answer is Yes, you can burn coal on a wood stove, but you must take some precautions. Coal burns hotter than wood, so you need to make sure that your stove is designed to handle the higher temperatures. You also need to be sure that you have good ventilation; coal produces more carbon monoxide than wood, so you need to make sure that the area around your stove is well-ventilated.
Related post: