It was a mix of pea and nut coal from what I could tell...mine runs Nut which is a bit larger than most of what we brought back. As mentioned before the smaller stuff can get going more easily but what really makes heat is airflow through the coal stack and the smaller stuff packs more densely. Learning when and how to rock the shaker grates for your stove & coal is an acquired skill.
How's your foot feeling?
(re: not so gentle landing)
You'll likely want a mechanical damper in the chimney stack as well (see my pics here)...there's some debate whether it's better to have it before or after the barometric damper. Mine is after and it works fine, but I've got a really good draft in my chimney. The argument for putting it before the barometric one is that if you choke it down, without enough updraft it'll let exhaust come out through the baro and fill your room with CO. Easy enough to rearrange the pieces as needed.
I light mine by putting a small bag of match-light charcoal in the bottom of it, light the bag on fire with the bottom door open and the damper wide open, get a good charcoal base going and start shoveling coal on top. It'll take a few buckets to fill initially.
[486] - re: burning other stuff in it. Coal burns from the bottom of the stack. You regulate it by adjusting the intake on the lower door, and the draft in the flue. When you rock the shaker grates the ash from the bottom of the stack falls into the pan. Above the coal stack where the upper door is generally doesn't have enough oxygen to burn things, and can also build up volatiles from the coal outgassing as it heats up, especially when it's freshly loaded. The upper door intakes usually get opened slightly on a fresh batch to give a little oxygen to the top to burn off the gasses, and then you'll usually shut them. You have to be careful opening the door because you'll get a backdraft if there's anything up there and it makes a pretty good explosion. (for example, I can throw a wad of paper on top of the coal and shut the door, and it'll smolder for a bit. Then open the door again and it lights right the fuck up). Bonus points for doing that when you have the ash door open and the blowback sends ash all over the room.
If you wanted to burn wood in it you'd open the top door vents a lot more and feed it air like a traditional fireplace.
For the coal people following along, here's mine...Coal Baron model from the Pine Barren Stove Co, made just over an hour from me here in NJ. My record is 32 hours between tending it, and it was still going. Last I bought coal it was about $240/ton and if I run it hot enough to keep the far end of the house at least 60 or so, the flue temps are just around 200 and it'll do a bucket every 16 hours, could probably stretch that more. I wouldn't imagine using more than 1.5 tons for the season, probably less. That said, unless it's gonna be below freezing for a long time and I'll be home that entire time, I rarely use it. My house is forced-air natural gas and it's not worth the work to keep the main living room uncomfortably hot with windows open and have to build my schedule around it. But if the furnace takes a shit or the power goes out? Certainly nice to have a reliable backup.
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