COAL BURNING anyone???

[palerider0485]

i have really been considering puting in a wood or coal burning stove into my small to medium size house. 1300 square foot. i have done a little bit of research on coal and it burns longer and hotter. Anthracite Coal burns very clean. i have been thinking about buying a pot belly stove to burn it in. i could also burn wood in the same stove as long as the pieces are small. SO ingoers.... dos anyone around here burn coal??? i dont know anyone. why is that??? if you burn coal, do you like it over wood??? whats the advantages and disadvantages???

 

[PistolBob]

I just know I like the smell of burning coal...reminds me of my childhood in West Virginia.

 

[palerider0485]

thats awesome pistol bob. im sure in west virginia where its mined, its burned, im sure some poeple down there still burn it.

 

[indyjohn]

Seems like a throwback to bygone days. So, why not? We harvest coal right here in Indiana. Some folks may very well be predisposed to its availability which would make it a very attractive fuel alternative if that was me.

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

If any of you know where a guy could find a truckload of coal, I'd love to come back to this thread and find out about it. I'm east of Muncie, and did burn some a few years ago just to try it out. I'd love to have a little stash of it out in a shed.

 

[PistolBob]

We used to pick up pieces of coal along the RR tracks by the power plant on the southside of Indy. Some would always fall off the coal cars that fed the plant. We'd use it in campfires when we'd camp out in the woods....got really hot and lasted a long time.

 

[Expat]

I just know I like the smell of burning coal...reminds me of my childhood in West Virginia.

Amen to that... except Eastern KY here.

In addition to along the tracks, I remember some people would go to the mouths of auger holes and pick up coal... I don't even know if they auger for coal any more though.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I remember my dad getting small loads of coal to burn in our fireplace when I was a kid. I looked into it once several years ago, but the only suppliers I found wanted me to buy like 5 tons or more. Not sure where dad got ours, but it wasn't anywhere near that much. Of course that's been almost 50 years ago.

 

[TaunTaun]

i have really been considering puting in a wood or coal burning stove into my small to medium size house. 1300 square foot. i have done a little bit of research on coal and it burns longer and hotter. Anthracite Coal burns very clean. i have been thinking about buying a pot belly stove to burn it in. i could also burn wood in the same stove as long as the pieces are small. SO ingoers.... dos anyone around here burn coal??? i dont know anyone. why is that??? if you burn coal, do you like it over wood??? whats the advantages and disadvantages???

You have to keep in mind, Anthracite is the rarest form of the 4 major coal types, thus more expensive than the others. At the same time, you don't want to use brown coal or a high sulfur bituminous or subbituminous. You kind of have to evaluate things by figuring how much heating you have to do.

A couple things to look out for. Coal is measured in three ways. Short Ton (2k lbs), Long Ton (2k kg), and Metric Ton (1k kg). So when you are talking to someone, make sure you are both on the same wavelength when talking about price, etc.

Some fuel comparisons here:
Anthracite, will give you about 13K BTU's, or up to around 14K BTU's if it is an ash-free and dry. (This can vary widely depending on where the coal was mined from, etc. When talking to someone about purchasing a bunch of coal for home use, be sure to get the materials report on the coal, so you know the content. No sense in getting a batch high in arsenic or sulfur). On the low end, it'll give you about 12K BTU. Note that all of this is per pound of coal.

180 Gallons of #2 Heating Oil equals about 1 ton anthracite.
1 Cu ft. NG equals 1035 BTU, thus 26080 cu ft of NG equals 1 ton anthracite.
For electric, 7325 kilowatts equals 1 ton anthracite.
For propane, 298 gallons equals 1 ton anthracite.

Right now, good northern appalachian anthracite will run you about $60 to $65 per short ton. (This isn't including shipping and local availability mind you...)
For NG, you are looking at about $7 during the feasting times, and about $15 during the famine (winter, etc) per 1k Cu Ft. So $182 on the short end, or $390 on the long for the equivalent of 1 ton anthracite.
For Electric, 11.9 cents per kilowatt hour, so about $871 for the equivalent of 1 ton anthracite.
For propane, It's about $2.5 per gallon on average for the last year (lets not worry about the extreme propane shortage last winter at the moment), so $745 for the equivalent of 1 ton anthracite.

So, purely on a price perspective, coal wins hands down. Depending on your heating efficiency of your stove and the insulation in your house, you could probably get away with about $700 for your heating bill per YEAR if you go with coal.

The main problems are having a furnace big enough to actually heat the house, and yet small enough to not make a huge footprint. Then you have to factor in dealing with all the ashes, storing the coal, getting it to the furnace (I love those old coal chutes, my last place had one though no coal furnace), getting good quality coal delivered relatively cheaply. Naturally, this means that you are putting in a great deal more time than most people do when controlling heating and cooling in their houses. It is the convenience and ease that has taken people away from using coal, and to our other sources.


SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooo... Now we get into a bit of market forecast.

Coal is going to get kicked in the scrotum here in a few years. We just came off of a record high prices for coal a few years back, and now we are on the low side again. Coal plants are going to be shutting down, and 90% of the nation's coal production goes to the power industry. The remaining is split between steel plants, metallurgical testing, home use, other. Unfortunately, the coal you'd be looking at will probably not vary much, since it isn't part of the 90% market of the coal produced. However, a lot of coal will be going overseas, or some of these facilities will shut down because of their market going away. This COULD produce a shortage of anthracite as well, so prices may go up outside of 5 years.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

3-4 years ago, there was some to-do about a guy burning coal in Mitchell. The neighbors were all upset, etc. But I never did hear how it was resolved.

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Heck, I'd just like to find a working coal yard in southern indiana oor or ohio or northern kentucky where I could pick up a pickup truck load or two.

 

[Leadeye]

Check your stove before you look at burning coal, stove manufacturers draw a distinction between wood and coal. Like GFGT says, if you live in town neighbor complaints are a potential problem.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Heck, I'd just like to find a working coal yard in southern indiana oor or ohio or northern kentucky where I could pick up a pickup truck load or two.

That's what I was thinking. We mainly use our fireplace just for ambiance, but when it's really cold, it would be nice to be able to throw a couple chunks of coal on there and let it burn all night. It's got a passive heat circulation system - two "cold air" vents down below the level of the firebox and two "hot air" vents above - so while it's not as efficient as an insert and forced air, it's better than just a standard fireplace.

 

[ghitch75]

Heck, I'd just like to find a working coal yard in southern indiana oor or ohio or northern kentucky where I could pick up a pickup truck load or two.

this is a number for a Peabody mine near Montgomery In.......1-812-644-7323

last year it was 50 a ton for lump and 55 a ton for stoker.....will be headin' down there for 3 ton in a few week.....i have a outdoor boiler....

and as said above make sure your stove can handle it so you don't have a china syndrome!!!!!!

 

[DeadeyeChrista'sdad]

Thanks!

 

[red_zr24x4]

I just know I like the smell of burning coal...reminds me of my childhood in West Virginia.

Amen to that... except Eastern KY here.

In addition to along the tracks, I remember some people would go to the mouths of auger holes and pick up coal... I don't even know if they auger for coal any more though.

Except northern Indiana.
We burnt coal up until I was about 14. I can remember Dad going and getting truck loads at the elevator,but I can't remember where the elevator was...Knox..Sw of Plymouth somewhere... Anyway check some of the co-op's close by they might still carry it.

 

[indyjohn]

and as said above make sure your stove can handle it so you don't have a china syndrome!!!!!!

So, you can't throw a little bit of stoker into a pot belly stove & get away with it? What does it take to make a stove capable to handle four or six lbs. of coal?

 

[ghitch75]

oh yes you can get by with it mixing it with wood.....just keep in the center as if it gets a lot of air it can torch the steel....

 

[indyjohn]

oh yes you can get by with it mixing it with wood.....just keep in the center as if it gets a lot of air it can torch the steel....

Oh! I understand what you're saying there...

SIDEBAR: How did steam locomotives get around that? Different grade of steel for the grate in the firebox?

 

[ghitch75]

Oh! I understand what you're saying there...

SIDEBAR: How did steam locomotives get around that? Different grade of steel for the grate in the firebox?

that and water would keep them cooler so to speak...