Coal insert - Hitzer 983

[Michael6268]

The whole original concept of a coal stove was to have no power ( think of the old spired parlor stoves much like the Chubby looked). They work silently heating with tons of radiant heat. To add a blower obviously enhances heat distribution.. Kind of like a wood stove with no blower but a much much slower heating curve with coal, so you get long duration heat. What I like about coal is my wife and I both have allergies, much of which is dust or pollen related. Pellets are dusty and it's wood dust so resins and pollen has to be there to some degree. What I don't care for about coal stoves is the large quantity of ash, as in a daily dump of the ash bin. Useless ash, it has no good use in your yard where wood ash is fairly neutral in that regard and much less of it. But anthracite coal is not particularly dusty and what there is doesn't bother us physically. And at that you can wet coal , it then leaves no dust at all. Water and snow have no ill effect on coal what so ever.

Ditto to all that. Yes I like that coal is impervious to water. My supply is out in the snow right now.

 

[velvetfoot]

My supply is out in the snow right now.

How is it stored, if I may ask? Bags? Does one have to be worried about runoff, like for the plants?

 

[alternativeheat]

Ditto to all that. Yes I like that coal is impervious to water. My supply is out in the snow right now.

I have a coal room in the basement, this house was heated with coal back in the day ( central register in the floor now hard wood floor but you can see the change in wood pattern where the register was). But that room is so damp no way I could store bulk pellets in there, I used to have the coal shot down the window in bulk, 3 tons at a time. It could probably hold eight to ten tons.

 

[Michael6268]

Its bagged. But I have used bulk in the past. Only thing with bulk if it gets wet and then freezes, its nearly impossible to scoop up. I kept the bulk covered.
I never did a soil test or anything, but I dont think run off would be an issue. Anthracite coal is very hard and non porous. Its rock like. You could put it in a bucket of water practicality forever, and it wouldnt even cloud the water Unless it was dusty to begin with. But generally bagged coal isnt dusty. Bulk can be a little due to the handling/abrasivness. If I got a batch of dusty bulk I just wet it down a little.

 

[tjnamtiw]

How is it stored, if I may ask? Bags? Does one have to be worried about runoff, like for the plants?

runoff is for the ash from burning bituminous coal in the plants. Not a concern here.