Wanted to say thanks. Last wood fire

[Shaun643]

Thanks everyone iam surprised to see all the chatter about this. To answer some questions. Yes the coal stove can go in my living room it will sit right where my wood stove was. Since I have had to buy wood the past two years it is actually cheaper for me to buy coal. Iam not in coal country so I have to buy it in pallet form not as cheap as by the truck load but it is still cheaper then wood. No more mess from wood no more wait for a fresh load of wood to get burning good then turning the stove down slowly. All I have to do is keep coal in the hopper and shake the grates. The stove can be run at much lower temperatures so no over heating the house in fall and spring. I have been doing my research on coal for the past three years and have found that anything about coal is better than wood. Only thing I'll miss from the wood stove is the smell when iam out side. I have to point out that this is anthracite coal which is very clean burning. I noticed a question about heat compared to wood. Their is not one tree species that can put out the BTUs of coal. This coal stove is my only source of heat and so was my wood stove. I have made this decision knowing it will be better overall for me and my family in money and time and cleanliness.

 

[Dieselhead]

Is there a need to sweep the chimney?

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Coal improved the lives of millions of millions of people.

And, killed millions and millions, too. Maybe all of us before it's over.

Guess your kids or grandchildren will let you know!

 

[Ludlow]

And, killed millions and millions, too. Maybe all of us before it's over.

Guess your kids or grandchildren will let you know!

My kids are enjoying the best time in human history to be alive. Take the miracle of coal out of the equation and what it meant in terms of heat and light and industrialization and this world would be very different for all of us. Just one example: No coal no steel! Each person in the U.S. uses 3.7 tons of coal annually whether they want to admit it or not.
There are downsides to everything in life but the benefits to humans of coal drastically outweighed the risks.

 

[Calentarse]

That’s when I switched. I can’t drag stoves around all day and process wood.. After the switch I can honestly say I wish I would have switched to coal years a ago. Until you’ve experienced it, you just won’t believe how much easier it is. The hard part for me is to look out the window at all the dead fall oak and hickory, but not being able to go after it.

Just post here and we'll take care of it for you

 

[webby3650]

Im not sure if burning coal will properly align with the politics on this forum. I wish we had coal available here, sounds like a great fuel.

And, killed millions and millions, too. Maybe all of us before it's over.

Guess your kids or grandchildren will let you know!

Highbeam, I guess this is the kind of crap you were referring to?

 

[Highbeam]

Highbeam, I guess this is the kind of crap you were referring to?

I think it will be more subtle like posts or parts of posts being quietly deleted. Their house, their rules(or choice).

 

[MAD MARK]

Arguing over coal is better than fighting over whether or not to install a wood stove in a garage.

 

[begreen]

There were some long threads discussing the pros and cons of coal back as far as 2005 when the forums got started. No real need to repeat. The coal pail and nepacrossroads are good forums for further discussion on operation and maintenance.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

As someone who has both for a long time i have to chime in that iv never had the desire to see coal burning in my living room ,or to deal with coal dust or coal ashes in there either. A furnace room or garage ok ,but only a wood stove will ever find its way into the living room. IMO. And a nice one at that.

 

[webby3650]

Why does a Hearth need to be burning wood to be discussed on hearth.com? There’s other sites that discuss wood too, so saying there’s other sites that discuss coal doesn’t make sense. Just seems weird to me.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

. I have made this decision knowing it will be better overall for me and my family in money and time and cleanliness.

There is nothing clean about a coal stove. The coal is dusty (black) and dirty
and the ashes are just as bad. Iv had one for many yrs so i know. Let us know how you feel after a few months of it.

 

[mellow]

Make sure your pipe is up for burning coal.

 

[begreen]

Why does a Hearth need to be burning wood to be discussed on hearth.com? There’s other sites that discuss wood too, so saying there’s other sites that discuss coal doesn’t make sense. Just seems weird to me.

No one said that. Coal and Gas are discussed here, but there are sites where that is their specific focus, much like we refer folks to an HVAC site when that is a better place for information.

 

[Ludlow]

I'd rather burn wood myself but will not demean another for choosing coal. I said my piece. Left at that.

 

[coaly]

I would rather burn wood too, but not always possible.
2 tons a year here in NEPA. I supplement with wood before and after the main heating season. I pay $225 currently per ton, picked up in bulk, weighed on the scale. That is 11.25 cents per pound. Picked up on DRY days it saves about 10 bucks a pick up load. Heating 1880 sf. built with 2 x 6 and R-21 walls, R-42 ceiling. It was $100 a ton when I started burning, approx. 1989, so I heated for $200 for many seasons. It pretty much follows the cost of diesel fuel since it takes diesel to mine and haul it. I own enough property that needs to be cleaned of storm damaged and standing dead, so some years I have plenty of wood. This year I didn't have time all summer, and a medical issue prevented me from work a couple months. So it is a lazy year with coal. If I only had wood, I would have to buy it, and someone else do all the work. The coal stove saved me this year. It allows us to be away longer and I would much rather burn it, than wood. I would have to clean up and get rid of the wood anyway. That's why I have 2 chimneys and both types of stoves.

Hitzer E-Z 50-93 . (that is an E-Z Flo with gravity fed hopper) The folks at Hitzer (German for heater) are great if you tour the factory.
I've heated with 2 other coal stoves that were stoked (fed through the door) and changed to the hopper feed. It was a good decision. Like the stove a lot. The Gibraltar I had which is in a rental home now, was the best shaker system. I picked up a used one just for the grates to retrofit into a Kitchen Queen wood burning cookstove. And installed the Hitzer thermostat for under fire air on the Queen.
I only install coal in my rental homes that I feel comfortable with the renters, no wood. It has worked great so far. I teach them coal burning, they save on heating and I get paid my rent.

I find it uses much less coal if I use the manual "low fire" intake on ash pan door. The new models may use a paper clip affair on the thermostatic controlled air door to keep it open slightly for low fire. If you rely on the t-stat opening and closing to maintain temp, it goes through coal when open.
You'll love the steady heat output. Use a barometric damper.
Clean the connector pipe well, I remove it each year and rinse well with water. Otherwise you will be replacing the pipe every few years. Barometric dampers aren't cheap, take care of it and they last many years.
All coal is not created equal. My stove dealer sells Blaschak. I tried a ton once, etched glass, wrecked the stainless Dura-Vent cap in a year, and had lots more ash than Reading or any others I've tried. Others like it. Maybe they have masonry chimneys and never tried anything else.

#1 rule; empty ash daily to assure good flow through grates. The intake air cools them, and is the number 1 reason grates warp and people have problems burning coal. That's the main thing that goes wrong with locomotives and traction engines, clogged grate. Coal will melt ANY grate system.

 

[webby3650]

There is nothing clean about a coal stove. The coal is dusty (black) and dirty
and the ashes are just as bad. Iv had one for many yrs so i know. Let us know how you feel after a few months of it.

You are burning quality anthracite? I don’t have any dust, it’s actually damp inside the bad. I had to deal with ash removal with my woodstove too, so that’s not a big deal. Although it does produce a lot of ash, and it’s heavy!

 

[Shaun643]

There is nothing clean about a coal stove. The coal is dusty (black) and dirty
and the ashes are just as bad. Iv had one for many yrs so i know. Let us know how you feel after a few months of it.

My father has been burning anthracite coal for 6 years now after wood. It is much cleaner right now my garage floor is a mess with wood scraps tree bark dirt and dust I have to clean and vacuum every few days because it gets on the rug by my door then sticks to socks and makes its way all over. Tell me where the mess will be bring coal in a hood and dumping it in the stove. No mess it the garage no mess on the floor. This post went completely sideways seems like I have just angered people. Also as stated before for anyone wondering about coal check out coalpail forums.

 

[coaly]

I’m curious as well. Maybe a comparison to a cord of wood. How does coal come? By the pallet? What’s the cost and how would say a pallet compare to a cord of a good hardwood? When dumping in the coal is it dusty? Can you have a coal stove in a living area?

Coal is sold in bulk by the pound, weighed on a scale, delivered (weighed on the truck) or by the bag.
Cheapest picked up in bulk, even cheaper if you live near a breaker to get it direct. Many people without an open back truck for loading with a loader will shovel their own if they have a cap on their truck (me) or pick up with buckets and weigh vehicle on the way in and on the way out. I just picked up 12 five gallon buckets full for $40.00 with an SUV. Figure about one of those buckets a day when cold, some days less.

Every coal burning parlor and cookstove has been used in living areas before the advent of central heating systems that took the fire to the basement in a boiler or furnace. Coal stoves today are installed in homes where a wood stove would go. Oil or gas burners were added to those coal furnaces, and later boilers and furnaces were designed for oil or gas only. Some coal burners with retrofitted oil burners re still in use. Oil burners were added to kitchen cook stoves as well. I remember them in use in the 70's around here. Coal was not only used in living areas, the glowing coals were taken to bed in warming pans, sealed with a cover at your feet, and even used on the floor of vehicles. Wooden Model T floors. That was your only heat. Most homes had a kitchen stove, parlor (front living room), dining room, and bedroom stoves. You would take some coals from one to start another. Many homes had only one or two chimneys for all those stoves, so you had to know to close off the air on the stoves not in use. Before motor vehicles, you would leave your front door open for travelers on horseback or carriage to come in during the night to warm up. They would take care of your stove before leaving, and you would have a fire in the morning. People lived to be 100 and never had a CO or smoke detector. Amazing huh? Of course houses that caught fire would usually burn down.

Another tidbit that I guess has been forgotten is "putt'in up the stove". Stoves in living areas were put away in closets with their pipes for the summer to save room. Houses were smaller back then, and it was best to heat from the center of a room if possible. So the stove was set up for winter and put away over the summer in some homes. Others would move their cookstove to the back porch for summer cooking when the heat wasn't welcome in the house.

If you don't know what you're doing, they can be dusty from ash. Most people that claim coal is "dirty" are doing something wrong. You will get slightly more dust in the home from coal than wood. Coal ash is finer. It becomes airborne very easily. Most falls into the collection pan when shaking the grate. You don't shake violently when the chimney is cool in the morning. With little draft, this is when only slow rocking dumps the ash from overnight into the pan. Then let it get going with plenty of air. Once the chimney is hotter and drafting (it will only be 150 to 200* surface temp on the pipe with coal) you can shake more violently to clean all ash from the fire until glowing coals start to drop. This allows the intake air rushing in to not allow the fly ash (airborne ash) into the home. Those that don't know what they are doing may open the ash pan door and shake until they see coals drop. Without the chimney acting as your vacuum cleaner, with an established draft, they have a mess.
Coal ash outside is not an issue. (except on Mondays when towns had laundry day ordinances - I won't even get into that. They were called clean stack days) It absorbs moisture from the atmosphere even in a closed container, becoming hard like cement.

Difficult to compare to wood use since I will burn 6 or 7 cords in older stoves compared to 2 tons of coal in no matter what coal stove I've used. The main advantage is a very steady even heat. No chimney cleaning, no bugs or wood mess. No saws, splitter, or exercise.

If you buy coal dry and handle it, be aware of coal dust you can create. Deaths from black lung in mines was a major issue. Stoking a stove (loading through door) is not an issue since the warm chimney doesn't allow the coal dust back into the house. Most in the industry handle it wet, and stored outside where you buy it is mostly only dry on top, wetter towards the bottom. I personally skim it off the top buying it by weight, but I know how to handle it. My member name coaly is from firing steam locomotives, an engineer being a Hogger, running the Hog, and fireman being a Coaly. Firing in a locomotive is done dry or wet depending on what kind of fire you need. Asbestos was our issue more than coal dust. That was mainly people in the mines. Coal stores very well and won't catch fire in a bin since it needs lots of air moving up through it to burn. It does degrade over time when in direct sunlight and wind which decreases the BTU slightly.

I should look around, I have receipts from my parents when coal was $2.50 and $3 a ton.
I also have a Peoples Coal Co. shovel they gave to customers with a 3 digit phone number on it!
One hangs on the wall where I pick up my coal now. They are still in business.
The local trains would stop in our town to take on water, being 100 coal cars long. Town people would go through the woods to the middle of the train and quickly shovel off coal from the cars. (each car holds 100 tons) After the train left, they came back with wheelbarrows for the coal! Railroad wouldn't miss much from a 10,000 ton load.

 

[webby3650]

Coal is sold in bulk by the pound, weighed on a scale, delivered (weighed on the truck) or by the bag.
Cheapest picked up in bulk, even cheaper if you live near a breaker to get it direct. Many people without an open back truck for loading with a loader will shovel their own if they have a cap on their truck (me) or pick up with buckets and weigh vehicle on the way in and on the way out. I just picked up 12 five gallon buckets full for $40.00 with an SUV. Figure about one of those buckets a day when cold, some days less.

Every coal burning parlor and cookstove has been used in living areas before the advent of central heating systems that took the fire to the basement in a boiler or furnace. Coal stoves today are installed in homes where a wood stove would go. Oil or gas burners were added to those coal furnaces, and later boilers and furnaces were designed for oil or gas only. Some coal burners with retrofitted oil burners re still in use. Oil burners were added to kitchen cook stoves as well. I remember them in use in the 70's around here. Coal was not only used in living areas, the glowing coals were taken to bed in warming pans, sealed with a cover at your feet, and even used on the floor of vehicles. Wooden Model T floors. That was your only heat. Most homes had a kitchen stove, parlor (front living room), dining room, and bedroom stoves. You would take some coals from one to start another. Many homes had only one or two chimneys for all those stoves, so you had to know to close off the air on the stoves not in use. Before motor vehicles, you would leave your front door open for travelers on horseback or carriage to come in during the night to warm up. They would take care of your stove before leaving, and you would have a fire in the morning. People lived to be 100 and never had a CO or smoke detector. Amazing huh? Of course houses that caught fire would usually burn down.

Another tidbit that I guess has been forgotten is "putt'in up the stove". Stoves in living areas were put away in closets with their pipes for the summer to save room. Houses were smaller back then, and it was best to heat from the center of a room if possible. So the stove was set up for winter and put away over the summer in some homes. Others would move their cookstove to the back porch for summer cooking when the heat wasn't welcome in the house.

If you don't know what you're doing, they can be dusty from ash. Most people that claim coal is "dirty" are doing something wrong. You will get slightly more dust in the home from coal than wood. Coal ash is finer. It becomes airborne very easily. Most falls into the collection pan when shaking the grate. You don't shake violently when the chimney is cool in the morning. With little draft, this is when only slow rocking dumps the ash from overnight into the pan. Then let it get going with plenty of air. Once the chimney is hotter and drafting (it will only be 150 to 200* surface temp on the pipe with coal) you can shake more violently to clean all ash from the fire until glowing coals start to drop. This allows the intake air rushing in to not allow the fly ash (airborne ash) into the home. Those that don't know what they are doing may open the ash pan door and shake until they see coals drop. Without the chimney acting as your vacuum cleaner, with an established draft, they have a mess.
Coal ash outside is not an issue. (except on Mondays when towns had laundry day ordinances - I won't even get into that. They were called clean stack days) It absorbs moisture from the atmosphere even in a closed container, becoming hard like cement.

Difficult to compare to wood use since I will burn 6 or 7 cords in older stoves compared to 2 tons of coal in no matter what coal stove I've used. The main advantage is a very steady even heat. No chimney cleaning, no bugs or wood mess. No saws, splitter, or exercise.

If you buy coal dry and handle it, be aware of coal dust you can create. Deaths from black lung in mines was a major issue. Stoking a stove (loading through door) is not an issue since the warm chimney doesn't allow the coal dust back into the house. Most in the industry handle it wet, and stored outside where you buy it is mostly only dry on top, wetter towards the bottom. I personally skim it off the top buying it by weight, but I know how to handle it. My member name coaly is from firing steam locomotives, an engineer being a Hogger, running the Hog, and fireman being a Coaly. Firing in a locomotive is done dry or wet depending on what kind of fire you need. Asbestos was our issue more than coal dust. That was mainly people in the mines. Coal stores very well and won't catch fire in a bin since it needs lots of air moving up through it to burn. It does degrade over time when in direct sunlight and wind which decreases the BTU slightly.

I should look around, I have receipts from my parents when coal was $2.50 and $3 a ton.
I also have a Peoples Coal Co. shovel they gave to customers with a 3 digit phone number on it!
One hangs on the wall where I pick up my coal now. They are still in business.
The local trains would stop in our town to take on water, being 100 coal cars long. Town people would go through the woods to the middle of the train and quickly shovel off coal from the cars. (each car holds 100 tons) After the train left, they came back with wheelbarrows for the coal! Railroad wouldn't miss much from a 10,000 ton load.

I love it! Thanks for sharing

 

[coaly]

How much does a winter's supply of coal cost?

Cost depends on price of bulk pick up at coal co., delivery, or bagged. And of course the house size and insulation.
1900 $3.47 / ton
1915 $5.10 / ton
1989 $100 / ton
2020 $225 / ton
It was average at the turn of the century to burn 10 tons in a 2 story house with 3 stoves, a cookstove, and laundry stove. (it was also your only hot water)
Insulated efficient homes are down to 2 to 3 tons yearly now.
I built my house 1880 sf. in NEPA in 1989 with 2X6 walls, R-21 with double in the ceiling to R-42.
Never burned more than 2 1/2 tons. 2 tons being the norm for me.
First year I burned coal in 1989 was $200 total. I figure $450. this year.
I hear horror stories of $600 / month electric bills and I was in the Propane business when I started burning coal.
What does that tell you?

 

[Seasoned Oak]

My father has been burning anthracite coal for 6 years now after wood. It is much cleaner right now my garage floor is a mess with wood scraps tree bark dirt and dust I have to clean and vacuum every few days because it gets on the rug by my door then sticks to socks and makes its way all over. Tell me where the mess will be bring coal in a hood and dumping it in the stove. No mess it the garage no mess on the floor. This post went completely sideways seems like I have just angered people. Also as stated before for anyone wondering about coal check out coalpail forums.

Nothing to be angry about ,its all a matter of personal preference. Just us burners giving our personal experience . Of course you will have to clean up for either ,but for me the black dust from the anthracite along with the white dust from the ashes is worse than and dust and dirt from the wood. If you dont mind it, all well and good. As i said let us know how you find it after awhile using the coal. Only some anthracite coal is made less dusty with added oil spray. Possibly the bagged. Aside from the dirt coal does burn longer with more heat per pound and less fussing over the stove, i know i have both ,,i just dont want the coal in my living room.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I once found a newspaper from the early 30s listed coal delivered for $2.35 a ton. Also rewire your whole house was $35. Of course you could argue that knob and tube wire tied to a single fuse wasnt worth much more then that.

 

[coaly]

It's in my 80* living room

Rudolph

 

[webby3650]