Coal stoves

[Jaeger]

I've been heating my house from late October through April (hot water) with coal for 3 years.

you will find 100x the answers and experience on the Northeastern Pennsylvania Community Forums, Home of the Anthracite and Bituminous Coal Forums forum
Those guys are the best and are like TBN with providing help to you.

Pro's: It's more than paid for the cost of the boiler, bin, and all the coal purchased (18+ tons) over what fuel oil cost us. I've gotten over 18 hour burn times and only use about 3 buckets (5gal) a day in the dead of winter.

Con's: It dusty in the basement, has a learning curve to operate, is a lot of work (not as much as wood, but close) and prices keep going up. You also need a place to store the coal. I bult a bin that holds 6 tons and use those big poly sacks (4'x4') on top of pallets for and extra 3-4 ton reserve.

I'm running a Harmon SF360 boiler hooked up to hot water air handlers for my forced hot air heat. I have it set up parallel to the oil boiler and all I do is flip a switch, and open and close 4 valves and we're running.

I'm about to load up for next year and have been happy with the system.

 

[scesnick]

Bituminous coal mines are everywhere where I live. It is the major industry here. I heat my house with coal. I have an AHS multi fuel boiler in my garage and I burn 98% coal in it with just a bit of wood. I also have a Harman mark II coal/wool stove in my basement for the spring and fall when I dont want to fire up the boiler.

My house sits at 3,000ft. and it is cold as all get out here. I can heat my entire home which is 3,500 sq ft and my detached garage for about $700 a year using coal. it takea a bit of work but well worth the savings. But with the price of fuel going up so does the price of coal. it is $70 a ton right now but is expected to go to $100 a ton next year.

 

[kootch88]

We use coal exclusively with oil backup. This year we were fortunate enough not to even turn on the boiler. We have a Lehigh, our house is about 2200 sft but spread over a large area. The stove is in the basement so we put two old cast iron floor grates in to get some heat flow with 4" square electric fans in the grates. When it is very, very cold it is a bit cool in the house, but a heck of a lot better than paying a grand a month to heat the place, and in most cases we can keep the house around 68.

 

[RoyJackson]

Bituminous coal mines are everywhere where I live. It is the major industry here. I heat my house with coal. I have an AHS multi fuel boiler in my garage and I burn 98% coal in it with just a bit of wood. I also have a Harman mark II coal/wool stove in my basement for the spring and fall when I dont want to fire up the boiler.

My house sits at 3,000ft. and it is cold as all get out here. I can heat my entire home which is 3,500 sq ft and my detached garage for about $700 a year using coal. it takea a bit of work but well worth the savings. But with the price of fuel going up so does the price of coal. it is $70 a ton right now but is expected to go to $100 a ton next year.

Assuming the federal job comes to fruitation, we're also looking the Garrett County area for houses.
We have a realtor working out of Oakland sending us listings...
Thanks for the info!

 

[RoyJackson]

I've been heating my house from late October through April (hot water) with coal for 3 years.

you will find 100x the answers and experience on the Northeastern Pennsylvania Community Forums, Home of the Anthracite and Bituminous Coal Forums forum
Those guys are the best and are like TBN with providing help to you.

Pro's: It's more than paid for the cost of the boiler, bin, and all the coal purchased (18+ tons) over what fuel oil cost us. I've gotten over 18 hour burn times and only use about 3 buckets (5gal) a day in the dead of winter.

Con's: It dusty in the basement, has a learning curve to operate, is a lot of work (not as much as wood, but close) and prices keep going up. You also need a place to store the coal. I bult a bin that holds 6 tons and use those big poly sacks (4'x4') on top of pallets for and extra 3-4 ton reserve.

I'm running a Harmon SF360 boiler hooked up to hot water air handlers for my forced hot air heat. I have it set up parallel to the oil boiler and all I do is flip a switch, and open and close 4 valves and we're running.

I'm about to load up for next year and have been happy with the system.

Very good post and great link!
Thank you very much!

 

[sawduster98]

This was my first year heating with coal. I put a Leisure Line stoker in the basement as a backup for our geothermal system. On really cold days the geo kicks in auxiliary electric coils which tend to spin the electric meter. The coal allowed me to heat the basement to about 72 using 1-2 5gal buckets of rice coal per day. I bought a little under 2 tons and have 14 buckets left.
I'm very pleased with it but,
The few downsides are...
1. starting a fire...not difficult but there is a learning curve, not something I'd want to do on a daily basis.

2. disposing of the ash...it builds up quick. Having 2 ashpans...:thumbsup:

3. maintenance...wet coal, no problem until it sits in the hopper for a while. I'll need to empty the stove, clean and WD40 everything. The acidic nature of coal makes me think more maintenance is involved over wood stoves.

 

[bearcreek paul]

When you clean your stove to shut it down for the summer.Give the inside a good wire brushing and a good vacuuming.Moisture is your enemy.I use liquid wrench dry lube to coat the inside of the stove after cleaning some just use a light coat of machine oil.Whatever you use use a light coat to avoid excessive smoking at startup next winter.
I disconnect my chimney pipe and close up the opening.Then hang a 60 watt bulb in it.That helps with the moisture the most.

 

[Jaeger]

Roy,

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad I could contribute to the discussion.

Paul,

+1 on the post season clean up. You must brush the inside down, and spray with a protective coating.

Trying to locally find some LPS3 spray which coats with a thin waxy film that will burn right off next year.

I've also taken to blocking off my chimney (from the barometric damper) with those plastic walmart bags to keep the hot moist summer air from entering the stove (creating rust on the inside).

Going to run a 80 watt incandescent bulb in there all summer to keep warm air circulating.

 

[wamsutta]

a tip on starting the rice coal stoves: After some trial and error with starting the fire, I found that the compressed sawdust "bio bricks" which are relatively cheap make a great starting medium if you put them in a pan and pour 6 to 8 ounces of denatured alcohol on them. The brick soaks it up the alcohol like a sponge and then you have a clean burning block that fits in the stove and burns like a large cube of sterno for over a half hour, pleanty of time to ginite the coal and there is just ash as residue.

 

[bearcreek paul]

Cowboy charcoal also known as hardwood or natural charcoal works great.Just break up into small pieces wrap in news paper or paper bag place on coal and light.They work just like the coal mice starters that you buy.