Coal stoves

[Oleozz]

I sold the Alaska Stoker stoves for six years. The mid sized stokers burned about 3 ton a year and the bigger units about 4 ton a year. You can burn a stoker earlier in the season with the controlled burn.
I now heat the house with a hot water coal fired stoker boiler. We use 6-7 tons a year in a big old drafty stone house.
Pa. has some top quality stoker manufacturers, Harman, Alaska, Keystoker, and others. Coal is about $200 a ton so it's a good alternative to wood.
They do create a bit of dust and you also have the coal ashes to contend with.

 

[bearcreek paul]

As far as getting coal to the house I just pick it up at the breaker.When I get too old or too lazy I'll have it delivered.But for now I don't want to pay the 25$ a ton delivery charge.
As far as storage you can build a coal bin inside like I did if you have access to a window where the bin is located and where a truck can back into.Many people opt for outside bins but that's a PTA when it's raining or snowing .

 

[Airedale]

I have been heating with coal for a dozen years or so, I burn it in a Heartland Cookstove. I have an open floor plan so the Cookstove heats pretty much the whole house comfortably (1500 sq ft) on all but the coldest of winter days. The Cookstove has a smaller firebox than a dedicated heating stove so I get much better burn times with coal over wood. No creosote and no chimney fires. Another added advantage of the Cookstove of course is we do most of our Cooking and Baking with it when she is fired up. We burn two and a half to three tons a year we buy it bagged.

Al

 

[techwrtr2]

My parents heat mostly with coal. They have a multi-fuel furnace that burns oil, wood or coal. One of these Yukon Husky Wood Furnace . Since it's inside, there's no going out in rain/snow to tend it. A few shovels of coal (nut) holds it overnight. On days like today where it was quite warm during the day, it held a good 18 hours with no real tending. You can easily get the house too hot, if coal had been fed in this morning the house would have been pushing 80F all day.

How much they burn depends partly on the weather and also the quality of the coal as not all coal is created equally. The coal I ended up buying for them last fall didn't come from where they've preferred and was not good at all, even with the very mild winter I estimate they used between 1/4 to 1/3 more coal each week.

When the coal is good and the fire actively tended, they may burn 3-5 ton per winter along with about 1.5 cord of wood and a 1/4 tank of oil.

Where they buy the coal sometimes is determined by who has it when they need it. Since they are in the coal region near Shamokin, Pennsylvania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, they can get it straight from the breaker. Last weekend I picked up 1700lb with the pickup. My preference is using the Bri-Mar trailer since I can drag about 6000lb home at one time.

Storage is basically in three places. I put bin at one end of their property for bulk storage and can comfortably fit 3 ton in it. Drawback to that space is I cannot dump the trailer into it due to it being a low deck trailer. Shoveling coal is a workout. They have another trailer, an old utility trailer, that isn't safe for road use and is parked next to the basement door for the winter. I modified it to have an expanded steel bed floor which allows any snow that accumulated on the coal to drain out once it melts and have a removable cover to keep it dry. Some coal does get lost though. I can keep about 4 - 5 weeks of coal in the trailer. I want the coal dry only because it means I'm not bringing water into their basement. Inside storage is a garden wagon which I roll outside weekly and fill with coal. That should hold slightly over a week but since this coal was crap, I supplemented it with a poly cart so my mother isn't stuck shoveling coal outside in the dark. When my dad was in good health, he did all of that so a larger indoor supply wasn't important. Coal cost is anywhere from $100 - $200 per ton, that's with me going and getting it.

Ashes are the by product of course. They have 3 metal trash cans which I take to another end of their property and dump on a pile. I'd like to find a use for them.

 

[JDgreen227]

I dump wood ashes on my garden plot, not sure what density coal ashes are but don't they eventually break down from weathering when left exposed?

 

[RoyJackson]

I dump wood ashes on my garden plot, not sure what density coal ashes are but don't they eventually break down from weathering when left exposed?

Here's one answer:
Coal ashes in the garden? | PennLive.com

 

[JDgreen227]

Here's one answer:
Coal ashes in the garden? | PennLive.com

Thanks Roy...interesting reading...I remember my grandparents always had a huge garden that produced beautiful flowers and vegetables but I don't know if they dumped their coal ashes on the garden or not. My dad used to have fly ash from the local utility trucked into one of his rental properties with a gravel driveway to use as fill, but that stuff is very different from home burnt coal ash. From what I read of the PennLive article, you could spread the coal ashes on your yard and let them work into the soil. Heck, 90% of my grass is so bad I don't think ANYTHING would hurt it.

 

[techwrtr2]

I am leery of dumping coal ash in the garden myself simply because I don't know how I would test for levels heavy metals etc. My own grandfather used ashes to create paths in the woods and I've thought of using it to firm up a couple of "soft" roads. I'd want to put a bunch of lime on top if it to neutralize the acid some, those roads are greenways in summer, I don't keep gravel on them and instead have grass. They see only limited traffic, mostly when I'm mowing.

 

[RoyJackson]

Thanks Roy...interesting reading...I remember my grandparents always had a huge garden that produced beautiful flowers and vegetables but I don't know if they dumped their coal ashes on the garden or not.

From what I read of the PennLive article, you could spread the coal ashes on your yard and let them work into the soil. Heck, 90% of my grass is so bad I don't think ANYTHING would hurt it.

You're welcome...do an internet search on the subject...you'll find more reading.
Sounds like your lawn is about the same as mine!

 

[westcliffe01]

Most coal ash is toxic. It will eventually contaminate the ground water. That is one of the big problems no-one wants to deal with when it comes to coal fired power plants, which produce this toxic ash by the ton and store it in ponds as a slurry. Don't want to live near or downstream of any of those...

 

[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.