To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Anybody burn coal?

I went to a steel fabricator in Bristol that had a wood burning stove that he burned coal in to keep the shop warm on cold days (said it burns much hotter than wood). Now I see piles of coal dumped in people�s front yards on the road I live on. That leads me to believe he�s not the only one that does that.

Before now, I�ve never lived somewhere that coal was that accessible, so it was never an option. Anybody know much about it or have any advice?

Tn_Andy, mtnman, care to chime in?

SilverJeep

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Dirtiest fuel going, IMHO. Dang soot gets in every crack and cranny of a house eventually. Plumb nasty. Makes wood seem like natural gas by comparison. Would be my last choice personally.

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Hey 'jeep-

Sure, I know a bit about coal but DYODJ, if, indeed, I "KNOW" anything at all.

Most important, it is socked full of very toxic gasses, and will kill you dead if you screw up. when you start a fire w/coal it needs a lot of draft so the CO, carbon monoxide, can escape and since you can't smell it, CO can build up if your stove can leak. So, if you burn coal in a leaky wood stove in a tightly sealed room and fail to vent correctly, you and your family might be quite stiff in the morning, and not from the cold. The same holds true for charcoal, and even wood. Even the older gas cooking and heating stoves could do that if, for example, you tuned it on and the stove failed to light.

Now that the caution flag dealy is over, in terms of BTU/#, coal is actually quite cheap, and the harder, the better. Anthracite, I think, is the best while the soft, brown, Aussie stuff not as good. There is even what I call "green" coal which is scattered all over Alaska and you can even see knots and bark in places so as to actually see that it was once a tree. Works in a pinch but reeks to high heaven.

If you live in a city, best check to see if burning it is legal. If you can legally use it, then having a stash of it IMHO ranks way up there on the list of "things to have that might save your butt in a pinch". I would even go as far as to say it can be gasified and run an engine, but that is probably beyond what you had intended. But bearing that in mind, civil war era technology used coal gasification as the modern equivalent of piped-in natural gas, and might well be used that way again in the future.

Hope that helps.

Volzka

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Do not try to burn eastern coal in a regular fireplace. My uncle tried a chunk that he found on the banks of the Ohio river and the heat cracked his rock fireplace from the fire pit to the ceiling.

Being a miner I can get coal for free and many of my coworkers do burn it. I think Andy is right for the most part, but some of the guys claim that if you get a real coal stove things stay much cleaner. I will be going that route soon. It's pretty hard to beat free heat.

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

We just installed a wood borning stove and it came with a warning not to burn coal because the high temperatures could crack the casting. In fact, it said not even to burn pine for the same reason (as well as the extra tar).

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Not an expert but a good friend in Australia said the Aussie stuff Is actually
better because of a lower sulphur content he works for a coal mining company
so that could be all propaganda?? Most towns in Australia where coal was
easily available and cheap have banned its use for home heating.

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Thanks for the info guys, i knew there had to be drawbacks, and i knew it was "dirty", just made me raise an eyebrow when I saw others using it. Wanted to make sure i wasn't missing out on somrthing.

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Years ago, used Coke instead of Coal, with wood.

Didn't have the dirty thing, or the excessive heat thing. We just burned it in a normal wood stove in the house.

Don't know what the current cost is though.

Someone else that knows of it, could give you better intel, as I didn't know much about it then or now, just that it put out good heat.

I was thinking of converting the shop to wood/coke heat combo, instead of the propane.

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Too broaden the topic...

I have several friends who have gone to "pellet stoves". These stoves will also burn corn, and from what I hear, burning corn is a very efficient way to heat.

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Ideas please,

How about if you had a exterior furnace, suitable to handle coal or coke, and piped the heat into the house or shop accordingly?

Anyone have experience with that, or can direct me towards manufacturers and ideas accordingly?

TIA!

Like SLV has referenced, pellet stoves are becoming common around here with auto feeders, but with corn continuing to rise, I don't know what the break point is to become uneconomic comparatively.

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

*shrug*

http://www.heatinnovations.com/od-boiler.htm

Sounds like you already have the radiant heat system scorp.

Q. How do you heat a building with the furnace outside?
A. All Homesteader and Coalman furnaces heat a water/glycol mixture. The heated liquid is pumped through insulated underground plastic pipes to all the different locations that need heat. The Heat is then transferred out of the liquid and the cooled liquid is pumped back to the Homesteader or Coalman for reheating.

Fuel
Yield in BTU's
Required
per Year
Example
Unit Cost
Total Cost
per Year

Natural Gas
35,301 BTU/M³
8,500 m³
42¢/m³ *
$3,570


Electricity
3,413 BTU/kWh
87,900 kWh
6¢/kWh
$5,274


Fuel Oil
36,300 BTU/L
8,264 L
56¢/L
$4,628


Propane
24,200 BTU/L
12,400 L
56.9¢/L
$7,055


Coal
19,000,000 BTU/ton
16 tons
$26 /ton**
$416


Wood
17,000,000 BTU/cor
18 cords
***


Another consideration concerning coal is spontaneous combustion. We constantly have to run around with a loader putting fires out, particularly after it rains during the summer. When a coal truck breaks down and a load has to be dumped along the road those 240 ton piles will often start to burn. Lastly if you leave the stuff in the weather it starts to flake up and go bad. This is strictly speaking for powder river basin coal, there is some difference from eastern coal, but if you are in MN I'm thinking you will have and easier time buying PRB coal. DYODD I suppose, but I don't think you would want a 16 ton pile laying out in the yard smoldering.

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Scorpio,

You might look at the Central Boiler line of outdoor furnaces. Made up in ya'll's neck of the woods.

http://www.centralboiler.com/models.php

They make a couple models with REALLY big fireboxes....you can stick 5-6' logs iin them ( fireboxes 72x60 ) and one of them has a double door you can burn pallets as well.....or load up a pallet with wood and fork truck the whole thing in there if you have the equipment to do that.

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Since I grew up a city boy and I'm slowly learning I don't mind asking a stupid question...Can you describe further what you mean when you say bank a fire?

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Saum, Thanks, I never thought of the combustion issue on the storage, something to research for sure on storage size and placement.

Tn, Great site, exactly what I was speaking to.

:coolbeer:

Not sure I am getting my head around the propane number, as typically, propane around here is cheaper
overall to heat with than is NG. Need to run some calcs on comparisons.

Re: To Coal or not to Coal?
 

Just wanted to post a forum I found on this issue. I get coal free, so how could I go wrong? I have been backing my insert and stove up with gas, and a friend of mine is going to let me keep up with his gas bill so we can do a comparison later in the season.

http://www.nepadigital.com/bb/?sid=b...517a1a11ce774e