I just moved out of my house of 8 years this past weekend that
was heated by coal.
The stove was in the basement, it was just a hand fired Harman
Mark III stove which required me to load and shake the grates
to clear out the ash twice a day. Once a day I had to remove the
ash try from the bottom of the stove to dump them. (i used
a 55 gal steel drum)
we heated the ranch house with this setup quite comfortably,
and economically. there is a very nice oil boiler in the house,
but that is used in the spring/fall when it's not cold enough
to keep the stove running efficiently. (usually burned coal from
thanksgiving thru easter). i use a nominal amount of fuel oil, and
maybe have had the tank filled 3 times in the 8 years I lived there.
one of the biggest advantages is the constant, even heat that
the coal produces. even my handfed stays at operating temp for
12-18 hrs or longer if needed without having to be there to tend
the fire.
the only disadvantage i could see was my time, total 20 mins a day,
and downstairs where the stove was you get some dust, which is
fly ash. there is really no coal dust to speak of with the coal I was
buying.
in a typical year I would burn 4-5 ton of coal, that ranges from $220 to
$250 per ton, cheap heat. with the mild winter this year i didn't burn 3 ton. (stove is
shut down because we moved out this past weekend)
There are a lot of people around here (upstate NY) that burn
coal, it is very popular and the stoves comes in many styles,
from furnaces, to automatic feed stokers like a pellet stove,
to the hand fired that I had. I am hoping to find a suitable
appliance for my new house, just don't have a masonry chimney
so it isn't just an easy install.
coal burners even have their own forum here in the Northeast,
Northeastern Pennsylvania Community Forums, Home of the Anthracite and Bituminous Coal Forums
that is full of experienced burners and useful information on all the
different manufacturer stoves and setups.