Burning coal

[deserteagle71]

I have allot of great memories from those years and often think America would be a much better place everyone had to work on a farm for at least a few years.

AMEN! Couldn't agree more! Most Americans today have no concept of the basics of life and especially where their food comes from.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I bought hard coal from the old Buffalo Mine in Sutton. First couple of years they had nice Lump coal. Last couple of years, all I could buy was pea size coal. Both worked equally well.

I never burned coal from Sutton, I did get coal off the beach on the peninsula, coal from Healey and some from a vein a buddy of mine pushed out in Homer.

He pushed open a pretty big vein with a 450, while opening up the dump site there. It was pretty good coal too...

SR

 

[Doofy]

I never burned coal from Sutton, I did get coal off the beach on the peninsula, coal from Healey and some from a vein a buddy of mine pushed out in Homer.

He pushed open a pretty big vein with a 450, while opening up the dump site there. It was pretty good coal too...

SR

Some of those old coal veins around Sutton and Chickaloon are still smouldering after 100 years. Kind of ethereal and spooky.

Beach coal would be great...already washed!

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Yea, but you have to wash beach coal again, as it will have salt on it and that smells some as it burns...

Most folks hit it with fresh water a bit, before burning it.

SR

 

[Doofy]

The neighbors never complained of coal smoke stink back when I heated with it. Wish I could burn coal again as any amount of woodsmoke irritates my eyes.

 

[Oleozz]

Have burned rice coal for 30 years in a stoker/hot water boiler system. We burn 6 ton a year paying $215 a ton delivered and put into our basement. This year due to an extremely wet summer and fall our coal guy is unable to bring the coal so have been hauling two ton at a time in our dump trailer and unloading by hand. Not fun!!

 

[Doofy]

Have burned rice coal for 30 years in a stoker/hot water boiler system. We burn 6 ton a year paying $215 a ton delivered and put into our basement. This year due to an extremely wet summer and fall our coal guy is unable to bring the coal so have been hauling two ton at a time in our dump trailer and unloading by hand. Not fun!!

Hopefully, the ground will freeze soon and he can deliver.

 

[Jaeger]

Been burning coal for about 10 years. Only do it after Thanksgiving til first week of March.

Using a hand fired Harman Trident Boiler keeping a 4000 sq ft house toasty warm.

Just ordered 6 ton of super hard nut for $210 a ton delivered.

 

[HillStreet]

The forum coalpail.com has a DS section, that is a massive stove but you should be able to throttle it down by reducing the in coming air. Or possibly by adding more fire brick to reduce the fire bed.

Lou,
Thanks for the tip on coalpail.com, I will look at that. As I write this it occurs to me that the intake air comes from a port in the side with an adjustable dial. When the stove is hot, the inlet damper closes to restrict air. I think there is a screw in that damper to keep it off the opening just a little. I might investigate that later and see about closing that up more.

 

[HillStreet]

Been burning coal for about 10 years. Only do it after Thanksgiving til first week of March.

Using a hand fired Harman Trident Boiler keeping a 4000 sq ft house toasty warm.

Just ordered 6 ton of super hard nut for $210 a ton delivered.

Good price, add about $100 here in Maine. transportation of course.

 

[radios1]

Good price, add about $100 here in Maine. transportation of course.

there must be a severe cut in coal mining to justify raising the price FOUR TIMES what it always was!..

 

[HEC]

When I mention coal everyone associates it with the old soft coal of years ago . It was a debate for me as to go with coal or wood pellets . I couldn't get wood pellets in bulk , and if they get wet or damp they are useless . The big plus for wood pellets in a boiler at least is they start up automatically when heat is needed , a friend of mine has one and really likes his , but he has to handle all those bags of pellets to get them in his cellar . I never have to touch the coal with a coal bin until I put some in the hopper , sure works for me .

 

[Diggin It]

We burn 6 ton a year paying $215 a ton delivered and put into our basement.

Just ordered 6 ton of super hard nut for $210 a ton delivered.

$1300/year?


I don't think so Tim.

Glad I have a small house and no one to complain about it being too cool. I don't think I've spent $1300 to heat for the last 5 years total.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

a friend of mine has one and really likes his , but he has to handle all those bags of pellets to get them in his cellar . I never have to touch the coal with a coal bin until I put some in the hopper , sure works for me .

You do realize you can pour those pellets down a chute into big containers for later use, just coal, don't you?

SR

 

[Oldtink]

When I broke the news to the first lady that I was installing a coal boiler in the house, the wife said not in MY house, you're NOT. That summer was quite tense while I worked on my pet project and ate cold baloney sandwiches for supper many nights.
She quickly changed her attitude after that first winter and now is a bigger advocate of the coal than I am.
That was 8 years ago and my only regret is I didn't do it sooner. I burn an average of 4 tons and my average cost is about $240/T delivered to heat 1800 sq.ft. of living space.
An added benefit from that is I get to use the tractor & FEL to bring coal into the garage and dump into a stock tank (on wheels) once a month.:cool2::tractor:

 

[LouNY]

When I broke the news to the first lady that I was installing a coal boiler in the house, the wife said not in MY house, you're NOT. That summer was quite tense while I worked on my pet project and ate cold baloney sandwiches for supper many nights.View attachment 580260
She quickly changed her attitude after that first winter and now is a bigger advocate of the coal than I am.
That was 8 years ago and my only regret is I didn't do it sooner. I burn an average of 4 tons and my average cost is about $240/T delivered to heat 1800 sq.ft. of living space.
An added benefit from that is I get to use the tractor & FEL to bring coal into the garage and dump into a stock tank (on wheels) once a month.:cool2::tractor:

Nice looking unit and install,
nice to have a fuel that doesn't care where it's stored,
brush the snow off, let most of the water drain off and ready to go.
I use the 40# bags in my insert, pickup a pallet with the forks,
carry it up to the house stack 20-30 bags away handy, I dump
the bags into 5 gallon plastic buckets and bring in two buckets / bags
at a time, shake the ashes down once a day and refill with a bucket or less / day.
Hard way to get a lot of my heat, no cutting, spitting, stacking, curing :drink:

 

[Pawatch]

Just got 2 ton delivered @ 220 ton.
What does everyone do with their ashes?

 

[LouNY]

I put mine on the driveway when it gets snow packed or icey,
either thru the sander or sifting out of the bucket on the loader.
I put them where we don't walk to avoid tracking them in the house.

 

[Oldtink]

I put mine on the driveway when it gets snow packed or icey,
either thru the sander or sifting out of the bucket on the loader.
I put them where we don't walk to avoid tracking them in the house.

I do the same spreading them with the loader on the driveway or the TWP. road....and BTW Thanks Lou for the comment. I really enjoyed installing that boiler and controls to integrate with the oil boiler.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

We are in process of building a retirement cottage. It's only 600 sq ft. We bought a 'parlor stove' to burn coal for our main heat when it drops below 40 degrees. Anyone have a guess about how much I would burn a day? I was planning on getting Anthracite chunks in 50lb sacks.