Burning Coal?

[Viperman]

Currently I am researching my boiler choices and was wondering if anyone uses coal as
a back up and what is there experience with it.  I am going to see a Heat Master dealer
and like that option.  I read where one individual used a 5 gallon pail of coal twice a day.
I would burn mostly wood but do like that option.

[Skip]

I keep some on hand for an emergency, as long as furnace can handle it, it  is the boss ,(wife don't care for dust) it will require a short learning curve on banking. Like to burn for old times sake (smell) takes me back to when I was a kid . Get a good grade of coal, not so many clinkers . Coal (was) is King especially round these parts.

[hedgerow]

Welcome Viperman
I have never burned coal in my Garn. Probably been 25 years ago as time goes by a buddy of mine that I cut wood with back then would clean out houses, shed, garages and etc for folks usually for estates. They used to sell lump Wyoming coal around here some. Anyway he got a acreage to clean up and there were several ton of coal in a shed. I had a big homemade wood burning furnace in my shop back then. That coal kept my shop warm for several winters. I haven't seen any coal in this area in years. The place that used to sell it is long gone. 

[thecfarm]

I have never seen or been around coal burning for heat. We sell coal at work,50# bags,Rice,Pea,Nut and Stove.Use to sell a few tons of each maybe 4 years ago. Sold only about 2 ton of Nut this year. 

[E Yoder]

I've burned bit (soft) coal in a C (Heatmaster) several times. Works great, at least double the burn time of oak. I know quite a few people that keep it on hand especially for those really cold nights.
Coal does vary just like wood in quality. If you find a good source stick with it.

[MTJAG]

I have a Central boiler classic and have never tried coal, but thinking I would on those really cold nights.  Just wondering how much to put in and when to add it to the fire?

[trimguy]

I was raised with a wood stove. Never been around coal. Curious ,if you have wood why would you use coal ?

[mike_belben]

Good stove and good coal, its about 1/5th the labor of tending a woodstove.  

[trimguy]

" Tending " as keeping the stove/ heat going or is that taking inconsideration the cutting , splitting , stacking, etc . ?

[Gearbox]

Crown Royal is advertised as a coal burner . Not sure about the new re burn stoves

[mike_belben]

" Tending " as keeping the stove/ heat going or is that taking inconsideration the cutting , splitting , stacking, etc . ?

Ive never burned both in the same stove, and never had a really good woodstove either.  But when i was a kid there was no need to get up in the middle of the night to fill the coalstove like there always has been with the wood stoves.   Much of my life its been a daily relighting of the woodstove in the morning.  

[E Yoder]

Crown Royal is advertised as a coal burner . Not sure about the new re burn stoves

The gasification units won't burn coal, I tried it in my G series.  The clinkers clogged the nozzle.
Crown and HeatMaster make coal units with shaker grates.  If I could get coal locally I don't think I'd cut any more wood.  The heat is amazing.

[Wood Shed]

I have read good things about a coal burning unit made by Portage and Maine called the Ultimizer that has a shaker grate and is designed to burn coal and at one time as the EPA cracked down in the US was all they could sell in the US. Their conventional wood burner was essentially the same unit without the shaker grate.  Things may have changed as far as regulations are concerned.  Have not heard or seen where coal can be purchased here in central Ohio, although I have not been looking either. 

[Al_Smith]

At one time I had a home built stove patterned  after a Vermont down draft which I guess is a gasifier .I have burned coal in it but back then I could get petro coke from a local refinery for $27.35 a ton . That ended most of my wood gutting for several  years .Heat the house for about $100 a season .Why cut wood .Clean.almost no smoke,no creosote and very little ash . 

[Spike60]

Grandparents house was built in 1912. When my Grandmother moved out of it in the early 80's the coal bin in the basement was still half full. Had been sitting there for God knows how many years after the house was converted to gas heat. It wasn't free standing; they used coal furnaces that ran the same steam heat radiators that the gas furnace later did. Every now and then you can notice one of these set ups in old movies shooting a basement scene. Only knew one person with a newer coal stove, which was in a new house, around 1990. Threw out some serious heat.

Don't know of anyone around here still burning coal or where to get it. Bags of coal have been replaced by bags of wood pellets. And of course, the wood heat resurgence that took off around 1970 quickly dominated the free standing stove world. Really made possible by the modern chainsaws such as the XL12 that came out around 1963/64. Affordable and light enough that people could produce firewood for themselves. Before that, we're talking heavy chainsaws that cost half as much as a car, or hand tools. And that's not going back to the 1800's, we're talking into the 1950's.

Most of us enjoy the work we do cutting firewood, but I sure wouldn't be doing this with crosscuts and axes. Buddy of mine in Vermont is a bit of a history buff. His grandparents lived in a colonial era farmhouse and between heating the house and sugaring, they needed 20 cords of wood a year. Before chainsaws. My joints hurt thinking about it.  

[thecfarm]

I sell coal for $325 a ton.
We have some old stuff kicking around at work. Comes in white woven plastic bags. Some of the bags are kinda tender.  :D So I can get it for a good price. Some guy will take all of the bigger coal, but does not want the rice. That is where I come in. 

[Al_Smith]

Back in the 60's stoker coal was around $12 a ton .That old farm house I grew up in used about 12 tons a year .Iron Fireman stoker big old furnace .Southern Ohio coal put out the heat but also produced a lot of clinkers .Kentucky hard coal produced less but cost more .

You had to be careful shoveling in the coal in case you picked up a chunk of clinker because it would shear the pin on the stoker auger and then the fire would go out, no fuel .
It had a neat gizmo to bank the fire called a stokertroll which augered in the coal and controlled the combustion blower to maintain the fire if the furnace did not call for heat .It ran for around 15 minutes an hour if the condition was right .I was an adult before I knew how it worked but that was on a big old coal fired boiler I was working on that burned one ton of coal a day .