Posted: 8/2/2012 6:02:57 PM EDT
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Since I am not in coal country, nobody around here really uses it. But I recently got some great little military arctic tent stoves that run on diesel, kerosene, jet fuel, wood and coal in at the shop. The multi fuel capability, among other features, makes them attractive for a backup heat source for a lot of people. But the coal capability really got us thinking- in theory, at least to us folks not familiar with coal, it would seem a great prep to store. It should last forever, it is very high energy for the space compared to wood, so what are the drawbacks?'
Is there any reason you couldn't just haul a couple tons of coal back, pile it up, and forget about it until you needed it? A number of my local customers are looking at this as a prep, but I don't know enough to advise them about coal. So you folks in coal country educate me a bit... what are we missing? |
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It's not real easy to get started burning.
A lot of folks make a small wood fire, then put some coal on the hot wood coals to get it going. It's dirty to handle, and I hate the smell of burning coal. It does store well ( It's already a couple of million years old, lol) I'd pile it up, throw a tarp over it to keep the rain off, and call it good. It burns longer and hotter than the same amount of wood. ETA. Another plus is Obama hates it. |
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Advantages over wood, it last forever, don't have to keep in dry, puts off a hell of lot more heat.
I don't use it because I don't like the smell of burning coal. Be careful what you burn it in though, I've heard of it damaging a Franklin stove because it got too hot. |
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Be careful what you burn it in though, I've heard of it damaging a Franklin stove because it got too hot. The stoves actually come with a video about them, 42 minutes long, and they caution to go real slow adding coal so as to not overheat it. But both the manufacturer and the Army rate it for coal use, so it should be good to go. Thanks guys, it seemed so simple I figured I must be missing something. |
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Be careful what you burn it in though, I've heard of it damaging a Franklin stove because it got too hot. The stoves actually come with a video about them, 42 minutes long, and they caution to go real slow adding coal so as to not overheat it. But both the manufacturer and the Army rate it for coal use, so it should be good to go. Thanks guys, it seemed so simple I figured I must be missing something. You can forge with it too if you ever need to. |
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I am guessing you have access to bituminous, or soft coal. I heat with anthracite now, als known as hard coal. They are quite different.
Soft coal can be lit off with a propane torch. It burns with a bright flame and little ash, but it does produce soot. I'd burn it if it was cheap enough. Hard coal (anthracite) is a PITA to get burning. Once going, it burns with a clear blue flame, produces no soot, burns longer and hotter than soft coal, and pruduces a lot of ash. Burning coal has saved me over half of my usual oil and electric bills, and the house is WARM. Like open a window warm, it is easy to get a coal burner a bit too hot and it takes a while to get it settled back down. I tend my stove twice a day on anthracite, shake down the ashes, and refuel. I'll use about two tons of hard coal a year, and its cheap here. I am with n economical driving range of the anthracite mines and get it cheap that way. One ton of coal has roughly the same BTU content as one cord of hardwood firewood, or 100 gallons of #2 oil. You can figure the economics of it from there. Easy way to start a coal fire is to build a good wood fire or use barbecue charcoal and get a bed of coals going. Add the coal about one layer at ta time until the coal ignites. You'll know when it does, the heat output jumps dramatically. once yo have a few layers gong, fill the firebox, close down all of the air except for a crack on the under fire air intake. You'll need to find your draft and damper settings by trial and error. Too little air and the fire will go out, too much and you can make the stove glow. Coal should be stored under a roof, yes it is millions of years old but it wasn't exposed to the weather either. Under cover it will last for decades. HTH, Ops |
Friends of ours had several huge dump truck loads of coal buried under their yard in Utah in the 1970's in case things "got rough". They tarped the coal before covering it with dirt. The new house owner still has no idea how much coal he is sitting on. 
For normal chimney use I will always use "dried wood". I was told when I was kid that coal is "bad for chimneys". I am not sure if that is true or not, but it might make some sense if the coal had large amounts of sulphur in it. Here are some links I found after a few minutes of clicking around, with some interesting tid bits: http://www.ehow.com/list_7621595_dangers-coal-burning-stoves-home.html http://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/does-burning-coal-damage-ss-chimney.1407/ |
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Advantages over wood, it last forever, don't have to keep in dry, puts off a hell of lot more heat. I don't use it because I don't like the smell of burning coal. Be careful what you burn it in though, I've heard of it damaging a Franklin stove because it got too hot. If you use a lot of coal, it can indeed burn right through the bottom, especially in a stove like a Franklin. |
| It doesn't hurt coal to stay wet. In fact, some large commercial coal burners store it under water. In blacksmithing it is a common practice to dredge your non-burning coal around the edges with water using a can with holes punched in it. Don't store it in the sun or the volatile portion will evaporate off and you'll lose a lot of BTUs. I have heard that coal is not good forever and should be used up on a regular schedule. |
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Preceeding posts covered just about all of it. I don't know squat about Bituminous (soft) coal as I live in the middle
of Pa's southern Anthracite (hard) coal fields. I do know that you have to keep a clean chimney, the ash will build up. I'm using a Leisure Line Econo model (manufactured @ 30mi from me) with a power venter. Not the best for power outages, but I'm using only @ 300 gal of oil a year. First year I had it i saved roughly 2000 bux on oil. Once the coal stove gets fired up the oil is used to heat my domestic water. Eventually I will have a chimney and hand fired stove but divorces are costly  so this will do for now.
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I remember shoveling coal in the basement as a kid, stoking the coal fire before going to school etc..we moved before I was 10 and didnt get the
joy of this duty as long as my much older brothers did..we got NatGas or Electric at the next house and onward from there(moved a bunch). I know I hated the smell..but as my father told me,,I was thankfull I wasnt like my uncles and a few generations back, who worked draging this crap out of the ground.. |
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I would recommend if you want to burn coal, learn now so when the time comes you have a system.
It is totally different from having a wood fire. I did a house cleanout last year and it had about 2 tons of coal in the basement, I took it home by the bucket loads every day until it was gone and burned it in my multifuel wood stove. Getting it started is a pain in the ass, you need a good hot wood fire, then you layer on coal until the box if full. After that you let it burn until the top gets red, and shake the ashes out from the bottom and fill it to the top of the box again. Coal is grouchy and hates to be bothered, if you treat it like a wood fire and open up the door and try to stoke it around, poke at it, or rake it it will likely go out on you, it also only burns well when the box is full and it is getting a nice flowing draft from the bottom of the bed, so you need a shaker. It took me a week or so of waking up cold and different batching experiments to figure it out, but it is super awesome being able to fill the box and let it burn for 15 hours before needing a fill up again. |
| Its easy to stockpile since it is a rock and you can have a pile dumped and use it whenever you need it. I like the smell of it, it reminds me of not cutting, splitting, stacking, seasoning, and lugging wood around. I'ver heard the little army stoves do not burn coal that well but I've always burned it in a Jøtul, Efel or Surdiac coal stove and its worked great. |