How Many Folks Burning Coal in Maine ?

Started the 2nd season last week with my Reading Lehigh. There are at least 5 co workers in the Bangor area that also using auto stoves or boilers. Growing up in the late 80's in Grand Isle (Northern Aroostook) we heated out home with an EFM boiler, not sure which model.

eudo33 wrote:Growing up in the late 80's in Grand Isle

Hey neighbor! PM sent.

We're in our 1st season of burning pea coal here in Skowhegan and love it! Harman Mark 11. My mom just asked me yesterday" Their aren't that many coal users out there,are there? I just laughed and said you should see them all, their multiplying like bunnies...! At the very most we'll burn 3 ton-but dont think we will,,

ok, so whats the tally- anyone counting..?

Just started on coal a week ago. Ordered a ka-6 last year and got it this summer.I will know more about it next spring,but so far so good.

Johnshan wrote:Jim, where are you buying your coal?

I am in Windham running an Econo stove and my father is in Gorham running an Alaska Channing III.

Sorry for the delay in answering. This year I bought the coal in Saco. Maine-ly Stoves and Fuel Yard. Last year I bought it at Downeast Coal in Gouldsboro when I bought the stove. They delivered both at the same time.

We bought our stove in 2008 from DownEast and got a few tons of coal at the same time.

This year we bought our coal from Maine-ly Stoves in Saco. There was an issue with actually getting the coal. We called for pricing in June and put in an order with a deposit in August. We had to drive down and pick up ten bags when we started up the stove. Did not get the full two tons until much later. Never ran out though. We expected bagged Reading but they delivered "Centralia" instead. It seems to be okay although it is my impression it is wetter than the Reading was.

jockel wrote:We bought our stove in 2008 from DownEast and got a few tons of coal at the same time.

This year we bought our coal from Maine-ly Stoves in Saco. There was an issue with actually getting the coal. We called for pricing in June and put in an order with a deposit in August. We had to drive down and pick up ten bags when we started up the stove. Did not get the full two tons until much later. Never ran out though. We expected bagged Reading but they delivered "Centralia" instead. It seems to be okay although it is my impression it is wetter than the Reading was.

We bought 3 ton from them beginning of July. There was one ton left on the lot. We made a few trips with our truck as they didn't seem to be to happy about delivering to Gorham. It was Reading.

I moved into a house that has a wood/coal boiler, and I am excited to try out coal. I just had it all checked over and I am ready to burn! I want to try both coal and wood to see which one works better for me. I'll try the coal first and see how it goes. Glad to find this forum, now hopefully I can find a good supply of coal in the Bath area. Stay warm all!, Ed

jrmurch wrote:I moved into a house that has a wood/coal boiler, and I am excited to try out coal. I just had it all checked over and I am ready to burn! I want to try both coal and wood to see which one works better for me. I'll try the coal first and see how it goes. Glad to find this forum, now hopefully I can find a good supply of coal in the Bath area. Stay warm all!, Ed

I've had good luck with http://www.ahsfuels.com/Anthracite.html in Freeport

Thanks for the site Erik. I'll give them a call tomorrow. I went to my local hardware store and they charged me 9.99 for a 40lb bag. I got my boiler running today, but after eight hours it died on me because I did not shake the grates. I thought that you only had to do it twice a day , but I guess that I have to do it more with mine!. Does anyone have a boiler? I thought that they were supposed to be the best on fuel, but after about eight hours I burned through half a bag (20lbs). Also does the coal have to have a blue flame all the time, or should it just smolder. In order to keep a flame I had keep the ash door open a 1/4 inch, maybe that would explain that fast burn rate. Any thoughts would be great. Thanks, Ed

jrmurch wrote:I moved into a house that has a wood/coal boiler, and I am excited to try out coal. Glad to find this forum, now hopefully I can find a good supply of coal in the Bath area. Stay warm all!, Ed

Hi Ed, Try Ames Supply (True Value) in Wiscasset not far from Wiscasset Ford on RT 1 Southbound. They have Kimmel's in 50# bags. 207-882-7710

jrmurch wrote:Thanks for the site Erik. I'll give them a call tomorrow. I went to my local hardware store and they charged me 9.99 for a 40lb bag. I got my boiler running today, but after eight hours it died on me because I did not shake the grates. I thought that you only had to do it twice a day , but I guess that I have to do it more with mine!. Does anyone have a boiler? I thought that they were supposed to be the best on fuel, but after about eight hours I burned through half a bag (20lbs). Also does the coal have to have a blue flame all the time, or should it just smolder. In order to keep a flame I had keep the ash door open a 1/4 inch, maybe that would explain that fast burn rate. Any thoughts would be great. Thanks, Ed

After you get the coal fire burning keep adding 1"-2" of coal at a time. Let each layer of coal get burning well before you add more coal. Do this untill the depth of coal is up to the top of the fire brick ( about 9" deep). My Stove holds about 100 lbs. Anthracite only burns well if it has a deep bed of coal.
Make sure that 95%-- 99% of the air flow is coming up through the grates and coal bed.
The coal at Ames is $7.95 for a 50# bag. If you get a discount card it's about $7.65.
PC 12

jrmurch wrote:fter about eight hours I burned through half a bag (20lbs). Also does the coal have to have a blue flame all the time, or should it just smolder. In order to keep a flame I had keep the ash door open a 1/4 inch, maybe that would explain that fast burn rate.

20 pounds burned in 8 hours is not an excessive burn rate, especially for starting the system up from cold. It's about equivalent to what I put through my hand-fired stove in very-cold weather.

It's not surprising that your fire went out if all you put in the stove was 40 pounds. As PC12 says, coal likes a deep bed, lots of fuel mass. A wood fire, left without new fuel, will often continue burning slowly until practically all the wood is consumed. Coal will not do that. Once you drop below the critical mass, the fire goes out. Just like a nuclear power plant, which would be my preferred heat source if I could fit one in the cellar.

Blue flames: Sometimes you will have them, sometimes not. Judge your fire mostly by its heat output, not its flames. If the whole coal bed is glowing red, you probably will have very few visible flames, and that's OK. The only time I worry about flames is right after I have loaded in a lot of fresh coal. As volatiles are driven off the new coal, gas can build up above the coal bed, and when it reaches the right temperature and air/gas ratio, it can make a (usually small) explosion. The best way to avoid this is by leaving some glowing coal exposed when you load the new coal, so it can help ignite the gas before it builds up. Then you will probably have lots of flames for awhile.

Thank you all very much for the information. I thought that I was saving money by just putting in a small amount at a time! This coal thing has a huge learning curve!. It took me three tries to get it going. When it was going it was awesome! I had beautiful red coals with black on top and small blues flames, I thought I was king of the heating world, until it started going out!!! No matter what I did I could not get it hot again! It really bummed me out to switch on my oil boiler last night! So once I have it going then I should not use as much coal? . Thanks again all, you have been a huge help to me! I will try again!, Ed

jrmurch wrote:I thought that I was saving money by just putting in a small amount at a time ... So once I have it going then I should not use as much coal?

Once you have the deep bed of coal burning well, you reduce the input air to get the desired rate of heat output. Little air equals long burn time at low heat. Lots of air equals shorter burn time at higher heat. It just depends on how much heat you need for whatever the weather is today. Probably your boiler has automatic controls to close down the air inlet when the water is hot, and open up the air inlet when the water temp drops???

How much coal will you need? How much oil did your house use last winter? Multiply gallons times 140,000 BTU per gallon giving you total input BTUs to heat the house. Now divide the total by 13,000 BTU per pound to get pounds of coal equivalent to the oil usage. Add 10 or 15 percent more to the coal, because overall the oil boiler is probably more efficient than the coal boiler. That's a rough estimate of how much coal you can expect to use, if you completely displace oil with coal.