Kentucky coal

I just finished burning a ton of kentucky coal. I bought lump, which contains some peices so big I had to brake them up. It was real similar to burning wood. I had no bridging and only a handful of clinkers. The only trouble I had with it was the fly ash. I live in the city and my neighbors only live a bout 25' from me. They did not complain but the ash was every where. For this reason only I will have to stick to wood or anthracite. Presently anthracite costs the same as natural gas, so for me it is a no brainer which I will use. Looks like it is wood for me until next year.

Hi blue83, was that 'fly ash' the bituminous black soot that sticks to everything, and won't wipe off, but has to be washed off?? You may be able to figure out a way to get heated secondary air to the firebox and burn off some of the soot. But this only works with a hot fire.

What are you paying for Anchracite? Are you able to burn wood hot enough to not have creosote and lots of wood smoke?

Greg L

Ls, the soot is what I am talking about. I only get it for about an hour after I fill it. I don't get much creosote buildup burning wood. I always burn i t hot for about a half hour in the morning which seems to clean the chimney up. The only time I burn it slow is at night, to try and get thru the night. If I manage to get good hard wood I hardley get any smoke at all. I haven't ticked any of my neighbors off with the wood smoke for two years and I would like to keep it that way. Will the heated secondary air almost eliminate the soot. The current price for bulk anthracite is $210/ton. The Kentucky is $145/ton.

One trick that often works to burn off a lot of the soot is to put down a couple of splits of fast hot-burning wood like elm or even pine, then fill in between the splits with the Bitum coal. The hot fire from the wood often burns up a lot of the soot.

You can make a 'C' shaped pipe with the bottom resting on the grate, the end on the grate having a 90* ell facing down into an air gap in the grate. The C standing up with the top exiting over the fire. This acts as an air passageway that is heated by the fire, the air is forced through the pipe to above the fire.

I made a tube similar to this and had a virtual blowtorch of flames where the air exited the pipe. This burnt a lot of the soot. I made it out of 3/4" steel pipe, the cost was about $5 with fittings. Didnt last very long, but it proved that it works.

$210/ton of anthracite isn't too bad for your location. You can get west virginia/western Maryland coal at the coal yard for $65/ton bulk.

Take care. Greg L

Thanks Ls, I will try the pipe as you said. If it works good enough I may even try some cheaper coal. I'll make it out of steel at first then try it in stainless. Ttyl, Scott

blue83camaro wrote:Thanks Ls, I will try the pipe as you said. If it works good enough I may even try some cheaper coal. I'll make it out of steel at first then try it in stainless. Ttyl, Scott

you can get anthracite for $194.00 ton you pu at thompson brothers in new springfield, i was ther looking at a coal stove..

cf1 wrote:

blue83camaro wrote:

you can get anthracite for $194.00 ton you pu at thompson brothers in new springfield, i was ther looking at a coal stove..

I tried thiers a couple of years ago, and had trouble with it going out for no reason. Tried some from a diff souce and it was much better, just cost a little more. That is where I got the kentucky coal. I have a 94% eff gas furnace so my bill will hardly ever exceed $200 a month at the current price for gas. That makes it impractical for me to burn anthracite. Thanks for the info.

blue83camaro wrote: I have a 94% eff gas furnace so my bill will hardly ever exceed $200 a month at the current price for gas. That makes it impractical for me to burn anthracite. Thanks for the info.

I'm in the same boat as you - I have a high eff. gas furnace, and with our 2800 sq.ft. new home, our gas bills, even with the real cold weather we've had, will not exceed $200, and that's with gas for everthing in the house.

I can get Illinois bituminous stoker coal for $88/ton. Nevertheless, I'm in the process of refurbishing a Keystoker direct vent stove to burn anthracite, which is $300/ton bagged locally. I'm working with the local stove dealer to look into bringing in bulk anthracite for next year.

Two reasons drove my decision: 1) Lack of bituminous burning stoker stoves and 2) lack of a good location in our house to install a vertical chimney.

I will not burn bituminous in any of the current crop of hand fed stoves. We tried the Indiana version of this coal (basically the same) years ago when I was in grade school in a Woodchuck add-on furnace. It basically covered the house and surrounding area in stringy coal soot. What a mess.

However, in a proper stoker like member HardWood's Combustioneer, these coals will burn relatively smoke-free. Sadly, the Combustioneer is long out of production, and there are no other bituminous stoker stoves like it in current production.

Chris

pachris,
did you ever burn that $88/ton coal?
Did it work OK?
drujinin

Nope, didn't try it and likely never will at this point. I've got a Keystoker waiting to be installed this fall, so I'm on the anthracite bandwagon right now.

However, I'd still look to try it if someone would build a decent bituminous stoker boiler that I could plumb into the existing hot air system with a heat exchanger. I would build a nice detached garage and place the boiler in there and run insulated tubing to the house. Keep all the coal dirt out of the main living space.

Chris

blue83camaro wrote:

cf1 wrote:

blue83camaro wrote:

you can get anthracite for $194.00 ton you pu at thompson brothers in new springfield, i was ther looking at a coal stove..

I tried thiers a couple of years ago, and had trouble with it going out for no reason. Tried some from a diff souce and it was much better, just cost a little more. That is where I got the kentucky coal. I have a 94% eff gas furnace so my bill will hardly ever exceed $200 a month at the current price for gas. That makes it impractical for me to burn anthracite. Thanks for the info.

Even with a 94% efficient furnace and gas at $1.00 per therm, the break even price for anthracite coal would be $210 a ton assuming a 75% efficient appliance. I don't know what gas costs in your area but it has been a few years since I last saw $1.00 per therm. Granted you must see some cost savings to make the extra work with coal worth your while.

I use about 21 mcf of gas during cold months @ $9/mcf(1000 cubic ft). That comes to $189 a month for gas. During that same month I would use roughly a ton of anthracite @ $210 a ton. I am getting my figures on the amount of fuel used per month from past usage. The year before last I was paying $16/mcf and $189/ton for coal. I was more than happy to burn it at that point.

I did some checking and I was paying $9.71/mcf which equates to $.97/therm. That was in January. The price has went up to 11.98/mcf as of this month. This is for East Ohio Gas. This also includes everything but the service charge of $5.70 a month. So your calculations were correct and I was paying slightly less than $1/therm. If the gas prices keep going the way they are I will be buying some coal for next year. I should buy some right now it is only $198 a ton.

Same boat here to. I have access to Southern Illinois bitum at $80 or so, and our Southern Illinois natural gas company has been charging $17.99 mcf since January. Makes me think that drive across KY to purchase anthracite may well be worth it. I still want to build Berlin's bitum stove and see how well it handles the soot with the preheated secondary air.

blue83camaro wrote:I did some checking and I was paying $9.71/mcf which equates to $.97/therm. That was in January. The price has went up to 11.98/mcf as of this month. This is for East Ohio Gas. This also includes everything but the service charge of $5.70 a month. So your calculations were correct and I was paying slightly less than $1/therm. If the gas prices keep going the way they are I will be buying some coal for next year. I should buy some right now it is only $198 a ton.

WOW!! that is some cheap gas. The price did come down some this past winter. I was paying $1.34/therm this winter but I paid $1.79/therm last winter and I use about 25mcf/month in the cold months.