So You Want to Compare Coal Usage.

Cap · Post by **Cap** » Sun. Apr. 10, 2011 3:45 pm

$525 coal ( $150/3.5 tons ), $104 gas ( 3 round trips )
3000sf heated
6500 range in PA
I figured .032 cents for heated sf.

smokeyCityTeacher · Post by **smokeyCityTeacher** » Tue. Apr. 12, 2011 12:44 pm

you are burning ANTHRACITE yes?
Didn't know it was indigenous to AK?.. but then I skipped school that day.

[edit] ..you are burning bit or sub ..ok I looked it up - no Anthracite in AK, my bad - your BTU per lb should have told me already.

Short Bus wrote:This topic like all topics is frought with problems, to name a few.
1. I live in twice the heating degree days most members are in.
http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/documentlibrary/clim8 ... tingDD.pdf
http://www.degreedays.net/#generate This site gives description of Heating degree day, and generates based on zip code.
2. My coal is 7500 BTU per lb, unlike other coal.
3. I pay 65 dollars per ton and haul it 40 miles, 2.5 tons at a time.

If you want to ride in this discussion, set your beer down, buckle up, and break out your calculator, and be honest about how much you spent on coal last year.

I purpose a DPSPTHDD, Dollars Per Square foot Per Thousand Heating Degree Days.

This number attemps to compensate for coal cost, coal quality, weather conditions, and house size.

Raw Data needed
A. Dollars spent on coal last year, I will figure 100 dollars per ton, and 17 tons, result in a coal cost of 1700$
( I would much rather say 1000$ in coal but I bought fuel ect. for the truck)
B. Square footage of heated area, this varies as garages are heated part time in some systems.
C. Heating Degree Days for your area, see above link, please familliarize yourself with HDD by searching the web, I'm not up to describing it here.( for purpose of this exersize we will be using my adaptaion of HDD of 1000 HDD meaning I live in Alaska in a 16,000 HDD area this I will call a 16 Thousand HDD or 16 THDD (yes I know I'm over the eadge, hang on)).

This is a work hopfully in progress ( or the bablings of a idiot ) corrections in name and purpose are expected and will be added to the formula if deamed practical.
A divided by B divided by C equals your DPSPTHDD
1700/540/16= about 20 cents DPSPTHDD
Or in other words The number Short Bus wants to use to compare our heating systems.
.20 dollars per square foot, per thousand heating degree days.

Domestic hot water and garages skewing these results, I have ideas about how to incorporate these but lets see if this dimensia takes wings, i.e. best of anthracite coal forums.
I will say that last weekend I added insulation to my modest home, and will be insulating more in the future.

Post by **Rob R.** » Sun. Dec. 31, 2017 3:49 pm

Rob R. wrote: ↑
Thu. Dec. 16, 2010 8:34 am
0.121

Data from last year, which was also my first year in this house.

A. 3 tons of anthracite, $750. 3 face cords of firewood, $150. $1000 gallons of No. 2 fuel oil, ~$2500. $3400 total.
B. Including the basement, we heat 3500 square feet. We also get domestic hot water from the boilers.
C. 8000 Heating degree days according to the chart.

3400 dollars / 3500 sq. ft / 8k HDD = 0.121, or 12.1 Cents Per Square foot Per Thousand Heating Degree Days.

-Rob

Reviving an old an interesting thread. Shows the impact of heating load, and your local cost of btu's. Also useful to compare the performance of one system vs. another if you ignore the $ and just look at pounds of coal per sq. ft, per thousand degree days.

Between some improvements to my house and heating system, and a reduced cost for coal - my figures are now less than half of what they were 7 years ago.

6.5 tons of rice coal cost me $1436.50 this year...call it $1450.

$1450 / 3500 sq. ft / 8k HDD = 0.052, or 5.2 Cents Per Square foot Per Thousand Heating Degree Days.

Edit: It seems that the map linked in the original post is no longer available, but it is easy enough to go to http://www.weatherdatadepot.com/ and see what your average annual heating degree days area, based on the temperature you keep your house.