Is it me or are more people returning to wood?

Today traveling around after metal scraping this morning I noticed a fare amount of newly delivered wood piles at houses with shiny new chimney tops or entire chimneys. These folks must love the extra work. Buying wood cannot be much better than buying coal. It has to be much more work with trying to get an all nite burn or all that stacking. Any toughts

With the price of fuel oil wood is the first thing people think of. The modern wood stoves are cleaner burning and do hold a fire longer. Not like coal though.

Let's keep the coal secret!! Have you seen any new coal piles around?????

The Coal Piles are out back or in the "Coal Shed" SHHHHHH.

I totally agree, I've noticed much the same around here, lots of people with piles of firewood in the drive... And I also agree that it does seem like more than usual!!! Whats up with all that nonsense? I've been trying to convert a few close friends to coal over the past year or more and I haven't been able to convince even a single person to "make the switch" even after showing my receipts for coal purchased over the last 2 years and explained how it costs twice as much to heat my place 10 degrees less with oil!!! Some people just won't give coal a chance I suppose!!! Oh well, their loss...

I was looking around the internet for a wood burner for my sister - she's in GA and coal is 600 miles away. As I spoke to folks around the mid-Atlantic region they all told me that there has been a lot of interest in wood burning stoves; they are getting a lot of inquires. I found one in great shape for $100. It was in my neighbor's basement but they were getting a gas log. I just happened to be out front when a couple of guys showed up with a Suburban to pick it up. They had found it on Craig's list. They left without the stove because they didn't know how to move it; it was too heavy. They never came back so Jen "gave" it to me for the $100. Thanks guys and gals of the forum for teaching me how to move a stove without hurting ourselves. Anyway, it is little used and has shaker grates for coal to boot. Now I just have to get it to GA. Lisa

I think most people don't even think about coal, a lot of houses have existing fireplaces & they figure they can use it as a supplement. Give them awhile & they will start investigating other sources or at least more efficient wood burners.

I'm with ya on that one. If someone asks, I'm real willing to share my coal knowledge with them. If they don't ask, I know nothing.---SUPPLY & DEMAND = PRICING

theo wrote:Let's keep the coal secret!! Have you seen any new coal piles around?????

I heat my house with a 25 year old Fisher insert. It has been modified with a stainless liner and a ducted fan system. It does a real good job and I am happy with it, BUT, I would really like to burn coal. We live on 40 wooded acres of southern hardwoods and I have all the free wood I'll ever burn in my lifetime. I was thinking about a Hitzer or DS Machine stove that could use coal or wood. The other consideration is that there is no coal available here. I could take my truck and get a pickup load but that is a 800 mile round trip. With the price of gas it makes absolutely no sense. I would like to try coal but I guess I'm stuck with wood forever. David.

With our hand fired unit, I typically burn wood in the start of the season and then at the end of the season as well. Trust me, I would rather purchase coal and shovel it into the coal bin rather than cutting the wood, spilting the wood and then stacking the wood. Plus the whole fire not lasting the night is another thing I find annoying. O well....

captain hornet, you might want to look into making the round trip to pick up some excellent eastern KY lump coal to burn with your (future) DS stove. Closer and less expensive to start with as well as having more heat and less ash. Lisa, this may be a good option for your sister in GA as well.

Odd as it may sound to us here, I think that most people who burn wood think it is more environmentally friendly, and certainly far more uppity or upscale (for those social climbers who are quite concerned about keeping up with the Joneses) than dirty old disgusting filthy low-life back woods coal.

I burned wood exclusively for a few years and I've burned it on and off for decades and no one ever much batted an eye or showed any particular concern for my actions, but now that I'm installing a coal fired boiler the consensus around these parts is that I've gone insane.

Insane HUH???? Imagine that.

lsayre wrote:I burned wood exclusively for a few years and I've burned it on and off for decades and no one ever much batted an eye or showed any particular concern for my actions, but now that I'm installing a coal fired boiler the consensus around these parts is that I've gone insane.

Amazing how people with no experience know all about it. sort of like our politicians who know nothing about running a business yet can tell you just how to do it.

franco b wrote:

lsayre wrote:I burned wood exclusively for a few years and I've burned it on and off for decades and no one ever much batted an eye or showed any particular concern for my actions, but now that I'm installing a coal fired boiler the consensus around these parts is that I've gone insane.

Amazing how people with no experience know all about it. sort of like our politicians who know nothing about running a business yet can tell you just how to do it.

Bingo. When someone gives me that "you must be crazy and you're killing the baby seals" look about burning coal, I ask them to please tell me about their first-hand experience burning it. I have yet to get anything in response but a blank stare.