Is Burning Coal A Hobby?

It's a religion. Every day when I walk in from the cold outside and feel that warmth, it's the most satifying feeling to know that it is due to a tiny little coal fire in my basement and not some overpriced stinky fuel oil from a towel head in the middle east.

Hahaha towel head. I knew a guy that calls 'em Jelly Jars, you know how they put red and white checked cloth on Ball jars with country jam in them.....

This should be merged with the Blue Dancers thread!

As I noted there, I think the draw of the fire is as primordial as the disappearance of the pigment from our skin. Both occurred as our ancient ancestors migrated away from the tropics, got less sunlight, and needed more heat....

I have been heating our 2500 sq ft house for 26 years now with wood and coal. Use coal for the coldest periods and wood otherwise. Also have oil backup. I like the money that I save but more importantly I like not having to depend on anybody else for fuel.

TimfromPittsburgh wrote:I have been heating our 2500 sq ft house for 26 years now with wood and coal. Use coal for the coldest periods and wood otherwise.

Wow! I burned wood one year & would never go back to it, even if it was free. Coal spoiled me forever!
(it's so much easier to burn & store than wood)

Devil505 wrote:Wow! I burned wood one year & would never go back to it, even if it was free. Coal spoiled me forever!
(it's so much easier to burn & store than wood)

Yea, but the burning wood smells soooooooooo goooooooood! The smell of burning coal reminds me of when my mother in law farts at the dinner table.

Hobby for some, therapy for others.

HAHAHAHA! Those must be the chicken dinners!

I never thought about it but I guess it i a hobby, with the amount of time I spend fooling with the house to heat it better.

Necessity, either pay the Electric Company and/or supplement with wood. Did both, now I pay 1/3 for the season. It's economics stupid.

Who you callin' " Stupid"? Electric heat......now that is not just stupid, that is really really amazingly stupid.
Money, entertainment,gadgets, art, history, survival, and geopolitical
relevance, they are all part of the Anthracite Advantage. Burn On Baby!

Hobby.....hmmmm.... all I know is I've a stack temp with insert able probe and digital read out, built several spreadsheets to tract coal usage, power consumption form stove, outside temperature, and a small IR gun to monitor my stove and duct work temps, new brighter fluorescent tube light so I could see things better around my stove, tried everything in the basement to clean the glass on the door (give that up by the way), tried a whole buncha different stuff to light coal with (stay away from the pyrodex by the way),.............hobby?

Need one last thing......a remote weather station that I can monitor outdoor temps and several room temps in the house without breaking the bank.....hobby?

Its a hobby ! I love it, and I love telling my friends about it. When I show them, they get jealous....I think a lot would like a hobby like mine.

Cold_Mainer wrote:Need one last thing......a remote weather station

You mean with two outside temps, inside temp, two wind speeds, wind direction, rain gauge, barometer, wind chill, that has a clock and records high & low of everything? Yaaaaa, that'd be cool. **smile** On my Christmas wish list is software to hook it up to the computer & have a running record.

You guys have waaaaaayyyyyyyy too much free time!!! But no one ever gets hurt with your hobbies. When it's 15 below and the wind is blowing, just getting back inside to a warm house makes it all worth while. Get some fresh fuel for the snowblower, here it comes again. We're looking at 10 to 17 inches.......and some of you thought about putting away the winter toys......