Storing Hard Coal

I just started burning hard coal this year. I am considering buying 20 tons and storing it in a covered shelter. This will be about 5 or 6 years supply. Do you see any problem with doing this ?

Anthracite is a very stable product, there's no signifigant degradation in the product over time especially over just 4 to 5 years. They are still removing old RR beds around here that are well over 50 years old. They consist entirely of the smalller sizes such as rice and barley which was unable at that time.

If your going to that I would suggest getting it in the summer time. You'll gwt the best price and depending on the source most likely the cleanest product you can get.

I live in Western Pa, Indiana County. I have purchased coal twice so far both 1/2 ton batches. I wasn't happy with the first batch, the coal didn't burn very good, made a LOT of ash, and wouldn't stay through the night. The last batch, from a different yard, is doing MUCH better. I think that I have found a good source from the second coal yard. The first coal yard charged me $142 a ton, the second yard charged $150 a ton. [The second yard just raised his price from $135 to $150 a ton]. Do you think that this price will be stable or come down any in the summer months? Or worse yet, will I see another price increase ??

Historically coal prices have always been fairly stable, there has been fluctutations but you don't see the huge fluctuations like you see in other energy markets such as Gas and Oil.

Having said that what the future holds is anyones guess. My guess is that it will be around the current price or slightly lower for the summer months providing there isn't a huge spike in fuel costs. Even with a large fuel spike cost the price should not go up that much, that's just my opinion based on past performances.

Mark I'm in the same town as you and use hard coal. If you revisit this forum give me a call at 724-465-4232. I'd like to speak with you about your experience with the different suppliers.

As I understand two families own all the mines out East. My thought is that the quality is dependent upon which company mines it. Alternatively, it would seem possible that quality could vary by company. Maybe the admin could offer his expert opinion hear. As I understand you can't see the quality if its unburt. Maybe you see it if the ashes are powder (I've had a company say that some coal they bought turned to powder and they got the most heat from it). Maybe you could also evaluate the quality based on the heat it throws offs, if there's a noticable difference. Thanks!

As I mentioned in another post you can't necessarily go by how it looks, I've seen some pretty bad looking product that burned fine. The ashes are subjective to the type of stove your burning it in. You should get a very powdery ash from a hand fired stove, the same cannot be said of stokers.

We have a stoker and a small hand fired unit in the basement. The stoker will produce a chunky, powdery ash whereas the hand fired unit will burn it to the point that it's almost talcum powder like. That's from the very same coal coming from the same bin, same delivery etc. Don't expect a stoker to burn it to the point that it's complete ash.

NEPA,
Are you suggesting that the hand fired units burn the coal more efficiently, or just that they burn differently than a stoker unit?

Troy

Oil Region wrote:or just that they burn differently than a stoker unit?

The ashes they produce will be different, for efficiency you'll need to compare the units themselves and how they are used.

I had a customer with a "Heatrolla" which is a simple hand fired unit built back in the ?50's?. It looks similar to a Victrolla record player hence the name, these units are very inefficient but being a hand fired stove will burn the coal to nothing. He switched to a stoker and reduced his coal consumption to nearly half of what he was using.