Soot On The Home Front?

Do you get a lot of black soot in your home?

As always, I was touting up the virtues of heating with coal, when a person said that the problem with burning coal is that you get a black soot in your house. They then continued on saying that while out home buying, every house that used coal for heat had black soot in it.

Myself, my home does not get that way, but my coal is stored in a mudroom outside the living area of the house, and being a small 3200 square feet home that is pretty well insulated, I do not go through a whole lot of coal anyway. My stove pipe is also well sealed, with connection compound as well as being riveted together, and I live on a hill where draft is not a problem and blows any soot that comes out of the chimney, well away from the house. Anyway, I just do not seem to get this dreaded soot that people often speak of.

But this guy was from Ohio, and I wonder if it is because he is burning soft coal instead of anthracite? Just thought I would pose the question to those that would know, and those that burn a lot more tons of coal then I do.

No soot here either NS. . Burning Anth. Nut. I've got some friends here in Freetown that have a little sheep operation (Northland Sheep Dairy) I'm wondering if you might be familiar with it? They have a site--tripletree@frontiernet.net-- Orrr--northlandsheepdairy.com--

No soot here.... dust, yes, but soot? Not a drop (does soot come in drops?) I'll venture a guess that soft coal in inexperienced hands could lean toward the soot issue.

No soot here. some dust but not bad. Dogs bring in more dirt. And we use to burn wood, more dirt and smoke there.

No soot in our place either. The coal is stored in a bin right next to the boiler, and the room is separated with a door. I have the expected coal dust there, but the door confines it to the boiler room/ coal bin only.

Oh yeah, I would venture to say that most uneducated nay sayers have a bad outlook on coal. But thats ok with me When I first shared the idea of using coal, I got some very bleak comments lol. I giggle every time I see a pick up truck filled to the gills with wood. Them silly wood burners hahaha!

The path of not having to sleep on a heating pad every night brings true enlightenment Now it's just during haying season

I don't think I could make soot with anthracite if I wanted to. Fly ash and dust are an issue here, but almost totally from the way I get rid of ash. i have a scoop ash pan, and I take it out of the ash door and slide it into spackle buckets. This always produces dust that gets everywhere. If I found a better way to get rid of the ash, this would be minimized.

ONEDOLLAR wrote:Lightning

Them silly woodburners are still saving themselves some good coin, though the path to true enlightenment comes with the burning of coal..

Yeah man, yer right.. Today I drove by a HUGE pile of wood to find a woman stacking it neatly piece by piece, I kinda felt bad for her She definately woulda appreciated some enlightenment!!

I burn bituminous coal and I have had a small amout of soot get on the floor when I remove the cleanout cover to brush the flue out. I guess if you were burning bit coal in a open fireplace you could have soot.

I kind of thought I was not the only one to find coal to be extremely clean to burn...

As for enlightenment, I think I will employ a trick I use in farming. I do a lot of things to extend the grazing season, then as the winter wears on and I find myself with surplus feed, I will sell my extra feed to those that need it. Oh I have feed all winter just to be sure my animals do not starve, but using that same mind set, I think I will buy and burn coal all winter, and then sell the 10 cord of firewood I have all ready to go in the dead of winter to those that need it. I think 10 cord of 100% ash, finely split, well dried and always sitting under cover will fetch a high price.

I've been heating with bit coal for years and there's no soot in my home at all - even when I used my hand-fired. If you have soot entering your home even from burning bit coal it's because you have an improper installation; many people heat with wood, some homes stink like creosote and others you can't even tell - the difference is some people have a properly drafting chimney and the right size stove pipe and others don't. Having said all that, I've heard of "soot" referenced from those who heat with anthracite as well and I truly believe that what people are seeing, but not articulating correctly, is coal dust on walls and surfaces because of improper handling, using dry coal, or non-oiled coal.