My first time...

I'm pretty happy with my usual 12 hour burn times. Sometimes I'll cut that short a couple hours, depending on how cold it is outside, in order to shake down while the coals are really hot and thereby getting a very quick recovery time. There's nothing like the temp of the entire house being nice and even, everywhere!! Not so when using the third string back up called propane!

I cannot imagine coal life without a window! Some sort of claustrophobia would set in!