It's 1 Outside, That's Right 1 but It's 74 Inside

Last night my family and I watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Boy I sure miss John Candy, one of the funniest guys, may he rest in piece. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when they're riding in the back of the pickup truck and he asks how cold do you think it is outside, he says 1.

Well this morning I wake up and walk around the house in shorts and a tee shirt and as we all get ready for school and work it seems like a normal morning. My daughter opens the door to feed our cat and we feel this gush of brutal cold air. We turn on the TV and it's 1 outside. I'm so glad I'm burning coal. If we were still burning wood, the house would have been 60 this morning. And with coal, during this cold weather, my stoves run even better. This is the first winter in 3 years where the house is warm, throughout.

Anyway, I get to work and my buddy has a split lip. I asked him what happened, he said it was so cold this morning while loading his outdoor wood boiler that he rubbed his lip and it cracked a bit. I told him to go to med point and then join our forum. This is guy that tells me Obama is going to shut down coal burning and I was making a big mistake switching from wood to coal.

Normally, I'll raz him a little for a comment like that, but with Christmas coming, I decided to take the high road, and told him, by the way, my house was 74 this morning and 14 hours later I'll load my stove while in my shorts. I cannot believe he gave me the bird. I reminded him that heating with wood warms you twice, and apparently splits your lip. Wood burners, they're such easy targets!

BPatrick wrote:Last night my family and I watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Boy I sure miss John Candy, one of the funniest guys, may he rest in piece. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when they're riding in the back of the pickup truck and he asks how cold do you think it is outside, he says 1.

Well this morning I wake up and walk around the house in shorts and a tee shirt and as we all get ready for school and work it seems like a normal morning. My daughter opens the door to feed our cat and we feel this gush of brutal cold air. We turn on the TV and it's 1 outside. I'm so glad I'm burning coal. If we were still burning wood, the house would have been 60 this morning. And with coal, during this cold weather, my stoves run even better. This is the first winter in 3 years where the house is warm, throughout.

Anyway, I get to work and my buddy has a split lip. I asked him what happened, he said it was so cold this morning while loading his outdoor wood boiler that he rubbed his lip and it cracked a bit. I told him to go to med point and then join our forum. This is guy that tells me Obama is going to shut down coal burning and I was making a big mistake switching from wood to coal.

Normally, I'll raz him a little for a comment like that, but with Christmas coming, I decided to take the high road, and told him, by the way, my house was 74 this morning and 14 hours later I'll load my stove while in my shorts. I cannot believe he gave me the bird. I reminded him that heating with wood warms you twice, and apparently splits your lip. Wood burners, they're such easy targets!

that movie makes me laugh every time....yeh Candy was great. Obama is putting the hurt on some coal strip mines here, they have cut back production. But I'm going to go out shoveling, raking, and dumping ash well into the 21st century... they can pry my coal shovel from my cold, dead hands....I'll pick coal from the nearby creekbed, fill the old F150, and stoke it up like the old bootleggers did if I have to ! Great post you put up. If God made a better way to heat a house in winter time, he kept it to Himself !!

Wood will be my last resort, when the last nugget of coal burns in NEPA. There's enough here that will never happen, in my lifetime. Something like several hundred million tons still in the ground, or more ?

I find myself being cold in the office as they set the thermostat to 68. My house is never 68. I'm not skinny, but when its 74+ degrees all fall and winter, you get cold easy. I do travel to Florida on business a lot and my friend says that's why, I tell him no, it's because I heat with coal.

The outside wind chill the past couple of nights has been between -10 and -20degF and the central portion of our 2500sqft ranch stays right at 73degF from our Yukon-Eagle Klondike IV wood/coal furnace located in the basement. The bedrooms farther away from the great room are in the mid-60s. We prefer sleeping in cooler bedrooms anyway - more fun to bundle with blankets and warm beagles! We're very happy with our coal burner! Better than sucking down huge quantities of propane!

BPatric, just a quick hello from a neighbor to the south of you....

coalcracker wrote:Wood will be my last resort, when the last nugget of coal burns in NEPA. There's enough here that will never happen, in my lifetime. Something like several hundred million tons still in the ground, or more ?

There are approximately 12.1 billion (yes billion) tons of anthracite reserves remaining in PA, of the ~22.8 billion tons that were in place when the first mining began. At the current rate of consumption, that's enough anthracite for the next 3000-4000 years. Unless the enviro-nazis outlaw the extraction of coal, folks will have the option of keeping warm with coal well beyond our lifetimes!

Consider yourself lucky , for the past week in Northern Nevada nightime temps have been in the negative teens, I think we hit -20 a few nights, and days have been in the low to mid teens. The first few nights I was able to maintain 69 degrees in my room, but then the temps started dropping a degree or 2 per night. This morning room temp was down to 60 , I'm shivering, the dogs are shivering, and the cat has gone into a motionless suspended animation hibernation mode ( I think he is still alive), I can't wait to burn coal so we can experience this mythical sensation you guys call "warmth"

@ dgirl: sorry to hear you're not up and burning yet. How goes the build/restoration?

Hey Dalmation Girl, any picture updates, not of the cold outside but the neat resto your doing to the place. Coal will burn at a steady temp, for much longer periods of time. That's what you appreciate more about burning coal than wood. You'll have to find something else to do with all your time! Remember, just leave the coal stove alone for hours is difficult for new coal burners who used to be veteran wood burners.

Jeromemsn, hello from your northern neighbor. I live north of Cassopolis by the Edward Lowe Foundation. Actually, our house used to be a foundation house built by my wife's family in the mid 1800's and bought by the foundation. I bought it back from Edward Lowe's son. Great old drafty house. it's warm now that its heated with coal.

BPatrick wrote:Jeromemsn, hello from your northern neighbor. I live north of Cassopolis by the Edward Lowe Foundation. Actually, our house used to be a foundation house built by my wife's family in the mid 1800's and bought by the foundation. I bought it back from Edward Lowe's son. Great old drafty house. it's warm now that its heated with coal.

Hello Neighbor, I live down by Garver lake across the street from "Fat Cams" in the A-Frame house... Doing work on the house as I can while taking care of the wife and all her complications from Chemo.... Glad you survived the summer storms that we had in the immediate area... Keep warm, or should I say cool during coal burning season.....

I can't wait to burn coal so we can experience this mythical sensation you guys call "warmth"

Yeah, but I bet the stars at night are fabulous.

I can't wait to burn coal so we can experience this mythical sensation you guys call "warmth"

Yeah, but I bet the stars at night are fabulous.

Spot on about that wood vs coal in house temperature. I heated with wood the past 8 yrs., I got a ton of ant. coal to see if I would like it.( I got on this site and followed advice given) Well it is a lot less work, I can also tell the difference when the blower kicks on, higher temp coming thru the register. 10 to 14 hr burn time, compared to a 8 to 9 burn time. Im in my 50"s and I do not miss the cutting, triming, splitting, loading, unloading, and stacking. Staying with coal.

coalnewbie wrote:

Yeah, but I bet the stars at night are fabulous.[/quote]

Yes they are! Especially when you are sitting in the hot springs at midnite . The tough part is getting out of the hot springs at -20