Thank God for My Coal Stove

Had to leave work early for a dental appointment today. It had already started snowing, and after leaving the dentist I stopped at the grocery to pickup a few "storm supplies" for the missus. Then I stopped at the Sheetz convenience store next door to get a soda.

After coming out of Sheetz, I was sitting in the car sipping my vanilla diet pepsi with lots of crushed ice, and realized I was parked right next to the kerosene pump. There were three people standing there in the rapidly falling snow, each of them waiting to fill two or three of those blue plastic kerosene cans. With the forecast of at least two days of single-digit temps after the snowstorm moves out, I can understand people wanting to have some extra heat.

I sat there thinking about the early years of our marriage, living in an apartment with electric baseboard heat, and having only a small Sears kerosene heater for extra heat during the coldest days of winter. And I suddenly felt very thankful for the big hunk o' steel sitting in my basement, crankin' out coal heat 24 hours a day, with only 15-20 minutes of effort needed from me each day. And with just a slight turn of the thermostat, and an extra shovel or two of coal, I can look at a weather forecast of near- or below-zero temperatures and just chuckle.

No matter what you're running--base heater, Chubby, restored antique, DS Machine, Harmon, Hitzer, Surdiac, Franco, or one of many others--and no matter how many dampers you do, or don't, have--I'm sure you'll agree with me on one thing:

Days like these make me want to shout I LOVE MY COAL STOVE!!!!!

AMEN! It is already -4°f here in upstate NY. Have the coal stove going in the garage as well as in the house.
Randy

AMEN to that as well.

It is nice and warm in this house with single digits outside and howling winds. Just your semi average New England blizzard. I spent a grand total of 10 mins today dealing with 2 stoves. And that included bringing a couple of bags of coal into the house.... Just in case....Oh the HUMANITY!!

Meanwhile I see the oil and "propain" trucks struggle to make it up the hill to the other 9 houses in the neighborhood, along with another neighbor who must have stacked 3 cords of wood on his farmers porch. My back hurts just looking at it.

Yep you just can't beat coal heat! I fully expect to provide a refuge for some if we should lose power. Fine by me. If it happens I have a feeling there will be a couple of more people around her starting to burn coal... Nothing wrong with that either!

Yep, I took a vacation day today and I have the next two days off. I have enough coal inside to last for a week. Lamps are ready if the power goes down.
This morning I looked at the clouds and could smell the snow in the air. Yes, you can smell it before it snows. I hopped down the store and got back just as it started.
The Glenwood and the Crawford are just doing their daily routine. Yes, I am so glad I have them.
All the wood burners around me were outside busy with their saws and wheel barrows, slaving away. I really enjoy putting my feet up on that nickle plated foot rest, sipping my coffee and watching the wood burner's ballet outside.
I am very thankful.

Today it never got above -15f here in Keeseville, NY and the low tonight is -17f. Tomorrow its going to be colder .
We did lose power for 2 hours, the pellet stove went out but the coal stove kept putting the heat out to the entire house. Told the wife to leave the pellet stove alone and will get it running when I get home from work. Total time pellet stove was down was right around 4 1/2 hours. Temps in the house went from 73 down to 66. Goes to show there is little to no insulation in the walls of this house. But I do like the coal stove and so does the wife now since we lost power and still had heat!!

07roadstar wrote:Today it never got above -15f here in Keeseville, NY and the low tonight is -17f. Tomorrow its going to be colder .
We did lose power for 2 hours, the pellet stove went out but the coal stove kept putting the heat out to the entire house. Told the wife to leave the pellet stove alone and will get it running when I get home from work. Total time pellet stove was down was right around 4 1/2 hours. Temps in the house went from 73 down to 66. Goes to show there is little to no insulation in the walls of this house. But I do like the coal stove and so does the wife now since we lost power and still had heat!!

Hey Roadstar,

Down in Wadhams here... very frigid... two stoves burning... 1850 house.... I'd say it's about a draw.... like to have it warmer... working the stoves.

0F now just north of Boston - and reloaded the wood fire on the first floor and looked at the coal stove in the basement....purring along at 350F side temps. I couldn't resist so I shook it and will top it off with some pea coal on top the nut. It would have lasted till 8am but...well I like to poke.

" the wood burner's ballet " ... that hysterical (add something with that to Lightnings T shirt post and Im in)!

Yes indeed... a good day for all coal stoves to join hands in triumph as one

coal and wood are where its at. propane is too expensive and less BTU than nat gas. heat pumps are like having no heat. electric baseboard heats the air, the floors are like ice, and the electric bill is high. oil heat it good heat but in this weather it would cost $1000/month, who can afford it. the only option better than coal and wood, is natural gas. and for that you need a gas line nearby. so thats it in a nutshell. I do have a few kerosene heaters in the basement from the old days, but don't use them- I was using them as garage heat, etc. at one time. they heat well but are too stinky for using in the house all the time. unvented heaters of any type make me light headed.

Your story remind me of the firs year in this dump. Electric baseboard set at 40° and a small kerosene heater sitting on the fireplace hearth. There err some nights we'd Larry on the floor in front of that kerosene heatee freezing our asses off.

Then we burned wood. It was warm but a lot of work. I hated waking up several times a night to feed the pig and I hated even more stacking and splitting the wood. I also disliked trying to start fires especially if the wood got wet.

Now I burn coal. Throw half a bag of Cowboy coal in the stove in October/November. Light it with a torch and then fill it with coal till Mayish. Don't worry about being cold as much. House is still drafty as all hell but it's definitely a lot warmer

Minus 12 here this morning, with about a foot of new snow from that storm.

The kitchen was 67 when I came down stairs this morning. The range had been damped down for over 10 hours and was still full of glowing embers. Top plates over the firebox were in the low 700's, the stack was 116, and the tea kettle was the perfect temp for instant coffee ! Coal sure is nice !

I had one of those kerosene heaters with the catalytic burner when they came out in the late 70's. Were said to burn so clean that a lot of people thought they didn't need venting. It gave off alot of heat, but a lot of that was lost having to have open windows to get rid of the large quantities of carbon monoxide they produce. Still got sick from the fumes.

Not long after, Suffolk County outlawed all kero heaters because of the high risk of CO asphyxiation.

Paul

Never trusted those kero heaters. All the byproducts of combustion venting into the room? No thanks! When I bought this house the previous owners used one in the upper level cause it had no other heat up there. The walls and ceilings were covered in a kero residue. So were their lungs I'm sure.

I can't imagine trying to keep my house as warm using the oil furnace as I keep it with coal... $1000/ month? Not unlikely! Whew, and I spend about $800 a winter with coal... and using coal I never even think twice about if I want to crack up the the heat inside...

dj

This post is an understatement! On these cold nites I turn off the lite in the family room and gaze at the orange glow, and last nite -6 it was more like an orange landing lite from an incoming plane

So, summing up this thread, I guess the majority wins. Coal is "good". (Who-da-thought)?