Coal Gas

I have a neighbor that is complaining about coal gas that he is getting in his house on very windy days from my stove. My chimney is 8 to 10 feet above his roof. He sugested that there is technology that can be put on your chimney to get rid of this smell. Does anyone know of this type of system. If you have any sugestions on where I can look for this on the net I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks again

No, but there is a technology your neighbor can install, new windows that seal properly.

My neighbor complains about my stove when I'm not even burning it.

If I go outside after a fresh fill, I SOMETIMES get an odor which goes away after a short period of time. I wouldn't do anything. I got a million things to complain about my neighbor but I think he already knows his kid is an idiot so I don't say anything.

Well that would be first time I've heard anyone complaining about coal stove gas, are you burning anthracite?

Other issues might be if the coal you have is high in sulfur, this varies by where its coming from. You might want to try a different supplier.

After loading up the hand-fed if conditions are right I can catch a whiff or two of the sulfur smell outside. Certain temperatures or light wind conditions force some of the gases exiting the chimney downward. I know this for a fact from years of wood burning, having wood smoke swirl around me from the chimney 2 1/2 stories up.
Once the coal ignites the smell is gone.
If your neighbor keeps complaining burn a few wood fires in that stove. That should quiet him down. He'll be happy when you switch back to coal.
Some people are not happy unless they have something to bitch about!

When I put in a fresh load in the stove and walk outside i can smell the sulphur sometimes for a couple of minutes,till the initial gases burn off.I could see that being a issue if you're house is real close to his and the wind is blowing that way.He's just jealous cause it's costing you alot less to heat you're house than his and your'e warmer.

Thanks for all your answers. The guys house is very close to my back yard but you should have read the letter he wrote me, he wants me to stop the downcurrents when it is very windy. The coal stove has done everything to him but set his house on fire. The stove has been installed since the 1980's. I might try a new supplier when I run out of my 2 tons of coal.....to bad the will be the middle of next winter, and its a balmy 82 in here now.

Unfortunately someone like that can make your life miserable. Was he too timid to talk face-to-face, so he wrote a letter? Or was he establishing a paper trail for a lawsuit? When I was burning wood in the stove in the garage at my parents house, the next door neighbor showed up complaining about the "pungent" smell getting into his house.
I couldn't fathom how it happened, but he was a wacko anyway, abused his wife and had all the windows nailed shut, thought his step-son was going to break into the house in the dead of night and murder him. He ended up dead for a week before someone noticed the newspapers piling up on the doorstep and called the police. They found him in bed with a nightstick in his cold dead hand, the strap wrapped around his wrist, crazy notes to himself taped to walls and cabinets.
Time is the great equalizer.

since 1980? And he's complaining now? Did the guy just move in?

Sounds me as if you have situation where nothing you do short of not using it will satisfy him.


Not really anything he can legally do about AFAIK. There is similar ongoing battle in nearby community, two people put in those outdoor wood furnaces and neighbors (proably just one) are complaining. As best I can gather it's not a tight knit community so there is some distance between the houses. In any event the only reason there is anything that can be done by the complainer is because they are outside and not attached to the house. Still up in tha air as to if they will have to shut them down, at least if they expect to burn wood in them.

Take that letter and throw it in the coal fire. Some people will bitch about anything. you don't bitch about the gas coming from his chimney, do you? If not then he should STFU.

jcolella wrote:Thanks for all your answers. The guys house is very close to my back yard but you should have read the letter he wrote me, he wants me to stop the downcurrents when it is very windy. The coal stove has done everything to him but set his house on fire. The stove has been installed since the 1980's. I might try a new supplier when I run out of my 2 tons of coal.....to bad the will be the middle of next winter, and its a balmy 82 in here now.

Some enviro-wackos don't like the idea of anyone burning coal. Nevermind the fact that if they have electricity, they burn coal too! Anyway, I get catch a whiff of sulphur smell every once in a while, usually when it's a bit windy and the down draft as it travels over the roof peak drives it to my driveway area. It is NOT coal gas. It is a fairly mild sulphur odor and it shouldn't be constant or even bothersome.

I have an older friend who reminisced whistfully about the days long gone by when he was a child in Binghamton walking to school on a frigid morning enjoying the "smell of coal warming up houses".

BTW, you have the right to burn coal under any circumstance that is compliant with codes. Anthracite effluent nor ash is considered an environmental problem by the EPA. No stack scrubbing is required. That is going to change for wood if the enviro-wackos get their way. I am not talking about burning wood in suburbia. I mean that in New York State they want to ban all but wood gasification appliances. It's coming.

If your neighbor wants a scrubber, he can buy it, or like someone said, he could also buy new windows.

I feel your pain. One of my neighbors (who does so anonymously) keeps sending me nasty letters about how my woodpile on my driveway is destroying the scenic and property values of my neighborhood. As many have suggested, odds are this person is an enviro nut who equates coal with evil (hey its just fossilized sunlight and we all love sun light), is a person is just looking to make your life miserable, or might have some other problem with his house and he thinks that you are the one causing the problem. Out of curiosity how long has the complainer lived there and how long have you been getting hate mail? You could always off to switch over to propane if he buys the tank, furnace, and all of the fuel costs Just set the letters aside (that’s what I do with mine) incase he gets nutty.

Fella half mile down the road use to raise a few pigs on his farm. Been doing it for years. Guy from "the city" bought some property across the road, built a house, and then tried to organize the neighbors (mostly farmers who had been there for years) to protest the smell from the pigs. We are talking about, at most, 10 pigs and a few boarded horses on this guy's farm. I asked our new neighbor why he decided to buy a lot across the road from a farm with livestock if he couldn't deal with the smell of country life. He eventually sold and moved back to the city. New owner loves the neghborhood. Some people just like to have everything their way.

katman wrote:Some people just like to have everything their way.

Sounds like the same type that buy a house next to a drag racing track and complain about the noise.

I'd reply to his letter with a similar letter with the same supposed 'ills' from your coal gas... but blame your 'ills' on the gasses from his sewer or septic vent on his roof... demand that he forwarn you about his lunch and dinner menu, and to get approval for what he is going to eat, and corelate it with the wind direction... Make sure you demand that he no longer eat chili, beans and brats, Pizza and beer, cabbage or broccoli in any form, and that eating mexican will bring lawyers knocking on his door...

Maybe he will see the stupidity of his complaints... probably not...

as you can see I usually fight fire with fire....

I use a state sponsored, FREE, state regulated, state inspected liquid fertilizer application program on some of my hay fields... two of my *ss*ole neighbors,, not even who share a land border... but are more than a 1/2 mile away, decided to call the township supervisor about the liquid fertilizer, and one even called the newspaper, and the idiot reporter actually wrote a 1/4 page article about the 'liquid fertilizer...

Well the STATE boys were pretty upset.. they sent out 'official-types' with brochures, knocked on doors, answered and debunked the BS, and squashed the false information.... The liquid fertilizer is PASTEURIZED before it leaves the treatement plant [heated to kill bacteria]. My dogs and my neighbors dogs leave more 'dangergous bacteria' on our lawns than 100 acres of liquid fertilizer does... !!

Anyway, I'm going to use the liquid fertilizer program again this fall. Can't wait to stir the pot again.

Greg L.

I sure hope I can afford to keep this place in retirement... I sure don't want close neighbors ever again...