Bit Coal Smoke,Ash and Smell

First burn in the Hitzer tonight, great so far. Not a very good draft as it's probably to warm to burn. Got a good kindling fire going and threw a paper grocey bag of coal on. No coal smell in the house, just the new burnt paint/stove smell. The 'dial heat' on this stove seems great, if the 'Bit' does'nt work out I think this will be a fantastic woodburner. It does stink outside, I think we have a low pressure situation and the wind is blowing opposite of the usual prevailing breeze.

where did you end up getting your coal? How is it doing?

Willis wrote:where did you end up getting your coal? How is it doing?

I got my coal in Holloway Oh,
I think you posted the contact info for this place in one of the 'Where do you get coal' threads (Thanks!). These guys get their coal from a mine in Cadiz and seem concerned about future supply.They used to get it from New Lexington, they only sell trainloads now, as seems the case with most Ohio mines.
Paid $100 per ton, could only haul 1.5 tons. Looking to charter a dumptruck for a multiple year supply.
So far I am absolutley thrilled with burning coal, the dust does not seem to be an issue, I load it in paper bags to keep the mess out of the house, less mess and work than wood. We are getting some backpuffing/smell in the house when loading, I have posted about this in the venting/chimney section. I don't think this is a coal issue but either a chimney problem or operator error. The outside does look like and smell like a steam locomotive when its first loaded, this does'nt bother me (I would like to send a picture to Al Gore/Obama) but if I were having company over I would time my stove loadings, fortunatley this only needs done once per day in our current temps.
I would like to hear how it is working for you also and stay up on our Ohio supply.

Josh

Im putting it all together now..haha you were in a few saturdays ago. I was the young guy you talked to. I just purchased a new small dump so I can deliver from 1 to 10 tons now. Glad to hear the coal is going ok.

Willis,
You guys have been real helpful, Based upon all the soft coal horror stories I've heard, you guys have some real good coal. I hope your business takes off big time.
Josh

The biggest horror story Would have to be the Weather channels' story about the Donora, Pa. smog of 1948. where 25 people died due to a High pressure stall for five days that capped the valley not letting the smoke to clear out! THAT is pollution! Then when a front finally came through and cleared the air, the people who survived went back to buisness as usual as if nothing happened. The steel mills employed half the town and they all needed their jobs. Imagine living back then.

just like many of the european "killer smogs" the coal smoke during an inversion is not what killed people, it contributed, but the real cause was metal and heavy metal fume and particles in the air which caused congestive heart failure due to extreme irritation of the respritory system. In donora pa, the main culprit was zinc and nickel smelters. I've been in eastern europe where the concentration of industry and lack of pollution control was similar to what it was like in the us back during the "killer smog" in donora, quite suprisingly it wasn't that bad at all and you're used to it within a day or two of being there.

They say in China you can marinate meat in only a half an hour by hanging it out the window In the Philippines You don't stop smelling something burning from the time we land and the stewardess cracks the door until she locks it and we are 5000' in the air. You blow black boogers from your your nose. children burn the plastic off of wire to recycle it. Leaded gas Mmmm two cycle engine oil. Aren't you glad you live in America?

I'm very happy to live in The United States of America for many, many reasons; the ones you mentioned are not among them. I'm not a whiner, the smells of "stuff burning" doesn't bother me, but the raw sewer running down the streets does; it is a real health hazard.

I never said you were a whiner, although there are many tree huggers that want to swing the pengelum in the 180 degree opposite of Donora. One of the main reasons I burn bit, is I like the smell of it and it's cheap!

I've got a mechanical engineer friend that travels to the industrial production areas of mainland China. He says pollution is so bad he takes a respirator and does whatever is possible to avoid going.

berlin where are you getting your eastern ky black gold from and are you hauling it yourself, I switched to eastern ky stoker coal 13,900 BTU ,no klinkers and ash like flour
once you burnt black youll never go back

markc wrote:berlin where are you getting your eastern ky black gold from and are you hauling it yourself, I switched to eastern ky stoker coal 13,900 BTU ,no klinkers and ash like flour
once you burnt black youll never go back

This is exactly how my Will-Burt burns Nova Scotia bit. It builds a coke tree, falls onto the retort, where it burns to a flour like powder. I scoop the powder out with a large soup ladle I got from Army Surplus. Perfect. My ash would shake out of a baby powder bottle. I don't have an ash pile, it literally blows away. Anyhow I'll start my own thread on that, just thought I'd comment on the similarity of the ash with no clinkers.

Terry

I just want to bump this thread..

Tamecrow wrote:I scoop the powder out with a large soup ladle

Funny...my grandma did the same thing, used a big spoon to clean ash/clinkers out of the stokermatic.