Introduce Yourself

Definitely a pro gun rights person. When I took that handle, I carried a Ruger, now a Glock.

Hi to all,

I would like to thank all the dedicated members on this forum who respond to all coal heating problems. By reading / studying the archives it is a very educational site and has been almost addicting for the past 4 weeks. I sure am glad I stumbled across it.
I have a 28’ x 32’ saltbox house that I designed and built in South Western Pa. Well insulated 2” x 6” exterior walls, full basement. I presently have a High Efficiency Dornback condensing oil furnace which has used 188 - 225 gallons of #1 Fuel Oil a winter for the past 16 winters. The Dornback furnace company was bought out by the Adams company and now critical control panels and some other parts are no longer available and customer service is about like Harmans as far as I can tell. After the past 2 winters with minor to major - no heat problems I am looking for a new heat source. No controls to go bad at 2:00 in the morning and its 0 degrees outside. Hand Feed stove and Anthracite look to be the answer for me. I am actively looking for a used structurally sound Harman Mark 3 or equal to bring back to life which will have several configurations for a reduced firebox size. Probably way to big but it will be able to handle winter time DHW in the future and only need to run at idle or just above most of the time.
I have a machinist background with a 10“ South Bend lathe in the basement along with a Rockwell and Millrite Milling Machines.
In my spare time I rebuild and run old Gravely 2 wheel tractors which I use in the garden and around the house. Another high quality American product built to last.

Thanks for a great website.

Ken

Hi all, new guy here that does not know alot about coal. I just built a new garage/shop and need to heat it up, but I refuse to pay "the man" for natural gas. The gurus here have been more than helpful, thus far and I am very grateful for the others here that are willing to help others out. Please go easy on me as I have quite a few "new guy questions" but don't know enough about coal to zero in on the search dealio. Great site!

Just joined after "stumbling" onto the forum. I live in southern PA, married with kids and am currently working the learning curve out on my new Harman SF360 boiler. We used to supplement oil in our old house with a wood burning insert and bought the new coal boiler to use as our primary heat due to the crazy oil prices.

I've already learned a "ton" from this site and hope you guys can keep me informed.

Me Again...
Hi all,
I joined here a few years ago, when I was deciding whether to do wood or coal. I
chose wood. Fast forward 3 yrs, and I have no desire to deal with wood next year.
In the 3 yrs of burning wood, i have destroyed a car hauling it, hit my leg with a
maul, got a bad splinter in the eye, burn my hands/arms, and just am generally fed up
with being tied to the stove. My neighbors burn coal. They buy it out of Philly, PA. Called today,
$250 a ton plus delivery. Delivery is $25/$50. I am so looking very much forward to not
dragging woodchips and mess into the house, and loading at 6 am and not running home at
lunch to load.
After the workday, I don't mind messing with the stove.
I will be heating a 2 br, 1 bath bungalow ranch. 786 sq ft. Hearth is in, using wood now.
Simpson chimney, straight up, to roof box. single wall from stove to ceiling box.

Well, i have been reading here a lot, referred people here from hearth.com with coal questions,
and wanted to go to the coal nerd fest. Maybe next year.

Thanks, and I will contribute in any way I can.
Bob

Hey everyone, I found this website when I became interested in heating my first home with coal for it's cost effectiveness. I am honored that I was able to learn how to heat my home with coal this winter strictly due to the help of several people on this forum. My name is Rob, and I live in NH where coal is about 300 a ton. I work on cars for a living.

Hi everybody thanks for all the info that is free flowing around this forum i live in central NJ right by the river where the wind is always blowing around 20 to 30 mph it gets really cold in the winter so that is how i started looking for ways to heat the house without paying threw the nose i have been reading this forum for about two months and have learned plenty ..........THANKS AGAIN........JOHN........

Hi all,
I've been lurking here for several months and have learned so much. We burned wood for about 25 years and the change to coal was a good move. One of my Christmas presents was two tons of nut...best present I ever received!

Thanks for sharing all your knowledge.
Donna

My name is matt and i live in washington pa just south of pittsburgh. I work for a big coal company and also work in a wood stove / pellet / coal shop part time.
I just a got a Harman DVC 500 and i am going to get it this week and will be using it for my primary heat.
We were using pellets but the cost of them seem to just keep going up so he gave me a good deal on the DVC 500 so i jumped on it.
I am looking to learn and maybe to help people on this group since i know how to work on pellet stoves and from reading about the DVC 500 it seem some what like a pellet stove in ways.
I cant wait to get this guy up and going but i have to wait for the 45deg pipe from harman.
So this is my story.
Matt

matlock wrote:My name is matt and i live in washington pa just south of pittsburgh. I work for a big coal company and also work in a wood stove / pellet / coal shop part time.
I just a got a Harman DVC 500 and i am going to get it this week and will be using it for my primary heat.
We were using pellets but the cost of them seem to just keep going up so he gave me a good deal on the DVC 500 so i jumped on it.
I am looking to learn and maybe to help people on this group since i know how to work on pellet stoves and from reading about the DVC 500 it seem some what like a pellet stove in ways.
I cant wait to get this guy up and going but i have to wait for the 45deg pipe from harman.
So this is my story.
Matt

Hi Matt, Welcome to the forum! If you have any questions on the DVC-500, just PM me, or start a new thread. Its a great little stove, and really pumps out the heat. Do a search on DVC-500 or DVC500, and you will find alot of threads already started on it.
Chris F.

Hi I'm Joe Garmer and I'm a coal addict . Been off terrorist heat energy for two years.

My name is Freetown Fred.My wife & I,yup,kids are all gone We live in a 180 yr. old farm house that we gutted & redid.We've been burning wood in a beastly old Bullard wood stove for about 50 yrs.It sure seems to take longer to put those 10 cord up each yr.A friend went with coal last year & is real happy with it.Soooooooo,I started looking around & after talking to way too many people found a 5 yr. old Hitzer 50-93 w/ blower.We pick it up tomorrow morning.I have found an incredible amount of info on this site & really appreciate it.We've got a few horses,an old shovelhead & aWD45--between haying,our truck garden,plowing snow & upkeep on the old homestead we stay pretty busy--now I'm looking fwd to some freetime(no blocking & splitting)I've only checked out 1 dealer but,acorn is $230.00 a tonplus $1.00 a mile--We are in Freetown,NY--noooo,we still have to pay taxes.Seeeee ya

Hi everyone. My name is Mason and I am 38 years old, work as a const. foreman with a past career as a firewood dealer. Been with my girl for 10+or- years and we have one 5 year old girl. I have lurked around this site for a while and thanks to all the info on this site I am sold on coal. New house (still not complete ) is going to be set up with infloor heat and a few ci radiators. Currently have an older tarm that will suffice untill I get a coal stoker boiler.

Hello everyone. My name is Charlie and I've just taken ( what I consider) the first few steps towards becoming a lil more energy self sufficient. I'm tired of the corporate greed in Maryland not to mention the dependence on foriegn oil. I view this as a Victory Garden. I don't mind the effort in obtaining the coal or the effort it takes to keep the home fires burning. I've enjoyed the articles I have found here and I hope in the future I'll be able to post something that will help someone else.

Wow, to keep it short. Live in a house which was heated with a Homart hot air furnace with shaker grates-coal fired. This was my grandfathers house who was a Swede (born in 1890) who dug peat in Sweden to heat their homes when he was a young man. I was in the business of energy conservation and heating for 25 plus years and built a few energy efficient homes. I later heated this home with a Surdiac coal stove which I still own. The Homart which was converted to oil when my grandfather got too old to manage coal burned 2,000 gallons of #2 with a non flame retention burner in the 70's. When grandpa died I inherited the house from my Mom after she died and I heated it for several years with the Surdiac and burned two tons of coal .....same house. Currently have doubled the size of the house and have a New Yorker horizontal steel tube boiler with a Riello and I am burning apporx. 800-900 gallons per year of #2. Am considering going back to coal but am really looking for a smaller water content efficient stoker or maybe non stoker boiler to do the job. House is pretty efficient as that is/was my business and is 5 zones. Back in the 80's we were a Franco Belge dealer and installed Buderus, a few Axeman's sp? Nemac's, for solid fuel. I am a charter member of the Governors Council on Energy (NH) and did Infra Red scanning, Blower door testing, Energy Audits, multi fuel heating systems design and installation. Attended IBR school and did our own heating system design. With a good understanding of all aspects of energy efficiency we built many energy efficient homes. I have a few homes built 24 years ago which heat for less than 500 gallons of oil compete with domestic hot water and at approx. 3,500 sq. ft. of conditioned space and 2x4 construction and we are at about 8,000 degree days. At this point more of a hobby than anything else as I am sick of trying to convince people of my knowledge as it is not a sexy business. Have understood for years that coal is by far the most cost effective method of hydronic heating and am excited to hang with you guys and learn more about coal. My buddy turned me on to your site. Kevin S. New Hampshire