Introduce Yourself

coalrocks wrote:My name is Chris and would like to say this is a great site,I've learned so much on how to burn coal. Thanks again to all the people that post here. By the way it's been a toasty winter with low utility bills.

Hi Chris, welcome to the coal forum. Whereabouts do you live in Hunterdon County? I've lived here all my life and lived in many of the towns here.
Heres a good link to see how many of us burn coal in NJ.

There should be alot of us Jerseyites out there


Chris F.

Welcome to all new members and the world of warm, affordable heat.. This site is a treaure trove of coal burning info.

I moved from Piitstown and now I live in the home of the windmill and low taxes Holland Twp

Hello. Well, it has been a little over a year that I have had my Alaska Kodiak hand-fired coal stove. Thank God I made the decision I did, and I greatly appreciate the information shared on this board as it helped tremendously. We have saved thousands of dollars choosing coal over oil or propane. We have also saved countless hours handling firewood by not choosing a wood stove. I had never considered coal until I stumbled upon a coal stove in a stove shop. My subsequent research led me to this website and the real stories I found here allowed me to comfortably decide to get a coal stove. Thanks!

coalrocks wrote:I moved from Piitstown and now I live in the home of the windmill and low taxes Holland Twp

Hi Chris -- this is also Chris, and funny I'm right around the corner from you as well, just south in Milford! Welcome to the board!

Chris

farok wrote:

coalrocks wrote:I moved from Piitstown and now I live in the home of the windmill and low taxes Holland Twp

Hi Chris -- this is also Chris, and funny I'm right around the corner from you as well, just south in Milford! Welcome to the board!

Chris

Too many Chris's in the area
Seriously, we are planning to move to North Carolina. Can't afford the taxes in NJ anymore.

I'm so glad Google led me to this site! Five years ago I vacationed in central PA and fell in love with the place, especially the people. My favorite area was the Clearfield, Dubois, Ridgeway area. I want nothing more than to move there, but unfortunately am stuck in eastern South Carolina.

I'm remodeling my garage into a "primative" mountain cabin style apartment, and in the 20x20 general room I've put a Vogelzang "Railroad" potbelly stove. I put that in quotes because I'm retired from the railroad and don't really understand exactly what they mean by the designation, maybe because it sort of looks like a caboose stove, but it definitely isn't one.

What I know about heating with coal I learned from my grandfather when I was a child, watching him tend his brick-lined Warm Morning stove. Now, virtually no one in South Carolina heats with coal. It's hard to even find a dealer. There is only one in this part of the state, about 10 miles away, and he quoted me $235 a ton for some of the crappiest coal I've ever burned. (I bought two 40-pounds bags to check it out--it was nasty, like burning tires.) A neighbor who is a general contractor was doing some work on a nearby house and there was a full coal bin in the garage. The owner wanted to get rid of it and said I could have it if I'd haul it away! It's the best coal I've ever burned... gotta be anthracite, it hardly smokes at all after it gets going, and the aroma is beautiful. I was going to only use coal as a secondary heat source, but I've decided as long as I can find a supplier, I'll make it my primary fuel. I might have to drive to North Carolina to get more when I use up what I've got. As warm as it is down here, though, a ton will easily get me through one winter, maybe two.

I saw some posts about runaway fires... my dad managed a poll hall and when I was about 14 years old he set me up with a table in our garage, and I got a laundry heater and a half ton of coal for the winter. I was totally inexperienced and let a fire get way too hot, and with nothing better to try I got a spray bottle and filled it with water and started spraying a mist onto the coals. (I had heard about firemen doing this on steam locomotives with hoses.) Of course it sent a huge amount of steam up the chimney, but as far as I could tell cooled down the fire perfectly and got it back under control in just a couple of minutes. The water vaporized before it ever came in contact with the stove, and the draft drew all the steam up the chimney, none of it came back into the room. Just thought I'd mention this.

Anyway, I didn't mean to run on like this, but am so excited about finding out that there are a lot of other people who love coal like I do. I'm going to spend the next few days reading and getting the benefit of all the experience that is evident on this site.

Mike Young
Florence, SC
michaeljy@aol.com

Welcome aboard Mike.

michaeljy wrote:I'm remodeling my garage into a "primative" mountain cabin style apartment, and in the 20x20 general room I've put a Vogelzang "Railroad" potbelly stove. I put that in quotes because I'm retired from the railroad and don't really understand exactly what they mean by the designation, maybe because it sort of looks like a caboose stove, but it definitely isn't one.

Those style stoves were commonly used on the railroads for heat in the cars.

My name is Paul. I live in Fort Ann, Upstate NY, just a few mile short of VT to the East, where I bought the Wood Chuck, forced hot air furnace, Wood/Coal Combo unit. With the help of this site, I have had nothing but good luck getting a fire set up and running smooth. Granted, I read almost everything on the site that any thing to do with hand fired, then combined that with stoker forum for the furnace info. Again, I wish to thank you all for your time to share your expert knowledge and options. Have a good day and I will continue to learn from ya!

Good to have you on here man! The more the better.

pwmill wrote:My name is Paul. I live in Fort Ann, Upstate NY, just a few mile short of VT to the East, where I bought the Wood Chuck, forced hot air furnace, Wood/Coal Combo unit. With the help of this site, I have had nothing but good luck getting a fire set up and running smooth. Granted, I read almost everything on the site that any thing to do with hand fired, then combined that with stoker forum for the furnace info. Again, I wish to thank you all for your time to share your expert knowledge and options. Have a good day and I will continue to learn from ya!

Yes Paul... Great to have you. I am down towards Syracuse but LOVE your area. I have family up that way still and can't get up there enough.

this my first year with coal. the house is 1200' ranch built in 1950 in the philipsburg pa(central pa) area. we use the basement alot(although its verry drafty). owned it for last 8 years. whats nice is that there are 3 flues,2 downstairs one up. have a wood insert upstairs, an oil boiler downstairs, and spare crock downstairs. i used a wonderwood and oil a couple years, used a pellet stove and oil last year. so far this year its been coal and very little oil (i always have wood for upstairs). magnum works hard to heat the house. have been burning about 90-95 lbs a day. i just keep it on constant. want to put coal in basement next year, there is still a chute door in the foundation. carry it down from the front of the house in buckets now. would love to get a stoker boiler someday, i'll have to keep looking

Hi, My name is John .
Born and raised in Massachusetts
I am in the medical field and have done everything from fixing cars and building motorcycles to managing warehouses , driving ten wheelers,working for the Dept of Homeland security and at the moment I am a hemodialysis tech and in my final year of nursing school. whew
I have a teenager and am heating my home with an old russo coal/wood stove
I think it is a c1 (not sure)

Welcome to the madhouse

Hello chopperjohnd........As valley trash said,welcome to the madhouse! It's a great place. Sorry you landed right in the middle of a time when we've lost a piece of that madhouse. Hambden Bob