The Lengths People Will Go to Be "Green"...

So I'm watching Suze Orman (the personal finance guru) tonight... Special episode on going green.

There a couple from Connecticut Dee and Clay considering taking out a home equity loan to put in $33-38K Geothermal Heating System with $1700 yearly estimated yearly heating oil savings (I think I got the numbers right). Suze talked the couple out of the Geothermal system (good!)....

Lots of people in CT, here, more money than brains but then we're all at the mercy of the suppliers, electic, oil, gas. So, how do I get a truck load of bulk coal from PA, my guy is c******* out on me for the second year?

eelhc wrote:So I'm watching Suze Orman (the personal finance guru) tonight... Special episode on going green.

There a couple from Connecticut Dee and Clay considering taking out a home equity loan to put in $33-38K Geothermal Heating System with $1700 yearly estimated yearly heating oil savings (I think I got the numbers right). Suze talked the couple out of the Geothermal system (good!)....

Orman is no rocket scientist. She makes some really stupid comments when she's on a TV or radio show.

Hi,

I'm looking for the info on carbon emsissions from burning anthracite in our homes. I gentleman (thank you for that!)from this forum recently referred me to four websites, but I am still unable to get any info. Lots of info on bituminous fired energy plants, but nothing that applies to us.

I'd like to know how much carbon we are putting into the air. I have been told that it is roughly 6 times more than burning oil. But how much is that? 6 times practically nothing is still practically nothing. How much compared to driving a car 100 miles? Or how much compared to burning a 100 watt bulb on coal generated electricity? Should we be concerned? If so, I'd be more than willing to install some sort of filter before it becomes mandatory.

I am hoping to get this information from someone in the coal community. I am not a reporter, or an EPA spy. I'm just a mother trying to keep the house warm for me and my two kids. Can anyone speak to me about this in plain English?
The silence I have met from the stove manufacturers, the coal suppliers, etc has me baffled. Is it so bad that everyon'e clammed up just waiting for some sort of shoe to drop? I find it very hard to believe that this information does not exist. THANKS!!

Actually the info probably does not exist.. The info on Bituminous is available because of all the coal burning electricity generation plants.. But there are few if any anthracite burning industrial plants. Anthracite doesn't smoke when burnt, so nobody is pointing fingers and calling the EPA over an anthracite chimney stack.

I'm sure somebody could get some burning info,, but not every stove burns coal the same either.. a stoker can be adjusted for feed and air, the CO and CO2 quantities would vary with temperature, and settings.. not an easy thing to come up with..

Greg L

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blue-dasher wrote:I'd like to know how much carbon we are putting into the air. I have been told that it is roughly 6 times more than burning oil. But how much is that? 6 times practically nothing is still practically nothing.

Everyone (treehuggers) likes to focus on CO2 emissions. That is fine, but CO2 is a natural occurring gas in our atmosphere which can be handled easily by most life forms and some thrive on it. No one talks about the fact that NOX emissions are higher in oil and most likely gas than anthracite.

Did a quick search on google, here are SOME info from a study on Gas, Oil and other home fuel emissions, kinda of technical, but might give SOME light on the subject. Take it for what it's worth.

**Broken Link(s) Removed**

That link... What the heck are "enviromental costs" and how are they figured? They assign a dollar amount to each fuel as "enviromental costs", yet....and maybe I missed it.... they don't say how it's figured, or where that money comes from or goes, or even if it is or does! They throw statistic around like bad potatoes. After reading most of this I can't help but think it was composed and written by the oil burners association.

In 1992 I learned a lesson in statistics.... I competed on a National level in a specialized motorcycle competition... "Observed trials". I rode three of about a dozen Nationals. In my class I came in last in all three events. At the end of the year I was awarded a 6th place trophy out of 12 or 13 riders in my class. It was perfect statistics. Even though I took last place each time, I hold two 3rd place and one 5th place trophies. Those 3rd's & 5th set me at 6th in the Nation. It just happened that on the East coast not many people entered my class. Ever since that year I doubt any and all statistics.

In my opinion, you'll polute much less by using less electricity. Burn Anthracite, turn off the night light in the bathroom.

Sorry didn't read it that close, but you saw on the first page WHO funded the stuff. the oil burners......go figure.

I for one do not believe that we've proven yet Global Warming is caused by Man made greenhouse gases... Have a watch...

http://www.garagetv.be/video-galerij/blancostemre ... _Film.aspx

That said... even if you do believe that man made CO2 emissions are the culprit to global warming, consider the Total Environmental Cost.

Coal is mined in PA, broken up, bagged in some cases and delivered to a distributor who delivers to the end user. One has to take into account all of the energy consumed and emissions made in the mining, processing and delivery of the coal.

Oil on the other hand, has to be pumped out of the ground, transported (in many cases inside supertankers 1/2way around the world) to a refinery, refined to Diesel, dyed to make heating oil, transported to a distributor who delivers to the end user.

The profits are higher for the oil companies, the Saudis... and those profits in turn go t purchase goods and services that consume energy and make emissions. It becomes very complicated and almost impossible to do a true apples/apples comparison. But my gut tells me that once all of this is taken into account, Anthricite coal may actually be environmentally benign compared to other options.

I burn Anthricite and and sleep soundly guilt free every night (warm too).

I agree with Freddy about statistics and how misleading they can be.Every time the media reports on some study I swear they are pulling these numbers out of there a**es.like alcohol causes American business 500 billion a year or the flu 700 billion it goes on and on.soon Nobody will be making any money and instead of a paycheck we will be getting bills in the mail.Instead of the media informing us there just making us more and more skeptical of what they are saying.We need Walter Conkrite back lol
Keith

eelhc wrote:transported (in many cases inside supertankers 1/2way around the world) to a refinery,

I wonder what kind of emissions are coming out of a supertanker burning a thousand gallons of heavy crude an hour.

I for one do not believe that we've proven yet Global Warming is caused by Man made greenhouse gases

http://www.weatherquestions.com/Roy-Spencer-on-gl ... arming.htm

There a couple from Connecticut Dee and Clay considering taking out a home equity loan to put in $33-38K Geothermal Heating System with $1700 yearly estimated yearly heating oil savings (I think I got the numbers right). Suze talked the couple out of the Geothermal system (good!)....

I had a quote for a geothermal heat pump (GHP) system and moments after I looked at the figure...$50K...I decided to go from high tech to low tech....You see...most guys in Homedepot or Sears who walk in to buy a drill don't really want a drill...they want a hole...so I'm the kind of guy who doesn't need high tech for a heating system...I just want heat...nice even warm consistent heat at a very reasonable price...and from start to finish the cost was barely 10% of the GHP. Anthracite baby anthracite....it rocks...

tugcapt wrote:I agree with Freddy about statistics and how misleading they can be.Every time the media reports on some study I swear they are pulling these numbers out of there a**es.like alcohol causes American business 500 billion a year or the flu 700 billion it goes on and on.soon Nobody will be making any money and instead of a paycheck we will be getting bills in the mail.Instead of the media informing us there just making us more and more skeptical of what they are saying.We need Walter Conkrite back lol
Keith

Exactly, they throw these huge numbers around like how many thousand tons of CO2 produced per year by thus and so and who would ever know if the fudged the numbers or even made the whole thing up? Never hear them talk about the CO2 emitted by the hundreds or thousands of volcanic eruption every year which is way more CO2 than man produces