Estimated Yearly Savings by Using Coal

I started burning coal on February 13, 2014, moving away from kerosene.

I have saved approximately $301.97 from then until today, March 22, 2014 (38 days). (yes. I'm a spreadsheet nut)

Had I been smart enough and fortunate enough to find my stove at the start of this heating season, I would have saved $1,353.56 this season.

Makes me happy and sad. I'm saving from here. All hail coal!!!

This heating season, for the two really cold months of January and February alone I've estimated our savings over electricity provided heat and hot water at $940. Two more "normal" heating seasons of paying for the boiler and its install through savings vs. electricity and then we will be saving money to the tune of at least $1,500 per year. But 1.5 more seasons like the current cold one should do it.

My boiler and installation will be paid for at the end of next winter ,which will be year 3 . I saved a little over $1500 and had I'd been smarter I would have saved more this year as I shut down a month to early . This projection is based on current oil costs for next winter .

I've never heated my house with anything but coal....i bought the house dec 2012 (middle of our summer down here) that first winter I heated with the open fireplace and the coalrange(cookstove)....i was averaged about about a ton a month for the winter....$102 ton pick up at the mine.

i built my stoker stove in time for this winter thats just finishing....i have used 2 1/4 ton of coal so far from the same mine and the house is alot warmer than last year...cheaper coal too due to being a smaller size that not many people want,...$86 ton pick up

With the coalrange heating DHW as well....my power bill dropped from $180+ to $80 as soon as I turned off the hot water cylinder.

the only other heating that the house has is a heatpump split system....at $0.31 per kw/h I don't even want to know what that would cost to run now

i have a couple of power bills from the previous owners.....july 2011 (mid winter) cost them $416.57 .....and power prices have jumped about 35% since then after the damn government sold ALL the power co's to foriegn owners(mainly US and Chinese investment funds ...but thats a rant for another forum)...for less than the cost to build the infarstructure

I figure that coal has saved me about $1400 this winter on heating alone after buying the coal....plus coal heated DHW saves me about $80 a month once I cover the cost of the coal for the whole year

Cheers
Callum

I don't think I will ever know the answer to this question ever here is my scenario:

1. Last winter was our first winter in the house, only the second floor was heated for the most part (the downstairs was under renovations). We kept the upstairs at 55 during the day, 62 when home and 58 at night, a little warmer when we had guest. Wife was not a happy camper , we had a bed warmer that helped out.
2. We kept the first floor at 50 just to keep the pipes from freezing
3. Used $1200 in Natural gas from Nov-March (5 months lets say) with these conservative thermostat numbers

In March I had the idea to get a coal burner to reduce some cost (Wife agreed).

Now the downstairs is completed (still have a 50 year old forced hot air unit), and a 96% unit upstairs.

I estimate that if I kept the house to normal temps 70-72 that $1200 number would be at least triple based on my friends comparable house numbers, because I now have to heat both floors. So if I am conservative and use the $3600 comparable number we will cut that in a third using our Vermont Castings stove while having a comfortable house and happy wife . Please provide your thoughts.

I always keep up on oil prices since my parents still burn it. At last years prices, I saved around $3000 by heating with coal, and the house is much warmer. I had a very old and inefficient boiler that came with the house.

8 years ago I was Paying $3.29/Gal for my oil heat.... $440.00/ month avg X 6 Tanks in 12 mos = $2640.00 for the year...
Last year $3.69/Gal 1 tank fill May, one tank in Nov ...$760.00 + 2 tons of coal.. $400.00 = $1160.00

A savings of about $1500 or $10,500 for the 7 years that I've owned my Chubby Coal Stove..

Since this is our 1st yr. burning coal,i have no idea on the $$$.We burned wood since 1999,since 2006 in an OWB, our savings on labor is ............ LOTS X LOTS & LOTS X LOTS = AWESOME labor savings.The difference is so drastic that it feels like we have retired even tho our repair shop is open at least 64 hrs/week yet.

I would burn 5 gallons of HO/day for 26 weeks @$3.25/gal=$2957.50...these are averages. This includes oil fired dwh.
I would burn 1 bag of coal/day for 26 weeks @4.99/bag=908.18...I did not include 10% coupon for the sake of averages.
Add $162.50 for 50 gal for dhw
I will save $1886.82.. don't tell anyone!

I truly believe coal is closer to 1/3 of oil. My house is much warmer than others around me. I keep my heat up 24/7. No real setbacks, maybe 2 to 4 degrees. The others around me turn the thermostat down, and still use 2/3's more money than I.

Rob R. wrote:Another year has come and gone...lets see some current numbers. Fuel oil is $3.69 cash price where I live, and instead of 1500-1600 gallons of No. 2, I'm looking at burning 8-9 tons of rice coal. I paid $265 per ton, so I should save about 55% ($3300 in my case) this year by burning coal...more if the price of fuel oil goes up between now and spring.

It has been almost 3 years since I made that post. Things worked out pretty close to what I had calculated, for the last 3 years I have averaged 9 tons per year. Current fuel price is $3.29, coal price was $240/ton this year...savings looks to be about the same.

The price of fuel oil may go down some more, but last season it shot up to $3.95 in January...things have a way of averaging out. I haven't kept detailed records, but a rough estimate would be that I've saved $10,000 since I installed the EFM in January of 2011. Basically it has paid for itself twice in 4 years.

I burned 9 ton last year, $205 a ton =$1845 for the season. I entered this into the fuel cost comparison chart on this site, comparing to LP gas at 1.75 a gallon. Which I think is conservative since prices spiked to $5 a gallon last year. My calculated savings were $1833

I live in the Adirondacks its 15 degrees the average fuel usage for my house is 1200 to 1300 gallons a year 2000 sq I have had my stove on since oct 15th I figure I will burn 4 skids of rice coal at 1.2 tons I pay about 350 a ton so max 1600 for year fuel was 4.15 a gallon last year right now its 3.29 I will save easy 2000 a year probably 3000 plus house is 70 not 64 and 60 at night

Last year I set my oil boiler back to 60 during the day and used space heaters while at home, I would say I still consumed somewhere around $1200 in oil or more and who knows in electric, probably a good bit, the heat was shut off in my finished basement so absolutely no heat down there.

So far this year I have purchased 2 ton of pellets and 1 ton of coal for a grand total of $700 and that should get me through the rest of the winter easily.

House temp before 65-68 in the room we used space heaters, 60 everywhere else brrrr. Coal and pellets 70-75 with a 75 degree heated basement. Next year I am going to use mostly all coal.

I can only imagine what it would have costed to keep my house at that temp with oil, probably well over 2,200 for the year.

japar wrote:This is my first year burning coal with a insert It sits out in front not inside the fp I am heating a raised ranch. I picked up a ton of Blaschak to get started in the beginning of the season. The oilman came today and the wife wanted to run out and tell him only to put in 100 gals but it was to cold in the teens. When I got home the slip was in the mailbox . When I came in the house she asked how many gals to fill the tank. Told her the slip said 38 gals. No way she said. Gave her the slip . She almost dropped. Used 38 gals oil in 6 weeks and 7 40# bags coal. Oil $3.15 gal . Blaschak $5.50 a bag. We keep no records but she was thinking we should have used 150 gals oil. It was a kinda cold December. It will go down the 7-8 tonite it is Jan 3 and in the artic cold snap. It is 7pm and the furnace was shut off after washing the dishes an hour ago. Will turn back on at 6am for hot water. Sitting in front of the computer in a t- shirt .

Above Post 2008 , Been burning free coal I got for the last 5 years, pulled 7 tons out of a basement of a summer home in Fairhaven Ma saved a ton of money, ran out end of last seasonal. Back to oil and wood this season thank god oil has come down. Now that gas is cheap I should make that trip to NEPA