2012-2013 Anthracite Coal Prices

Picked up a load in the pick'emup yesterday and today at Reeses in Quarryville and the price dropped $5 / ton to $220 for bulk.

I picked up three fourths of a ton of pea coal for $129.00 ($170/ton) at the UAE Harmony Mine around noon today 1/31. All four bins had a supply of coal, the pea coal supply was probably the lowest.

Just got some yesterday delivered from my supplier $468 for two tons, little bit of a discount for two tons at a time. Valley View Nursery. Red Ash Pea Coal

Delivery coming today 5 ton of Buck on it's way. $200 a ton.

5 ton of black diamonds looks good in bin.

NICE!!! Please share and let us know how it burns/ash content. Been hearing a lot of good stuff about this coal

Wiz, just how do you keep that coal stacked vertically in the bin so neatly without even one nugget falling out?

lsayre wrote:Wiz, just how do you keep that coal stacked vertically in the bin so neatly without even one nugget falling out?

Lol. Mostly by mistake, never oil coal when drinking. Now I got to replace wife's glue for crafts.

$210 a ton for nut today p/up in eastern PA. I don't see how coal can really be a savings outside the NEPA area. If I had to pay 300 a ton and up, easier just to insulate like the dickens and use propane etc. Or some GOOD seasoned firewood like sugar maple or better yet black locust (that stuff be nuclear).

Last year at $325/ton it made the differance between $1500 and $4000.

scottybk wrote:$210 a ton for nut today p/up in eastern PA. I don't see how coal can really be a savings outside the NEPA area. If I had to pay 300 a ton and up, easier just to insulate like the dickens and use propane etc. Or some GOOD seasoned firewood like sugar maple or better yet black locust (that stuff be nuclear).

$300 per ton still saves me at least 50%...and it burns a lot cleaner than even the finest firewood...to each their own.

Wow $300 a ton is a big hurt. I barely think it's worth the hassle at $210 (and that's even high, I can pay $160 at the Tamaqua PA breaker if I wanted to drive an hour & half, but I'm lazy).

Next year I might just go halves on a splitter from Tractor Supply with my buddy and use wood. Might keep some coal around too but I hate paying for anything, really. Plus I don't care about clean burning since I have outside chimney so no worrys.

By my reckoning anthracite at $150 per ton and natural gas at $9 per MCF are roughly on par with respect to real world delivered BTU's (assuming 94% efficiency for a modern NG furnace or boiler and 63% overall efficiency for a typical coal burning appliance). But residential natural gas is already beginning to go below that figure. If you live within a few miles of a breaker and you can actually bring home anthracite at $150 per ton (freight costs included, and don't forget the cost of the truck and the trailer and the depreciation and upkeep on them, as well as the transport fuel cost) you are doing merely OK cost-wise with respect to NG, but if your cost to bring home anthracite exceeds $150 you are already on the loosing side of the money equation by sticking with coal, assuming that NG is an alternative for you.

scottybk wrote:Wow $300 a ton is a big hurt. I barely think it's worth the hassle at $210 (and that's even high, I can pay $160 at the Tamaqua PA breaker if I wanted to drive an hour & half, but I'm lazy).

Next year I might just go halves on a splitter from Tractor Supply with my buddy and use wood. Might keep some coal around too but I hate paying for anything, really. Plus I don't care about clean burning since I have outside chimney so no worrys.

If you start burning more wood, burn the stove hot and keep an eye on the chimney...exterior masonry chimneys can creosote up pretty badly. Even if you just burn coal at night that will help keep the creosote dry so it is easier to sweep out.

My thoughts are N.G. supplemented with wood is probably the best idea for my climate (Northwest NJ). Coal is overkill for all but the coldest days. Then you get a warm day (50s) and the draft revereses and stinks, CO goes off, ugh. I am just getting sick of the hassle.

Coal is def. "cool" and pretty much everyone enjoys my setup and hearing about it. It's a good skill to know how to operate a coal applicance. But there is no savings even at 210 a ton. The whole thing is absurd, coal should be like 50 a ton or so, it's because it all gets sold to China which is absurd. It should be for our own people to use. We need to bring back tariffs and super-restrictive trade policies much like we had early in the 20th C.