Hard Coal vs Wood

I surprisingly am a fan of the outside wood boiler. I know they are unefficient hoggers but with a soon to be 4 year old and another little one on the way i get worried when im at work espcially working 12 hour rotating swing. I have nightmares the house filling with CO (yes i have 2 good meters) or goin up in flames. The only and NUMBER 1 benefit is the stove and fire is outside of my home. But... im not a rich man with a lot of time on my hands.

wsherrick wrote:A little story about my neighbors across the road.
The wife loves me, the husband can't stand me for some reason. I haven't said three words to him, but; such is life.
When they first moved in I invited them over to make them feel welcome in their new place.
The first item of discussion was, "those old stoves."
I explained it all to them that it was necessary to have a heat source independent of electric power up here in the mountains.
I explained how efficient the stoves were and how easy and economical coal was.
The wife thought it was wonderful, the husband resented it for some reason.
He said, "I'm a gonna git me a wood insert. I don't wanna have nothin' to do with no coal."
Okay fine at least you'll have something I said.
The moral of the story is:
They can't afford to buy wood so they must scavenge for it.
Yesterday morning, they started cutting and splitting at around 8 in the morning.
By the afternoon I saw each of them carrying in arm load, after arm load of green wood into their house.
I was greatly entertained watching them do it, drinking my coffee, in my comfy chair as I soaked in the gentle heat from my terrible old coal burning, base heater.
Oh well, such is life.

I want to say. "I'm a gonna git me a base burner like yours, can you help me?. I don't wanna have nothin' to do with no wood."

In the time it takes me to go to the basement to empty the ashes & top off the hopper the stinking wood stove in our "barroom" has burned a log or 2 and is ready to be fed again.

Greggorrio wrote:Yes, a few of my low lander neighbors who live in the township have those outside wood stoves and the smoke pours out. A few times a year, I notice they get a tri-axle of logs dumped just off their driveway. They cut n split it for a couple weeks till its all gone. Wonder what a load of logs runs? They don't allow the outdoor wood burners in the borough of Ligonier due to the complaints received on their output of rank smelling thick smoke.

I'm sad nothing comes out of my flue top. No one knows I'm using an alternate fuel source. I thought about filling a bag of soft coal in softball size lumps to put one or two on top of my hard coal mound to signal to the outside world...."I burn coal". LOL

a load of wood like a log truck bout seven cord runs about 350.00 bucks down this way in bedford county ...not a tractor trailer load a triaxel load.my step son went thru 3 of them last year...if every body had one of those stoves it would look like the middle east around here...thank GOD for coal...hard or soft...

buffalo bob,

Thanks for the info on the load of logs.
I will stick to my coal and use wood sparingly.
Nice to know you're my neighbor in Bedford County.

anthony, I hear you. I have 2 children who are now grown and gone from the nest. I used to sleep with one eye open when using our Energy Mate furnace in a farm house and later the Harmon Mark I. As a volunteer fireman of 12 years, having a CO detector is great. I would also recommend integrated wireless smoke alarms made by Kiddie. These smoke alarms can be programed to go off when one sounds, they all do. Since they are wireless, they are very simple to install. I ordered 3 recently for my son:

3x Kidde 0919-9999/RF-SM-DC Battery-Operated Wireless Interconnectable Smoke Alarm
Sold by Amazon.com LLC $83.94

This was the best price I could find. Although you may think they are pricey, they could mean the difference between life or death.

Be safe !

Joeski wrote:

wsherrick wrote:A little story about my neighbors across the road.
The wife loves me, the husband can't stand me for some reason. I haven't said three words to him, but; such is life.
When they first moved in I invited them over to make them feel welcome in their new place.
The first item of discussion was, "those old stoves."
I explained it all to them that it was necessary to have a heat source independent of electric power up here in the mountains.
I explained how efficient the stoves were and how easy and economical coal was.
The wife thought it was wonderful, the husband resented it for some reason.
He said, "I'm a gonna git me a wood insert. I don't wanna have nothin' to do with no coal."
Okay fine at least you'll have something I said.
The moral of the story is:
They can't afford to buy wood so they must scavenge for it.
Yesterday morning, they started cutting and splitting at around 8 in the morning.
By the afternoon I saw each of them carrying in arm load, after arm load of green wood into their house.
I was greatly entertained watching them do it, drinking my coffee, in my comfy chair as I soaked in the gentle heat from my terrible old coal burning, base heater.
Oh well, such is life.

I want to say. "I'm a gonna git me a base burner like yours, can you help me?. I don't wanna have nothin' to do with no wood."

In the time it takes me to go to the basement to empty the ashes & top off the hopper the stinking wood stove in our "barroom" has burned a log or 2 and is ready to be fed again.

I enjoy watching others, who snubbed my advice since they are so much smarter than I am; toil in the drudgery of all that intelligence.

I hardly ever offer advice anymore. It is seldom followed, never appreciated and when the rare person has sort-of followed my advice but messed it up, they of course blame me for giving bad advice

For me, burning coal and wood is kind of like welding at work. There I have three options, Pulse Welding, Spray Arc Welding and Flux Core welding. Some guys use only one kind of welding process no matter what they are doing, even though we are allowed to use any method we want. But because there are pros and cons to each method, there are times when one method is better then the other. For instance, when welding overhead, Flux Core is fast and clean, but when welding flat, you can lay down spools of perfectly formed beads in a day. When mirror welding, you best have Pulse running! The point is, the best welders know what method is best for the situation at hand to get the most production.

So it is with home heating.

I use 60% firewood here, 20% coal and 20% propane.

IF I had to buy a fuel source, I would burn more coal, but in this house coal only excels on those long,cold nights in the dead of winter when the stove just chugs along and pumps out heat. At $354 dollars per ton, it is an expense and a convenience I can live without when I got hundreds of acres of hardwoods just outside my house. Firewood really does not take that long to cut and harvest, and it takes 10 minutes every two weeks to run a brush down the chimney. It really is not that big of a deal. And while I recognize there is no such thing as free firewood even for people like me who have plenty of it growing, it still is cheaper than burning coal. In the dead of winter, it is worth it to buy the coal, but in my home, firewood has its place and I do not see coal eclipsing it anytime soon.

Now if all I burned was propane or oil, coal would be my prominent heat source, just as it would if I was not 38 and struggled to get out into the woods at age 60. I do plan to further reduce my propane consumption by adding (or building my own boiler), but after really crunching the numbers, it will have to be able to burn firewood because it just makes sense to do so.

Just like with welding, I have options available to me, and as much as I love burning coal; for my home, and for much of the heating season, there is a more efficient heat source out there.

Hard Coal is best as compared with Wood. Coal provide heat source and instant results. Burning wood process creates pollution but burning coal is comparatively not. It can be used nicely for different purposes.

NoSmoke,

I think your right about the topic.Especially the part about being 38 not 60. I suspect many here Have used free wood in their time, something about getting that AARP card in the mail tells you "its ok to not have to work so hard anymore." That and by 55 you generally have a little more ging to work with. So bottom line...
Give'er hell while you can !

Waldo

Thanks...

I did have an issue with my father who bought a wood pellet boiler at first, until I found out it is an underfed boiler and when he contacted the manufacturer they told him others were burning coal in it and that he could. That makes it duel purpose. He went with pellets instead of firewood because of his age, and worried that if he died, my Mom would be left with no way to heat her home as she is unable to do firewood, but he reasoned she could lift 40 bags of pellets into the hopper. Of course if she could lift 40 pound bags of pellets, I am thinking she could lift 40 pounds of rice coal too!

So I understand why people choose coal, or even pellets. Right now my Dad and Mom will probably never switch to burning coal, only because last year they paid $5,000 to heat their home with oil, and this year they paid about half that to heat it with wood pellets. They are saving so much, they are happy, though with coal it would probably be even better savings.

But don't get scared Boys...I have been burning coal for 17 years now and there is a reason why I still do, I know how well it works for a home heating source, just wish I lived closer to NEPA or had a hidden seam of it on my land.

waldo lemieux wrote:NoSmoke,

I think your right about the topic.Especially the part about being 38 not 60. I suspect many here Have used free wood in their time, something about getting that AARP card in the mail tells you "its ok to not have to work so hard anymore." That and by 55 you generally have a little more ging to work with. So bottom line...
Give'er hell while you can !

Waldo