Unusually Warm First Half of November Predicted for East.

EarthWindandFire wrote:I haven't started the stove yet. My goal is sometime around November 15th. It's just too warm here in southern Connecticut.

Here in 'da U.P. eh, I have the same thought. It's Nov 15 today and the temps will be in the high 50s. Looking like the week after next (Thanksgiving week) will see daily highs only in the mid-30s. Once we reach that level I'll fire up the coal/wood furnace. It puts out SO MUCH HEAT that the wife says "no" to burning until the daily highs are near freezing! Until then I'll burn propane, since I have an annual buy of 500gal, and propane is pretty reasonable this year - $1.40 per gal.

Looks like the unusual warmth may extend into the first two weeks of December. Red is warmer than normal, and blue is colder than normal.

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions ... 34temp.gif

Here in Wernersville pa I haven't started coal yet. The house stays warm with just you high effiecney propane for domestic hot water and once a day a one load wood fire. I save the coal for the serious days of old man winter

Well, I finally fired up the wood/coal furnace last night. Highs through this weekend are only in the mid-30s, lows down into the low 20s, so I got the wood side burning. Will hold off on the coal side until things get colder. When burning coal the furnace just cranks out SO much heat that DW complains about the heat. And I'm heating a 2500sqft ranch style house with vaulted ceilings!! Have to tend the fire more often, about every 4 hours while burning wood, but that's ok. Plus, I have a LOT of wood split and stacked that I need to use up. So, for the time being I'm a coal "traitor" while on wood!!

With the temps finally dropping enough I put the stoker back together today and fired it up. The bag of cowboy charcoal in the bucket was empty except for crumbs!! So I had some 2x cutoffs I split to pencil size and laid out on the grate with the crumbs. It definitely took longer to light than usual, couple tries and about 1/2 hour as opposed to 10 minutes.

Lit for the year and back in the routine unless we get a weeks worth of warm weather predicted worthy of shutting down.

DennisH wrote:So, for the time being I'm a coal "traitor" while on wood!!

I had a bunch of wood also from trees I fell two years ago. I thought I'd have the coal stove in by now but I have large windows facing east which already warms the house too much at times.

I guess soon enough there'll be no question. It will be nice also not to have to keep feeding the stove every 4-5 hours either.

Here in Bucks County, PA, we had 230 less degree days in November than last year. Warmest Nov in the last three years.

Schuylkill county Pa. had 362 fewer degree days or 7% less comparing 2014 ytd to ytd 2015. November was 44% less in degree days as compared to 2014. If November hadn't been so warm we would have been cooler ytd than 2014

I let the stoker go out this morning as the next 4 days or so are going to be very warm hitting into the 60's. Even overnight temps are not dropping out of the 40's so the stove stays in idle mode all the time.

No complaints about that since I don't mind saving on the coal usage. But I need to pick up another torch bottle for starting back up next week.

It's the middle of December and I won't need to light the stove for another week, it's just too warm.

Days in the 50's nights in the mid--upper 20's Yep, I been goin since late Sept.

I called Reading's St. Nicolas breaker about getting some pea on Saturday. They told me they weren't operating Saturdays since demand was so low due to the weather.

I ended up going on Wednesday. 2.1 ton of pea @ $181/ton on the back of my F350. Nice to have coal stocked up at home again.

We shouldn't have to worry much about it being cold in December. The latest forecast has the heat wave zone greatly expanded. Most all of us coal burners should be comfortably roasting for awhile. Here is the current 30 day outlook:

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions ... 5_temp.gif

Yep it's December 11th and I'm outside cooking on the grill in a T-shirt. Now here, hold ma beer and watch this.... hahaha

lsayre wrote:We shouldn't have to worry much about it being cold in December. The latest forecast has the heat wave zone greatly expanded. Most all of us coal burners should be comfortably roasting for awhile. Here is the current 30 day outlook:

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions ... 5_temp.gif

DAW GAWN IT!!!

And here I am with a new stoker and boiler I'm dye'in to try!

I never even got to do my Blaschak vs. Lehigh comparison. It's still to dern warm!

-Don