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[yoderheating]

 I went and picked up a ton of house coal today. I've had lot of customers telling me this is the way to go when you want longer burn times. I have one customer heating heating almost 6,000sq ft using a MF5000. He burned 7 ton of coal last year plus a couple of pickup loads of wood. He went straight to the mine and payed $75 per ton. I bought mine locally and payed $115 per ton. If $500 of coal would heat my home for a winter I would almost consider never cutting wood again. Does anyone else burn coal out there?

[MattyNH]

Thats intresting..I know a couple of owb co. make coal versions..One of them is Aqua-Therm called Coal-one..Dont know anyone that has a coal furance..Id be curious on how clean they burn and how often you need to fill it...I agree..$500 for a winter of heat and hot water..Doubt Id do wood..

[kjw58]

Portage & Main makes a coal burner (stoker stove) , I know a guy who has one and loves it. 

[yoderheating]

A update on how the coal did last night. Normally with wood I have been getting 10 hours out of a load here at night. With the coal I am at currently at 15 yours and it looks like it may last as much as 24.

[jackel440]

A update on how the coal did last night. Normally with wood I have been getting 10 hours out of a load here at night. With the coal I am at currently at 15 yours and it looks like it may last as much as 24.

I am sure you don't have shaker grates,so are you just raking the coal around every now and then?I had wondered about burning coal in my original boiler design I was going to build.Keep us updated.

[juddspaintballs]

I specifically bought my Heatmor with shaker grates in it.  I live about an hour from coal country and I have a M35A2.  I could go buy 5 tons of coal in one load and bring it home 

As soon as I get up and running I'll probably experiment with coal as a supplement to wood.  I'll always burn wood because it's free and abundant, but I'll probably add some coal for longer burn times. 

[yoderheating]

 I actually do have shaker grates. Almost all the Heat Master furnaces I sell come standard with shaker grates so you can burn coal or wood or both.

[Scott7m]

I have 2 customers running coal.  One in a 175 3/8" box and another in a 250 3/8"  box.  Neither are having any trouble whatsoever.  The NCB stoves do not come standard with shaker grates but it is an option.  Neither of these customers are using the shaker grates though!  They use a garden hoe to stir the coals and just throw a little more on top once or twice a day. 

I enjoy cutting wood in the late winter/early spring.  I've been nothing but impressed with my burn times on my 175.  With highs in the 30's and lows in the 20's it will easily go 24 hours.  Last few nights it's been single digits at night and 20 in the daytime and I've loaded at 5 pm, and threw a couple sticks in it in the mornings when I go out. 

[yoderheating]

 So after 26 1/2 hours I still had a nice bed of coals. So glad I decided to try this coal. I bought about $250 worth of coal and will see how far into the winter it will last.

[juddspaintballs]

are you burning only coal right now or coal and wood?

[jackel440]

That's awesome guys.I am glad that your experiments are working out.

[yoderheating]

Mostly coal but I mix a little wood with it, it seems to help keep the coal from going out. Normally I run my draft/fan on a 10 degree differential but I moved that up to 20 when I started burning coal. It seems to do better on long burns. The hotter it burns the less smoke is produced, I take this as a sign it is burning more completely. I have seen some pretty hot fires in a furnace before but nothing compares to a full load of coal.

[willieG]

i looked up Home heating coal (bitimous) and found on the net that pound for  pound it has  more than twice the btu of wood
(about 10 to15 thousand per pound. I am going to assume (as i haven't seen coal in my area for 40 years) that it is much denser than wood so you could load many more btu's (pounds) into your stove than you could of wood. This would make longer burn times for sure. If you are a person with a "green" concious you may want to consider all the sulphur and other envrienmental substances in the coal you burn compared to the wood you burn. here in canada they are trying to get coal burning electric plants to switch to a cleaner fuel. If you are not a "green" thiking person than it won't matter...have at it

[rick n kristi]

This has got me thinking and looking. How much coal are you guys going through a day and how many SQ FT are you heating? I have found bagged anthracite coal for $5.90 per 40lb bag by the skid of 60 bags. I also found lump bituminous coal I can hand pick at $0.12 per lb. I'm interested in experimenting with a wood coal mix of some proportion. I'm looking at efficiency more than burn times as I don’t have burn time issues. If I could stretch the wood supply with a little coal I would be happy! I cut on my own land where I also burn so input cost for wood is minimal. Burning up all the junk with a little coal thrown in would really help me improve the stand.

[yoderheating]

 Bought about two tons of coal for $230. I'm not sure how many pounds a day I am burning but at the rate I'm going I expect it to last most of the rest of the year. I am mixing in a stick or two of wood a day also. I am heating about 1600sq ft but it takes as much heat as a 4000sq ft new house. Mine was built in the 1920's and even though I replaced windows and blew in insulation it takes a tremendous amount of heat to keep it at 72.