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[Scott7m]

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.

I've considered burning some coal.  I have a friend who works at a coal dock here on the river.  I've got a buddy who burns it and his burn times reallly arent that much greater than me burning seasoned oak/hickory.  But he's heating a lot more space.  I just absolutely hate the smell of the coal.. shew.. 

[yoderheating]

 Now that the weather has lifted a little (mid 20's) I can go several days on a load of coal. My furnace is 180ft to the east of my house and I can seldom even smell anything. When I do I really don't mind the smell of coal although I do prefer the smell of hardwood.

[juddspaintballs]

I'm gonna hafto go get some coal!  I've got a 1660 sq ft house built in 1875 and it's got older windows that leak a ton (caulking yesterday fixed some of that).  I'm doing good on hardwood, but I wonder how long I could go on coal...

[Scott7m]

Now that the weather has lifted a little (mid 20's) I can go several days on a load of coal. My furnace is 180ft to the east of my house and I can seldom even smell anything. When I do I really don't mind the smell of coal although I do prefer the smell of hardwood.

Thats really good...  I've just never put in a load of coal to try it.   

I've put in 3-4 big lumps this year and they all lasted a long long time.

[rick n kristi]

Coal Update
I found a coal supplier that is a convenient on my way home from work. They have "Kentucky Lump" which ranges from basket ball size down to walnut sized with little dust, most is about grapefruit sized. Cost was 190 per ton. I got a chance to burn some this past weekend. I started with a good bed of red hot coals and some remaining oak from the oak load from 24 hours prior. I loaded in two scoop shovels of the coal followed by a mix of hardwood that was not seasoned the greatest (not green, but not well seasoned). The next morning I was surprised to find the bed of coal remained and a most of the wood was still left. Waiting for the next cycle of the blower, I opened the door to find the coal burning with a blue/ to bright orange flame and consuming the wood on top from the bottom up. The heat was intense and the stove's blower cycled off much quicker than with the wood only. This would be true even considering cycle times with very well seasoned oak, ash, hickory, or cherry. The coal burned clean leaving only a brown to tan ash. The smoke on the first blower cycle right after loading coal was intense with a gray color until the coal got burning, then it went to a dark grey. Once the coal was burning well the smoke was white with a heat signature. The odor was not as pleasant to me as a good oak fire but it was not bothersome. I burned coal in the boiler all weekend and found that if I added a good scoop every 24 hours I could keep a bed of coal burning in the bottom of the boiler greatly reducing the amount of wood consumed. I'm not sure I will burn coal all the time but I’m certain I will keep it on hand when extended burn times are desired or when the temperature is very cold. My boiler does not have the coal grate option; the lump coal caused no issues related to falling through to the ash pan or clogging up the flow of ash or air. The most amazing note was how fast the boiler went into gasification because of the heat from the coal and I now have no creosote build up!  Wonder how much better anthracite would be???   

[rick n kristi]

This morning’s update: I’M SUPPRISED AGAIN!
I went out early to check the boiler this morning before I was ready to leave for work. I had so much wood left from yesterday morning when I got home last night I did not load any more in. This morning when I got up I could tell the boiler blower was on and all I was getting was a heat signature. I was concerned that I had burned up all the wood and was burning out as there was no smoke at all. When I got to the boiler the temp gauge was up near the shut off point for the blower and the boiler was running in the gasification mode, I threw the shut off switch for the blower and opened the door to find a bed of coals about a foot thick. There was still a little wood left also. The surprise came when I stirred the coals. There was still a good bit of coal burning amongst the wood coals. The heat was intense! I had not put coal in since Sunday morning 48 hours before! This coal burning is really stretching the wood consumption!

[juddspaintballs]

I got two 40 lb bags of Anthracite today.  I waited until the wood in the firebox was about 3/4 burned up, and then I tossed one bag of coal (bag and all) on top around 2 PM this afternoon.  It was burning when I left, and I threw in about 4 pieces of wood just in case the coal didn't burn.  We'll see what it's like when I get home.  40 lbs of anthracite stove coal directly on my shaker grates outta burn a decent amount of time. 

If this experiment works well, I'm going to build up fire brick on either side of my grates (since the firebox floor of a heatmor is sand on both sides of the grates) to make a ~6" deep trench just over the grates that I can pile the coal in.  My deuce and a half should be on the road in the next few days, so I can drive it up to a PA coal mine and come home with 5 tons of anthracite.  That should last me all winter and then some 

[Scott7m]

This morning’s update: I’M SUPPRISED AGAIN!
I went out early to check the boiler this morning before I was ready to leave for work. I had so much wood left from yesterday morning when I got home last night I did not load any more in. This morning when I got up I could tell the boiler blower was on and all I was getting was a heat signature. I was concerned that I had burned up all the wood and was burning out as there was no smoke at all. When I got to the boiler the temp gauge was up near the shut off point for the blower and the boiler was running in the gasification mode, I threw the shut off switch for the blower and opened the door to find a bed of coals about a foot thick. There was still a little wood left also. The surprise came when I stirred the coals. There was still a good bit of coal burning amongst the wood coals. The heat was intense! I had not put coal in since Sunday morning 48 hours before! This coal burning is really stretching the wood consumption!


The lump I burned a week or two ago burned for I know about 3 days.  When coal is burning you smell it, it was probably 3 days later I smelled it burning and saw some big bright red coals still burning.  The stuff is pretty amazing.

[juddspaintballs]

The 40 lb bag I threw in yesterday was still there this morning.  I loaded up a bunch of wood on top of it, and then threw another 40 lb bag of coal in there too.  I just checked it before we left the house again (3 PM) and almost all of the wood was still there and all of the coal was still there. 

Smells good!  Heats well too.  I don't plan on loading anything in the boiler until tomorrow at this point. 

[Scott7m]

I sure wouldn't have tried another bag til I saw how long the first lasted.  You'll be impressed how long just the coals will burn.

[juddspaintballs]

The only reason I did was because we haven't been home longer than 15 minutes all day and probably won't get home until late tonight.  Then there's the possibility that my wife will pop at any given minute (3 days past her due date so far) and it could be even longer until I get home. 

[Scott7m]

The only reason I did was because we haven't been home longer than 15 minutes all day and probably won't get home until late tonight.  Then there's the possibility that my wife will pop at any given minute (3 days past her due date so far) and it could be even longer until I get home.

haha.. good thinking. 

I thought you were just experimenting, but you are experimenting with a purpose !  Good Luck

[juddspaintballs]

Well, the experiment needs a bit of tweaking. 

Wife had the baby today (Brooke Noel 9 lbs 8 oz) and I had my dad check on the OWB around 2 (he's got the same one minus the shaker grates).  He arrived to find it boiling over and the water temp gauges reading about 220 degrees F.  The high temperature safety shutoff killed all power to the OWB at 200 degrees, but the super hot bed of coals just kept heating the water.  He topped off my water and waited around until the OWB had power again when the water temp dropped down to 180.  I went home around 5:30 and caught my water temp up at 190 although the normal shutoff temp is supposed to be 180.  I checked on the fire and it was GLOWING red hot unlike it's usual smoldering state with no visible glow when it's sitting there idling. 

I think 80 lbs of anthracite is just too much to load at once.  I'll try smaller quantities again once this burns off.  For now, I turned the "heat" on the thermostat off, set the fan to "on", and manually opened the zone valve to the coil so that there's always hot water flowing through the coil and the fan is always blowing the heat through the house.  This should help prevent high temperatures in the OWB, hopefully.  It doesn't matter that the house is around 80 degrees: no one is home but the dog and he's in the basement. 

[Scott7m]

Thats what i was worrying about haha...   

I would say you'll find that adding 10-20 pounds of anthracite coal will add many hours to your burn times and save you on wood as well. 

Congrats on the big little one! haha

[juddspaintballs]

Well, the temporary fix worked to prevent boil over.  The house was 81 degrees when I got home around 2:30 AM too.  I put all thermostat settings back to normal and tweaked the limits on the aquastats a little bit and she ran all night perfectly.  The temporary fix burned up most of the coal pretty well and when I got home, all I had was a smaller glowing bed of coals than before.  I threw a few pieces of wood on top this morning and we'll see where it's at when I get home tonite.