Wood stove and coal furnace heating

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

I have been starting to use the anthracite coal.
It burns very cleanly, no smoke as compared to burning wood, almost no sulfur.
The main problem is just getting it started.

My dad used to sell that kind of coal as a living

Couple pages of a paper and some small wood chips should do it.
You do need a good chimney though.
A BBQ starter should work, too

You can sort-of measure coal quality by hardness & shine.
The harder and shinier, is usually the better.
Should take a fair bit of force to crumble two chunks when pressed together.

You can also "hear" coal quality when pouring it out on a concrete floor, into a stove chute, or onto itself - if it sounds kind-of metallic, it'll be OK.
It should also give off little dust


Dull, brittle coal, crumbling easily, making a lot of dust, is rubbish and makes a notably softer noise when poured out.

I'm sure the cheap stuff burns pretty dirty

Usually does, yes.
It'd also burn quicker and leave far more residue - meaning it'd still cost as much to heat the same place ... if not more, and you'd need more trips getting it.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Burning an sappy piece of cider is like soaking a log in used motor oil then burning it.
Burning pine/spruce lumber scraps can burn with a lot of black smoke.

Burning wood may be a cheap renewable heating option, it's definitely not without its own ecological issues ...

Fine particulate matter being one of these.

Tree saps are another
You might find sap drips downwind from your chimney.
The dioxines or poly-aromatic carbons (PAC) you wouldn't see.

Generally, a stove can't be run hot enough to get rid of those.

[oil pan 4]

I put in a chimney that sticks up about 3 meters above the roof line. Building code mandates 1.25 meter or so.

The stove pipes fit inside each other here and the condensed saps run back down into the coal furnace.

[oil pan 4]

Another month, another electric bill.
Not counting the power the leaf uses, I'm down to about 1/3 what I was using last winter.
The wood stove will pay for its self this winter and the coal furnace will be well on its way to paying for its self.
I'm glad I didn't wait another year.

The coal furnace has only burned about 100 pounds of coal. Most of that was just figuring out how to get the coal burning.

[jjackstone]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Another month, another electric bill.
Not counting the power the leaf uses, I'm down to about 1/3 what I was using last winter.
The wood stove will pay for its self this winter and the coal furnace will be well on its way to paying for its self.
I'm glad I didn't wait another year.

The coal furnace has only burned about 100 pounds of coal. Most of that was just figuring out how to get the coal burning.

Never really thought about it. How do you start the coal burning? By the way, did you wash it first? Got to use clean coal.
JJ

[oil pan 4]

The coal is clean, it's still wet.
I think if I open up a bag or 2 and let it air dry will help a lot too.
To get the coal going it looks like I need a really big wood fire going such as a fire box full of oak pallet slats and just as the wood is turning to charcoal, right about the time it's ready to break apart start adding the coal layer by layer.
Too much coal will smother the fire, too little too slowly and the wood burns down and there isn't enough coal going to sustain the coal fire.

[oil pan 4]

Rolling coal again on a 10F morning.
Actually it's pine or spruce, one of those sappy ones.
I can shovel 20lb of coal in to coal furnace and as it starts to ignite there is so little smoke it likely wouldn't even be visible on a picture.

[superbat]

Planning on shutting our heater and go back to coal. You just need some effort but better teach kids how we did it years before.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by superbat

Planning on shutting our heater and go back to coal. You just need some effort but better teach kids how we did it years before.

Where are you going to buy coal from?

[oil pan 4]

The coal furnace has knocked off at least $100 off the power bill every cool month so far. Highest power bill going back to late 2017 was $280.
Highest power bill so far for 2019 and 2020 is $150. But then subtract $30 to $40 with the leaf.
If I had not bought the coal furnace my power bill in winter would be over $300 with the leaf for December and January.