Coalpail.com Forum

This is my first season burning coal. Based on reading some of the low usage of others, I'm assuming your stoves are in main living quarters vs my DS 1500 in my basement. Either way, my basement and main floors have never been as warm...and beyond thankful I decided to burn coal this winter, since my electric bills are at least 1/2 of what they have been in the past and it's also been the coldest winter in many years.

October 15 - February 25 - 3 1/4 tons

Guestimating 4 ton by the end of Feb for $800. That's about how much I used for each of the previous two winters, so I am estimating I will use 5 ton for this extra cold winter unless March & April stay real cold then I will get into the 6th ton.

Vac'ed out the horizontals twice all ready this year based on that tonnage. The fly ash wasn't real deep, only about 1", but I did notice the manometer generally reading a little lower before I did it.

Oct 6 to Feb 25, koker, 4 tons

I fired up k6 on November 14 2013 and haven't looked back.
should make the March 14 2014 mark using 4 tons. Reading buckwheat.
I am thrilled usage went down from hand fired!
I plan on heating dhw all year so it will be interesting what
usage will be in the WARM months.

4.75 tons out of 5 so far. Looks like I'm just gonna make it. Good thing I've got 2 facecord of wood to use as insurance. Winter can end @ any time now!!

Guessing about 4.5 tons as of today.

Lot's more DHW this year than last, and the upstairs was at a higher temp, so not terrible imho.

Officially, a lot.

Holy Moly, I've burn through coal like there's no tomorrow. I've burned 6 bags short of 2 tons of pea and a quarter ton of nut. That's the most I've ever burned in a year. I'd like to have more pea going in to the later days of Mar and early Apr but I'll burn what I have for the rest of the year.

I started with almost 8 tons in aug, had to get more on the 12th of feb (had about 1 ton left ),got 3 more tons should be good till sept ,but used about 2 tons more this year ! for 2,000 sq ft is that bad house at 70f and heating my water too

From 15 Oct through this morning, 7 March, I've burned 208 bags of anthracite or just shy of 3 1/2 pallets (60 bags per). 208 @ $6 per bag = $1248. Now, there was a 14 day period from 15 Nov-29 Nov when my bride and I were away on vacation, and our daughter burned propane. She used about 20% or 100 gal @ $1.72 per gal = $172.00. I also burn wood, and have probably used 2 cord @ $85 per = $170. So my heat bill for this record-breaking 130 year cold winter in 'da U.P. of Michigan, eh, is approximately $1590. Spread over five months, that's about $318 per month for heat. Not bad considering I'm heating a 2500sqft ranch-style house, and when on coal or wood I keep it at a nice, warm 73degF. Yay anthracite coal!! (and some wood).

From the middle of Sept until now I used four tons of buck.

3.5 Tons Rice in the VF3000, and about 3 cord of wood. Wood was obtained for free from trees on property and from Oct snowstorm a couple years ago, trying to get it used up so it doesn't rot and do something more useful with the space.....like store more coal. I purchased 24 tons of bagged santa stuff in June of 2011 (20 skids) and just about through my 14th skid. All in all I can't complain, paid 260/ton delivered in 2011 and now the same supplier is asking 310/ton + delivery.

Not sure if I will get it together and get a bin built so I can do bulk this summer or just buy 2 more skids for safety and do it after next yr.

There seems to be such a big difference in the amount of coal used. Does everyone just use coal as the only heat source or do they have another source?

AKHEARTH wrote:There seems to be such a big difference in the amount of coal used. Does everyone just use coal as the only heat source or do they have another source?

I'm heating our home 100% via anthracite coal, plus 100% heating our DHW via coal as well.

I'm heating our home 100% via anthracite coal, plus 100% heating our DHW via coal as well.[/quote]

How much have you used this winter?