Would You Be Burning Coal If Not for This Site?

Till about age 8 we heated with a coal furnace in the basement with big grate in the floor,also had a coal range,but we moved from that house & ended our coal use.In 1999 my wife & I decided to eliminate oil & other heat sources from our lives,we heated with wood stove till 2006 when we installed an OWB. At that time we were able to get a large amount of free for the taking wood from the dumpsters of a truck box builder within 3/4 mi. of us.When that ended we bought triaxle loads of logs to cut,split,stack & repeat until we accumulated 30-50 cord that it took to heat our 2 houses,DHW & our repair shop.In 2005 when we were planning for the OWB,our oldest son kept pushing for us to go with a coal boiler but the free wood close to us dimmed our eyes from looking close at coal.Cutting 3-4 loads of logs every yr takes its toll on energy & time.We bought some coal to burn in the OWB but it was not designed for coal so in 2013 we decided to buy cut/split/delivered wood,it was not cheap that way but we were worn out on doing it all ourselves.The OWB developed a leak & then another,so we started planning on a replacement. Once again our son pointed us to this forum as he had tried to in 2005,i was not very internet savy back then. Several months of reading & I became a member. We started watching for any coal burner that we could buy,i was sick most all winter and the $$ was just not available. Finally this spring we convinced a bank to loan the money to buy & set up a coal boiler. This summer I found a Crane 404 stove for our house & we are now enjoying a very comfortable WARM room. We bought a used EFM 520 & installed it in a truck box to heat both houses & the DWH & the shop. We are enjoying the less labor intensive coal heat with the boiler & the stove. Some day we want to have a coal range too. To answer the question... I can't forsee the future so I can only guess that the answer is probably no ,we sure are glad to have found this forum with all the available knowledge.So coal it is for us with no alternate for back up .

No I would not be burning coal w/o the help of this site. I had tried in the past to burn coal and obviously did not know what I was doing and was very frustrated. Have picked up so much helpful information from this site and continue to fine tune my coal burning experience.

I Used about 1200 gallons of fuel to keep my house at sixty five degrees I live in the Adirondacks we had snow oct 9th and it snows in may I thought about wood stove but have 2 kids under 3 and a wife no time for wood stacking although I like wood but no time pellets stink 280 a ton plus you have to shut stove off clean every week or more plus I would use 7 tons they say its almost carbon neutral hard to believe. most pellet stoves run on electricity. they are chipping all the wood up here so wood prices increased. unfortunately I have a power venter and coal up here is 380 a skid 1.2 tons I will use 4 skids some left over for next fall oil ould have to be a 1.00 a gallon for me to switch over if I were to keep house at 70 and I have no time to work on a wood pile plus can you really trust your wife to keep wood fire going no you cant not to mention I have 2 friends that had chimney fires last winter so I guess I will deal with a venter till I can afford a masonary chimney keep em hot crank em

After a $3k plus winter heating with oil/hot water baseboards I decided to dip into the retirement and fork over the money for a coal stove. I was a little skeptical at first, thinking that the things I was hearing from coal burners was just because they had it and hadn't tried anything else. I admit I was proven wrong when I went into a friends older home (1950s, about 2400 sq. ft. Poorly insulated) and it was piping hot from his stoker IN THE BASEMENT lol. Got mine and have had the same results (actually had to open a window the other night). A combination of first hand experience with it and the awesome assistance I got from this thread I could not be happier with the money I spent. Thank you guys very much for your honest opinions and not blowing smoke up my butt (no pun intended)

I could no longer burn wood due to age and other things so I was looking for another option . I came across this site and with Rob's help and reading many posts decided on coal . Rob and others were a tremendous help in getting me up and going with my boiler . The boiler and install will have paid for itself at the end of this 3rd. winter in comparison to oil , and that's with coal costing around $300 per ton .

Many thanks to all the folks on this site .

Yes, but I'd be doing a horrible job of it!

EPugs45 wrote:Yes, but I'd be doing a horrible job of it!

This going on my 3 rd. year and I have been burning to much coal and lots of ash with my boiler . After reading some posts I found out I needed to back off on the feed . I backed off 1 complete turn and things improved , backed off another turn and wow things are just right again . Same name coal as last year but different batch . I would be lost without this forum also , as I know of no one burning coal in my area using the wl110 boiler .

I was set on coal and came across you guys when doing research.

I said that I knew of it & found this site while doing research.
My first memories of coal burning are in my great grandparents home in Sweet Valley, PA. They had a coal furnace in the basement & the house was never cold in the winter. I remember standing on the big grate between the living room & the dining room.
I started burning coal in the early mid 80's when I found my Warm Morning stove. We loved it, but if I wasn't home to tend it the fire would go out. My wife couldn't seem to get the hang of keeping it burning. I took a job that kept me away for the work week, so we reverted to burning oil until the furnace went bad & blew black soot throughout the house. I had the furnace replaced with a propane furnace & we were happy for the first year or two. Then the price of propane went thru the roof! Last year I paid over $700 just for the month of January & made up my mind that I wasn't going to do that again this year!
I'm no longer away for the work week, but I still work long hours & decided that I wanted a coal burner that would take less attention but still heat the house well.
My research led me here & helped me to select my new Leisure Line Pocono.
So far, We're loving it!

Put another the fire!

I use to burn wood with fuel oil backup. I haven't purchased fuel oil since 9/11/01..... The Harman mag was installed 12/25/06 the family Christmas gift. The wife bitched during the install. " Dirty coal" in her house. I told her if she wanted the wood stove back in the house she was cutting the wood..... I'm buying coal.... it was a pleasant holiday. The coal is cleaner to deal with than firewood. I've never regretted giving up wood. Now I'll be on a quest for a boiler to heat my home from an out building, radiant floor heat.

Smart move CN. Glad to hear of a husband, sticking to their guns. (Altho I must admit, it doesn't work well for me)

joeq wrote:Smart move CN. Glad to hear of a husband, sticking to their guns. (Altho I must admit, it doesn't work well for me)

. She divorced me in 2011, she got plenty but not the stove....

Oh WOW Hope you are still warm, and saving money at the same time