Building a New Home / Looking at Coal

ken527 · Post by **ken527** » Sun. May. 25, 2008 4:28 pm

Hello,
I am new here and I am building a new home in Vilas,NC that is very close to Boone,NC if you are not familar with the area.
I need to find out if coal is a good choice in this area. I never looked for coal and I am new to this area so I don't know where to find or how much coal cost? I have spent one winter here and after spending $340.00 propane and $200.00 electricity (for one month)in this rental home I really need to look at all the options for heating in the area. I moved here from Southern California and was born and raised in Phoenix Arizona so I have never expirenced heating bills like this.
House is going to be a 2000 sqft, 2 bedroom with a loft 3 bathroom built over a full basement all garage built into a hillside mostly exposed. Home will have a heat pump for those(few) warm humid summer days. Heating is by far the biggest concern.
Any help or advise is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Ken

rberq · Post by **rberq** » Sun. May. 25, 2008 5:30 pm

One quick way to check coal availability is to call Blaschak Coal Co. at (570) 773-2113, give the nice lady your zip code, and find out if there are dealers in your area. After that check the yellow pages and call hardware stores to find out if they carry coal, and at what price. Also look for stove dealers, though you can't really count on them for advice because (my opinion) they tend to push wood stoves or pellet stoves and may have less experience with coal and especially with whole-house systems.

The one-month heating costs that you quoted in your rental strike me as very high. Building a new house you will certainly be very conscious of insulating well, and hopefully will end up with something not so needy of energy. I'm curious about the heat pump "for those few warm humid days". I was under the impression that heat pumps are very common in NC, for both heating and cooling, and that electricity was comparatively inexpensive due to the hydro systems we taxpayers built in your area. So why not a heat pump for all your heating as well as cooling? You should be able to get an annual cost estimate pretty easily from a heating contractor. Based on your BTU requirements from the contractor, you can calculate an equivalent coal tonnage and therefore your coal cost for comparison, assuming that you find coal is readily available.

Spend lots of time exploring this forum for ideas. After all, you have nothing else to do except build a house

cArNaGe · Post by **cArNaGe** » Sun. May. 25, 2008 6:17 pm

If I were you I would be looking into a Geothermal Heat Pump. Geothermal Link... Simply because of the area you are in.

If you do find a source for coal then I would look into it.

But living in such a mild climate I would just do a Geo Heat pump and maybe supplement with a wood stove on the cold days.

ken527 · Post by **ken527** » Sun. May. 25, 2008 7:12 pm

Well this is the coldest climate I have ever lived in. Last winter here in the mountains was very windy and I would guess the avg temp was in the low 20's coldest day was 7 degs I have been told this was a mild winter. The new home will be well insulated, I just want to make the right choice in heating.
The cabin I rent must have been made for a summer get aways. I don't think(I am sure) it was not made for winter weather. I used propane, electric strip heaters in the bed rooms and burned wood in the fire place. House tempeture was still in the high 50's low 60's just couldn't stay warm.
I don't think anyone makes a heat pump that works very well in the 20 deg range.
I will look into the geothremal heat pump. Very good forum. Thanks for the help.

Ken

Post by **Richard S.** » Sun. May. 25, 2008 8:49 pm

ken527 wrote:Well this is the coldest climate I have ever lived in. Last winter here in the mountains was very windy and I would guess the avg temp was in the low 20's coldest day was 7 degs I have been told this was a mild winter.

Must be near Smokey Mountain Park if its that cold in N.C.? always wanted to take that drive along the length of the Blue Ridge parkway... anyhow before looking at coal you'll need to look to see if it's available and the cost. The coal we use here is anthracite and its mined in NE Pennsylvania. To give you an idea it's $130 a ton for pickup locally and probably going to get into the $250 range on the other side of the state. Guesstimate would be $350 in your area.

You most likely will have Bituminous available but its not the same thing. Check the Bit. forum for more details.

rberq · Post by **rberq** » Sun. May. 25, 2008 10:13 pm

Ah, yes, I found Boone on maps and on the Internet. It looks like beautiful country, and cold. With temps in the 20s and the wind blowing, it might as well be zero outside, so I see why you are looking at heat options. Us Northerners think of NC as plantation-land where the problem is staying cool, not warm.

ken527 · Post by **ken527** » Sun. May. 25, 2008 11:16 pm

Yes it is very close to the blueridge parkway and Grandfather Mountain. When I first read about wind speed records being set at Grandfather Mountain I thought it was a misprint. Over 200mph? I can see Grandfather mountain from my area its beautiful.

http://blueridgegazette.blogspot.com/2006/05/gran ... olina.html

We had 70 mph winds in my area several times this winter it really rocks the house. Very windy and cold.

Ken

bksaun · Post by **bksaun** » Mon. May. 26, 2008 8:17 am

I am in KY and this is as far South as anthracite gets, Bituminous is going to be your only coal option.

BK

Post by **Richard S.** » Mon. May. 26, 2008 8:37 am

bksaun wrote:I am in KY and this is as far South as anthracite gets, Bituminous is going to be your only coal option.

BK

Where he's at its probably closer or about the same, I-81 which goes through NEPA would be just about a direct route to his location.