Coalpail.com Forum

i bought my keystoker used 2 years ago on craigslist. we paid $700 for the stove. so far this thing is saving us allot of money over the pellets we used to burn. we would go through 5-6 tons or more per winter of pellets. $1,200-$1,400 per winter when we stopped burning that garbage. so far I bought 4 ton last winter and 5 ton this winter that just ended (the price actually went down so I had them deliver an extra ton). so we bought a total of 9 ton and we probably have close to 3 ton left now. so were averaging 3 ton per winter (roughly). this is an old, drafty farm house, that's cheap to heat this house...... really cheap. figure $200 per ton and 3 ton per winter we are in the $6-700 range, and the house is better heated. if we buttoned this house up a little more we would be even cheaper off. I cannot complain, in fact im thrilled with it. I will never burn pellets or natural gas ever again. im not wasting money on these expensive, computerized "high efficiency" gas furnaces either. the things are complex, expensive, and made to fail. my stove is 10 years old, purchased used and will probably last a couple more decades. my inlaws bought a brand new natural gas high efficiency furnace 4 years ago, they already had a $300 repair bill because it was out of warranty (the electronic control blower failed).

coal is hot, cheap, and simple. I would recommend coal to anyone that wants to save money on not only the heat but the heating appliance. it takes a little bit of work but the savings are well worth it. a dollar saved is a dollar earned.

Hell yeah, when I switched from propane it was $3.00 a gallon which translated into costing 3 times as much as coal at $235 a ton. Coal for me also preheats my home's hot water and keeps my hot tub warm so it cuts significantly into my electric bill for 6 months. Double whammy.

It scares me when I think I almost went with pellets instead of coal...

BunkerdCaddis wrote:It scares me when I think I almost went with pellets instead of coal...

I did that but learned my mistake somewhat quickly. The money I lost would have bought a new coal stove.

The easiest argument to win is wood pellets vs coal as they are similar to tend. There is no comparison cost wise. The only thing good about pellets is they work to get a coal fire going again thats dying.

NG might be cheaper with an existing system. LP is cheaper in a few localities, but costs way more in most of the east half of the USA. Wood is a lot of work but go for it if you want too.

Congrats on your good heat sense! Yup, coal make sense for sure.

I tell people "It's not quite exactly, but more or less, pellets cost the same as coal per bag, but coal has twice the heat." It's so close to true, it seems silly to burn pellets.

I have a wood pellet stove too, I burn about 10 bags a year
5 bags before I fire up the coal monster and 5 bags after the coal monster goes to sleep for the summer...

the final verdict is 11 full barrels left from the previous two seasons, that's almost over 2 tons left. I have purchased 9 ton total. I cant complain im already well on my way for next winter. if the price is cheap enough I might buy 5 ton again, and then the following winter my heating bill, I wont have one. the pellets..... I wasted so much money on those things. I will start by saying they werent price stable. when I started burning them it was $150 per ton by the time I was done with them a couple of years ago, it was up to $245 per ton. the last couple of years coal has actually BEEN cheaper then pellets, go figure. when I started buying those things I bought a tractor supply pellet stove. what a piece junk. I figured it was just a poor performing stove, I ended up buying a Harman P61. while the stove was better it chewed threw those stupid pellets fast enough. I was all set to buy a new Harman coal stove but the dealer talked me out of it. the dealer convinced me that coal was going to be messy. they are about the same. I WISH I could have back the money I wasted on pellets.

my point with the gas furnaces is that natural gas is actually kind of poor heating fuel. so you have to have this complex piece of junk to get the most out of a poor fuel. the coal stoves and boilers are far more robust and reliable then the gas products. why do you think there are so many HVAC guys, because the stupid things are made to fail and be thrown away. the coal stoves in comparison are simple with controls off of a furnace from the 1960's. nothing really complicated about them.

as far as using pellets in the spring and fall I don't know why even bother. I have always been impressed at how well my keystoker idles down and how little it burns when idling. it literally burns nothing when its idle. the stove is idling right now because its supposed to get down into the 30's tonight. a bucket will last days. when it calls for heat its ready to go. relighting is cheap enough, I have a bag of pellets left over from 2 years ago. I use the pellets and a torch to light the thing and it costs me nothing. I don't use "mice". one good use for pellets and what they are economical for is lighting the coal stove. a handful the stupid thing does the trick. get the pellets going and drop a handful of coal on the burning pellets. close the door and its good to go.

Wood pellets...

Half the BTU's as anthracite coal for the same amount of money! I just don't get it.

Last fall the orange big box store had pellets advertised here for $250.00 per ton... and there were people buying them right there on the spot.

The American public is so ignorant and ill-educated on coal it makes me want to burn my eyes out with a hot coal stove poker.

Same here about pellets, peoples buy them thinking that they will be warm and pay less than wood but when you are able to get the real facts you discover that they pay more to get less heat

Oi lads, lads....quit complaining about the cost of pellets over there....they are NZ$600 a ton here .....and morons still buy them and then try to tell me they are better 'cos they are "so convenient and clean".

I think i can live with saving $470 worth of inconvenience and sweeping up per ton

Yep, and no matter what you tell them, or show them, they wont believe you. Facts boggle their minds

I've managed to convert two uncles and one neighbor over to coal. They were all wood burners lol.

Lightning wrote:I've managed to convert two uncles and one neighbor over to coal. They were all wood burners lol.

I think the ideal would be enough demand to keep the production of anthracite profitable, but not so much as to spike the price.

Well put Richard--supply & demand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!