heating with backyard coal

 
LDillon
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Post by LDillon » Wed. Jan. 09, 2019 7:44 am

Hello, My 1st post here. In a few years, I'll be retiring and I've grown fond of the rural western parts of Virginia, WV, although I haven't actually visited yet.
As that is 'coal country' I wonder if it's common to save heating costs by using the coal on your own property? I'm looking at houses with at least 2 acres and often more, so there would be plenty of room to dig a coal pit and extract some chunks of coal as needed. I'm not thinking of selling the coal, only for personal heating of a residential house and maybe a heated garage. Having 'free heat' would help a great deal in retirement years.
q. 1) is it common to save heating costs this way? 2) What tools are needed i.e. a pickaxe, wheelbarrow? 3) How deep below the surface is the coal, or might it be available on surface rocks? 4) how long would it take to extract enough coal for a typical winter?
Thank you all.


 
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bambooboy
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Post by bambooboy » Wed. Jan. 09, 2019 2:47 pm

welcome aboard,while i think Vest Virginia may have a lot of coal i don't think the whole state is sitting on mounds of coal.if the 2 acres you want has coal,probably next 40 acres do as well & has been gobbled us for commercial coal mining.you might consider a wooded lot with decent amount of hardwood&put in outside furnace that will burn wood or coal.i may be wrong but good luck

 
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Post by LouNY » Wed. Jan. 09, 2019 4:17 pm

I don't know about West Virginia many places the mineral rights have been sold off and they and even water rights may not come with the property.
I would guess that any place that had easily accessible coal it has already been used.
Good Luck

 
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warminmn
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Post by warminmn » Wed. Jan. 09, 2019 6:12 pm

It would be so much work even if it was there that it would be easier to cut wood. But it wont be there anyway, unless there is a community mine which is also unlikely. Your gonna have to buy it.

 
LDillon
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Post by LDillon » Thu. Jan. 10, 2019 2:36 pm

Thanks guys. It's hard to imagine that the coal lands don't have abundant coal rocks 'in the backyard'. Still, those states are the most beautiful places I've seen, even just passing through. My 'end years' will be spent in a place like that in sight of the silhouette of a mountain ridge. Ready for the quiet life. With or without the free coal, still going to the coal country.

 
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Post by Pacowy » Thu. Jan. 10, 2019 3:13 pm

I think most of the coal reserves in the areas you're talking about are underground, with a fair amount of overburden. Your best hope probably would be in or near locations where surface mining has been found to be viable - see, for example, http://www.wvgs.wvnet.edu/GIS/CBMP/all_mining.html . Good luck.

Mike

 
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Post by biggerpatterson » Thu. Jan. 10, 2019 3:19 pm

Better check with the EPA and see what they have to say about a private coal mine.


 
LDillon
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Post by LDillon » Thu. Jan. 10, 2019 7:44 pm

biggerpatterson wrote:
Thu. Jan. 10, 2019 3:19 pm
Better check with the EPA and see what they have to say about a private coal mine.
I hadn't planned on a 'coal mine'. Just using the scattered rocks on the surface, or chipping away at a boulder on the land. Where I live now, in the Northeast, every year when I till my garden, rocks just pop up. Same place, new rocks, every year. There are whole stone walls, miles long, just made from scattered rocks. So in coal country, if the same thing happens but the area rocks are coal, I would use those. I'd read a post somewhere where the guy would roto-till to get coal. I think it was on this same forum somewhere. So long as the coal was just below the topsoil, you wouldn't have to dig down very far. Rocks tend to work their way to the surface. I'm guessing that it's probably not noticed because it's so normal in those areas. "have to rake the coal out of the flower garden every spring" "I hit another coal stone with my mower blade". When it's everyday life, you don't really think it's a big deal. If there are mountains of coal under the earth, and there are (mountains!), isn't it reasonable that it's also at ground level? A few years ago I went to the West. We were in a group and talking about where we all came from. When I'd mentioned my northeast state, a young girl enthusiastically said "Oh, It's so lush there! all the green!" then I noticed, that area was largely desert, no trees like here and when I got back, I saw with new eye's how lush New England really is. Maybe it's that way in coal country. Those guys are digging coal every day, countless tons of it, filling trains with it, filling barges with it, so the coal rocks in their yards, a wheelbarrow wouldn't seem like much to them, but to us up here, it's a sight to see and a revelation. I just can't imagine that there's trainloads of coal underground and not bucket loads on top.

 
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Post by hotblast1357 » Thu. Jan. 10, 2019 7:53 pm

Nope.. not the case..

 
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Post by sciteach » Thu. Jan. 10, 2019 8:13 pm

In Pennsylvania you can, from time to time see outcrops of coal as you are driving along the interstate and the back roads. I have seen anthracite outcrops near Wilkes Barre, and bituminous outcrops next to the Clearfield exit off I 80. If you watch the TV program "Alaska the Last Frontier" the family of homesteaders they follow harvests coal from outcrops that erode onto the beach near their home.
Unusual yes, improbable yes, impossible no. I know my property in Central Pa has coal under the ground but it is deep and owned by someone else. If a vein did peek out of the ground on my hillside..... and it was the zombie apocalypse... well then I sure would be tempted! :roll:

 
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Post by Hambden Bob » Thu. Jan. 10, 2019 8:27 pm

As a 12 yr old kid,I remember passing Miss Etta Baker's ramshackle home in Flushing Twp,Belmont County in Southern Ohio. This was immediately above Piedmont Lake. Coming down the road one Thanksgiving Night,at dusk,there she was out back of the house. Pick Axe in hand,she was tapping out exposed Bit in a cutout hillock. She was on the edge of the reclaim area that Consul was still working on after Strip Mine Operation. It wasn't a spoil pile,it was a high seam that was exposed on her property. She would not allow me to help her,the Tough Old Bird! She did thank me for offering though. She was easily in her 80's at the time. She told me that her Father started the cut,and she always felt it was just him and her when she worked it. I understood. She didn't make it too much longer,but here I am,46+ years later,keeping her story alive... What a Proud Woman!

Your post touched me,as some Great Memories last for me,not far from Moundsville,West Virginia. Do Your Homework,Search the Topography and Land for sale. Follow Your Dream. Good Luck,and Good Hunting! It's always "No" if You don't ask or search.

 
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Post by Rob R. » Fri. Jan. 11, 2019 8:51 am

Even if you found some coal that was easy to "harvest", it may not burn well in residential equipment. Bituminous coal varies widely in the way it burns.

My suggestion is to pick some property based on other factors, and order a load of coal that you know will be good quality.

Also, you may want to spend some time in WV before you get your heart set on moving there.

 
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Post by bambooboy » Fri. Jan. 11, 2019 10:06 am

Rob R. wrote:
Fri. Jan. 11, 2019 8:51 am
Even if you found some coal that was easy to "harvest", it may not burn well in residential equipment. Bituminous coal varies widely in the way it burns.

My suggestion is to pick some property based on other factors, and order a load of coal that you know will be good quality.

Also, you may want to spend some time in WV before you get your heart set on moving there.
that's the same advice i would give to people that want to move to Florida,close up your house&rent for a year to see if you like that climate year round.

 
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Post by Bubbalowe » Mon. Jan. 21, 2019 12:50 pm

Coal is mineral not rock and when it does meet the surface is known as crop (from outcrop) coal, generally substandard. Coal hasn't been mined manually since before WW2 and then by fit men in their prime. There are bony piles around old tipple sites where coal can be picked but you'd need permission.

 
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Post by k-2 » Mon. Jan. 21, 2019 1:13 pm

IV got a property im currently selling that has a coal seam jutting right into in the basement in a crawl space. My tenant there also burns coal but he need rice coal. If he installed a hand fired stove he could pick a load right out of his basement at least until the house collapses.


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