Coal Vs Wood Pellets

coalman tell the people where its at.

I saw a bumper sticker once "coal,there's no fuel like an old fuel". I think that says it all!

wally61 wrote:from what I understand about coal vs wood pellets is wood pellets is a supplemnt heat where as coal is a primary heat source

That really depends on the BTU output of the stove/furnace. I'm not aware of any large furnaces using pellets though, you can get coal furnaces of any size. Not positive but I think Keystoker will even manufacture a custom if you need it.

Harman makes a 112,000 BTU pellet furnace. I looked at it before deciding on my coal unit but decided on coal as it has twice the BTU's. I also like the fact that if the power goes out, coal will stay lit for several hours. Pellets are done very quickly if you lose power.

kirk wrote:Harman makes a 112,000 BTU pellet furnace. I looked at it before deciding on my coal unit but decided on coal as it has twice the BTU's.

Again depends on the stove, as far as the BTU output for the fuel according to the specs I have you need about 1.4 to 1.5 tons of pellets to equal a ton of coal. That will vary according to the quality of the fuel (holds true for oil & gas as well) and the efficiency of the stove/furnace.

I also like the fact that if the power goes out, coal will stay lit for several hours. Pellets are done very quickly if you lose power.

If you have a hand fired stove you don't need power at all. You may not be able to circulate the heat as well for the larger hand fired units but some of the smaller ones don't even have circulating fans.

The Alaska model 140 will burn rice coal or wood pellets. I have yet to burn pellets but went with the 140 for the diversity. I am very happy with stove.

Saw a comparison of BTU output of coal compared to pellets. The ratio is 2 to 1. For every ton of coal it takes 2 tons of pellets to equal the BTU output. I work at a nuclear plant here in New Hampshire and everyone here is buying pellets stoves because they are so trendy. In fact someone gave me a coal stove to make room for his pellet stove. If they could get pellets this winter they were paying the equivilent of $300.00 a ton and I'm paying $200.00 a ton. So to get the same BTU output as my $200.00 of coal they have to spend $600.00. At that rate oil would be cheaper. But as a side note the price of pellets has dropped in price recently but it would have to drop quite a bit to equal coal.
Tom

rouxzy wrote:Saw a comparison of BTU output of coal compared to pellets. The ratio is 2 to 1.

Can't say I saw one that high, wish I could. Matter of fact the only one I have seen was from the Deparment of Energy. The chart did change ocaasionally. Pellets ran from 1.4 to 1.6 tons for a ton of anthracite coal.

The pellets themselves will make a difference as it can for all fuels. I'm not too familair with them do they have grades? Do they need to meet a certin spec?

pellets are generally pretty consistant at 8500btu's/Lb. The reason is that no matter what you buy hard wood pellets or soft wood pellets they have basically the same btu's/lb at the same percentage of moisture usually around 8%. But your probably thinking, wait, how can that be, everyone knows that a cord of hardwood has more BTU's than a cord of soft wood?? well, yes, but thats only because you are using VOLUME as a measurement, using weight, all woods have almost identical BTU's per lb. so... at 8500btu's/lb and with Processed US anthricite being right around 14,500 btu's/lb; Anthricite has 1.7 times the heat of wood pellets.

Talking to the guys who have pellet stoves it is a hit or miss as to wheather the pellets will be good or not. If they find one Brand that they like they stick to it. The different brands are very inconsistent with each other which leads to believe that there is no real grading system or a set standard.
Tom

The guy who bought my pellet stove called me and asked where I used to get my pellets. I told him I bought them from the dealer who sold me the stove and from Home Depot. He said Home Depot was out and he couldn't find them any where. I gave him the stove dealers phone number and told him to call.

He called me back and said the dealer will only sell pellets to people who bought their stoves from him. The dealer told him they are in short supply and he is only selling to his customers right now. The dealer said that a skid (one ton) is $299.00!!!!! I am paying $160.00 a ton for coal, WOW am I glad I sold that stove. I feel bad for the guy who bought it but when I had the stove I never had problems getting pellets.

Pap

Pap wrote: The dealer said that a skid (one ton) is $299.00!!!!!

For that price you might as well avoid the hassle and use gas or oil.

This week is "Pellet Hell" in this area near Youngsville, PA. The Pellet factory near Youngsville burned to the ground last week. There were five different places in my little town here where people could get pellets. Now NONE of them have pellets. A WalMart that is 40 minutes from here was supposed to get a truck load of 40 or 50 tons, but they had a waiting list of 100 people ready to grab each and every bag available. It is a crisis for many people who are actually completely out of pellets and have called 15 different distributors - none of them have pellets, and they don't know when they will. My friend was calling Wal Mart every hour to check on whether the truck came, but it never did. Bad news for pellet stove people around here!

This article says this is a nation-wide pellet crisis.
**Broken Link(s) Removed**I would assume (and hope) that the producers plan better for next year. In the meantime I have less than one ton of rice coal left of the 5.5 tons of bulk that I started with this year. So I'm hoping to not have to go buy extra bags of Anthricite before spring comes.

Troy

I`ve burnt coal for over 20 years,,,and my present furnace is a keystoker oil/coal hot air,,, its 8 years old and I love it,,my friends whine about the cost of gas or pellets,,,i use 4 ton a heating season,and looks like this year maybe 3 ton, last oct I installed a digital controller from a company in syracuse,,,that controls everything except,loading the hopper,and empting the ass pan,,,,what a difference is comfort and so little work,now,i almost let the hopper run dry,during our last cold spell,,,,so nice not too have too run too the cellar too adjust the feed when the sun comes out or the wind dies down,,and still no monthly bill from,,national greed( our local co.)

Hate to have my first post make you feel bad but I buy Nut size coal at the mine head for $35 a ton... That a low sulphur out here in the West.
Here is a great cost comparison calculator
http://hearth.com/fuelcalc/findoil.html

anyone heard of a combustioneer Coal Furnace?

I was at the Hearth, Patio and BBQ Expo today in Salt Lake City...

VEry few coal stoves.... everyone is pushing corn and pelletts

Berg