Estimated Yearly Savings by Using Coal

wsherrick wrote:

markviii wrote:Since my coal boiler died last week I have been watching the hour meter I installed on my oil boiler. Doing a rough degree day calculation, it works out to 40-50% savings by running the coal boiler. The colder the average temperature, the greater the savings (less idle losses). My wife has also informed me that the oil boiler is loud, and the floors are cold...so that is worth some $$ too.

-Rob

You have made three excellent points here. 1. Coal saves you money. 2. Coal gives you a higher comfort level and 3. Keeping the CEO happy is the most important point of all.

I think I listed the three in the reverse order of importance.

anyone know where to buy anthracite around 15068(New Kensington PA)? Thanks.

Chips Stove Shop in apollo pa.

Another year has come and gone...lets see some current numbers. Fuel oil is $3.69 cash price where I live, and instead of 1500-1600 gallons of No. 2, I'm looking at burning 8-9 tons of rice coal. I paid $265 per ton, so I should save about 55% ($3300 in my case) this year by burning coal...more if the price of fuel oil goes up between now and spring.

Edit: Added % savings.

I'm saving about 70% relative to FO and 43% relative to NG at current prices.

Mike

Looks close to 65% over FO.

I'm guessing that by burning coal I should save about $1,500 annually vs. heating oil, and about $1,000 annually vs. electricity. I'm losing about $265 vs. natural gas.

when we bought our house it was heated with 3 LP gas stoves. the Previous owners said they had to fill the 700lbs tank 3 times a year @ $1500= $4500 per year.

I put a surdiac coal stove in one end and a wood stove on the other of the basement of our 2200sqft house including the finished basement.

We burn 4 tons of coal a year @ a cost of $640 so we are saving $3860 per year. With the house staying between 65*-70* when it's stays above 20* outside. When it gets below 20* I need to fire up the wood stove for a few hours to bring the temp back up.

I need to get our 2.5 ton A/C unit ducked in so I can use that to circulate the hot air from the basement and then I can over insulate the attic too and cut more cost.

Before coal I used a variety of heating fuels. Wood pellets, Propane and Electricity, sometimes all at once sometimes one at a time. I came up with around $2400 to heat last year. This year with coal I'm figuring 4 ton max for about $900 PLUS I plan to install a water coil which will knock $250 off the heating season for electric hot water. Next year I will see the gravy $2400-900+250 = $1750. Thats awsome! This year the $1500 saved bought the furnace, stove pipe and all the odds and ends for installation.

Well I did some numbers. One way I priced it out was on the blaschak website, they have a handy dandy calculator there. My pricing in the spring time-summer time is about $260 per ton bagged. (BT Pellet's suffield facility). My cost for Natural gas is approx. $1.5 per therm. To produce the same heat with nat gas, I would have to spend $390 in gas. That doesn't count the cost to run the blower(forced hot air) or the efficiency loss through ducting.
The website here says that it would cost me about $13.50 per million BTU with coal, and $18.75 per million with nat gas(furnace is 80% efficient). If I drop the furnace efficiency down to 70% to count the ducting loss and cost to run the blower(a guess) it goes up to $21.43. No matter what I know coal doesn't cost me MORE and I feel better about supporting local business as opposed to some big corp. Plus with the coal heat I can't keep the house below 75 degrees and the woman loves it.

oil for 16 years...got to the point of not being able to afford oil...so I switched to coal from the help of my neighbor...bought the keystoker 90k for 700 bucks..895 bucks total after cleaning up(paint,glass,gaskets,piping)..cant complain..oil would have cost 1600-1700 for the 2012 season...bought bagged coal to start myself off since I didnt have a coal been yet so my total investment was around 1700.00...funny part is the stoves already paid for now and coal bin built...burnt 3 tons coal to keep house at 72-75 degrees...its small only 1000 sq feet but it was in the unfinished basement heating it and the main first floor.....expect to burn no more that 4 tons worse case...so I figure no more than 800 bucks to heat the house...savings ??? how about 50 percent !!!!!

I have saved alot. I just ordered 4 ton to fill up for a whole season,$905.00 and I used to spend 1600-1800 a year in LP and we are warmer. So far I am really happy

I'm spending $400-$500 a year on coal heat. It's a lot cheaper and better than my electric baseboard, which is shut off all winter. The electric would be $200-$250 a month and we'd still be cold. The coal stove is $120/month and we're a lot warmer.

coalcracker wrote:I'm spending $400-$500 a year on coal heat. It's a lot cheaper and better than my electric baseboard, which is shut off all winter. The electric would be $200-$250 a month and we'd still be cold. The coal stove is $120/month and we're a lot warmer.

You only burn coal 4 months out of the year?

62 x 42 ft ranch house, one floor; no basement. Alaska Kodiak almost in the center of the house in the corner of a 28 x 17 family room. Near perfect location by design. The last full year I used only oil (3 zone domestic hot water) I used 1200 gallons that year.

Now with the Kodiak, I use 3 tons pea, 400 lbs. nut and 125 gallons of oil per year. For HW I've had a 30 gallon electric water heater for 7 years, it only adds $20/month to my electric bill.

I've only had the oil burner turned on 15 days since the first match. If it's 35/28 hi/lo outside I can get away w/coal only, otherwise the oil comes on in the morning to supplement. I turn the oil burner off if I don't use it. I argued w/my service guy-he said I should keep it on, I told him I don't leave my car idling out in the cold, it's got a cast iron block just like the oil burner. It goes through hundreds of cold/hot cycles. Hmmm he said. ALSO-since I only put 125-150 gals oil through the burner, I only get it cleaned every 3-4 years. I pulled the top off, it doesn't look any worse than after a cleaning.

I'm saving over $2000 per year I would guess.