Does anyone burn Coal??

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murraym

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I have an outdoor boiler that is able to burn coal or wood. It is set up to heat the house and my shop. I have always used wood as it is plentiful and free for me.
The problem now is that since the addition of my shop space, I am burning considerably more wood. In the interest of saving some time, I am debating about using Anthracite coal as a supplement to the wood. It seems to be readily available here in NY. I also think it will be easier to store and move as I can move it one ton at time. It will also free up some space under my lean to.
Anybody else here do the same thing? Anything I should know about using Coal?
Thank you for your replies in advance!!
 
Everything that I have seen about burning anthracite is that it takes a lot of management of the fire to keep it going, unlike bituminous coal or semi anthracite that have more volatile matter within, anthracite has more nearly pure carbon in its content, and makes less soot in burning. But why not give it a try?
 
Having an antique coal stove in my house, I can say it's a a pain to get started, but once it is going, it goes almost all night, if you throttle down the air. Coal is messy, I'm sure you know that, prepare to get blackened on occasion. Anthracite burns clean and hot. Being an outside boiler, you have less to worry about CO, but the stuff is deadly and really gives you no warning. If I am burning coal (in my house) I turn on my high sensitivity CO detector. It detects 5ppm - before CO becomes a problem.
 
benmychree said:
I have burnt soft coal in my heating stove in my house, I got a ton or so of low sulfur coal from Kentucky, it had a long life in the stove, but mad so much soot in the chimney spark arrestor that it plugged up the mesh, making it necessary to go up on the roof and bang against it to dislodge the clog. I have been burning mostly live oak, but I need to check on it about every half hour and add more wood.
Click to expand...
 
I have a wood/coal burning stove in my cabin. I usually burn "pea" or "nut" sized Anthracite. I start a wood fire and let it burn for about a half hour and get a good bed of wood coals going, then I fill the stove to the top with coal, I let it go another half hour or so till the coal is well started, then I close the air intake to just a crack and close the chimney damper most of the way. I usually get about 18-22 hrs burn. Then it must be cleaned out and the process started again, although it can be done by building a wood fire on top of the remaining coal embers and burning them to ash, then adding more coal on top. The stove puts out plenty of heat for the small, uninsulated cabin.
 
Before you get carried away be sure your furnace is able to burn coal without destroying itself. Gasses from a wood fire typically reach temperatures in the 1,000-to-1,100-degree range. Gasses from an anthracite coal fire typically reach temperatures of 2,500 to 3,500 degrees. A furnace designed for wood only may not be able to withstand the rigors of a coal fire.
 
Anthracite does burn hot! And stays hot for many many hours, your furnace/boiler firebrick needs to be rated for that kind of heat.
 
Maybe outdoors I would consider it, we have a wood/coal furnace in our basement, one season was enough to convince me that I didn't want to deal with that mess of coal fly ash anywhere in the house. They call it fly ash because it is lightweight and flies around everywhere. Keeping anthracite burning is a skill that took me a few weeks to master. I will say stacking bags of coal is easier than stacking wood.
 
The Boiler is rated for Coal. My plan is to mix it with wood. I just ordered 4 50lb bags to see how it goes.
 
I guess I’m pretty old school as far as coal is concerned. I’ve never heard of it being sold by the bag. My parents used to buy it by the
ton. The coal truck would back into the drive. Extend the chute to the coal bin door and dump away.

Ash disposal was no problem. My brothers and loaded into a trash can carried it up the stairs and out to the street. The trash truck picked it up every Tuesday
 
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