Does anyone burn Coal??

[murraym]

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

lol. I could get it that way as well. It's just easier to store and move 2000Lbs at a time.
Gotta love tractors.

 

[Dan Krager]

The thing about mixing wood and coal in the same burner is that, as I understand it, for complete combustion wood needs air fed on top of the flame and coal draws air through the grate. The other thing to worry about is chimney maintenance. The only time I saw my dad frightened was when the creosote accumulated in the chimney caught fire and became a giant blow torch of very very intense heat. Could not starve it or put it out...the only solution (in the day) was to wait it out and check the chimney path for signs of fire. For best practice of chimney maintenance, the fire should be fueled often (to keep the appropriate BTU) and fed regulated fresh air constantly so there is very little if any smoke. I shudder at the result of loading a firebox to the hilt and shut down the draft to almost nil. That's a sure way to create a hazard in the chimney.
I burned exclusively firewood for many years and my dad would give me a hard time about not carefully stacking the firewood in the fuel room. He quit mentioning it when I asked him why we never stacked the anthracite chunks at the farmhouse!

DanK