Gonna Buyt Some Coal

I would like to know where you could get some in NE Texas.

They are doing a lot of strip mining here, but I don't know if that kind of coal could be burned in a stove or not. I'm pretty sure the coal company isn't going to sell to individuals, though. Two coal trains a day come by our house - and when they are loaded, they move pretty slowly. It's a thought ------ maybe not.

Can you burn coal in a regular wood fireplace as in the fireplace in a double wide. The fireplace in our home in Central Texas is very small, very shallow and has no damper of any kind, but it is built of some kind of fire bricks or tiles.

Helena,

We're in PA too, and buy anthracite at the breaker. DH paid $140 a ton for rice coal today.

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KMA1, I got some coke coal from a place in Birmingham a couple of years ago for my brother's forge. I don't know how far you are from Birmingham, and not sure I can find it again, but I'll try if you'd like?

this is why i always wanted a finnish/russian fireplace you can burn cow pies if thats what you got. does anyone sell coal in like 1-2 pound burn bags? put a 1-2 pound bag in light the bag and close the door no dust etc

One word of caution. DO NOT try to burn coal in an air tight heater and close the door. Coal has to have air to burn and if put on hot coals and the air is shut of it produces a very explosive GAS. I have heard of it blowing doors off heaters and stove pipes apart in even coal heaters. If burned right you will never smell it in the house or have more dust than with wood. We have an old coal heater that we burn wood in when it isn't real cold. I would never burn coal in any heater that isn't lined with fire brick and a grater. If the heater has a bottom door for clean out it makes it a lot easier as you can clean out the ashes while the heater is burning. Hope this helps and good luck. Sam

As a kid, we would walk the RR tracks near our house & pick up the pieces of coal that fell from the coal cars . The pieces were not big, but we would get bagfulls every time we went & it helped out.
I haven't even seen coal for sale in a long time.

We burnt coal in an open fireplace for many years....check your grate. It needs a lot of air flow underneath it.

Tamsam is spot on when it comes to stoves.

Don't know how up to date this is, but try this link:
http://www.anvilfire.com/gazette/index.htm

I love coal but not in Calif,our smog was REALLY bad in the 60's and they outlawed it,or at least we couldnt buy it at the feed store anymore.

But what nice heat it puts out,if you can use it Im jealous,and you are lucky.

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Tamsam is referring to burning off the volatiles at reload and yes, it's important to supply adequate air and not cover the entire previous load with new coal until the volatiles have burned off. After that, airtight is fine and greatly preferred. I know of no new appliance that isn't airtight with enough bypass air to keep the fuel on fire. Underfire air is necesary for anthracite and greatly preferred for bituminous. Burning coal is quite diferent than wood, anthracite especially. Bit coal burns much more like wood with many people, myself included, burning bit and wood or switching seamlessly back and forth between the two.

Do you mean $200 a month or the whole winter ? What supplier do you use ? I have considered buying a coal stove, but didn't know of any place that sells it.I live in south central ky and would like to know where to purchase it.

The year. I assign very little cost to the wood I burn, but, I burn very little of it. I picked up 1 ton of egg & 1 ton of lump. $173.00. That's around 60 million BTU's for $173.00. I use: Sampson Coal Yard, 811 Plum Street, Owensboro Ky, 270-683-8512.

ETA: Coal does NOT deteriorate. Even if exposed to the elements. Actually, the ultimate storage system is underwater as in a pond. Anyone want to lock in their heating costs for the next 10, 15 or however many years??????

I just am trying to understand as much about this as i can.It is all new to me.What kind of dimensions would 2 ton of coal be? Would it fit on a trailer or would I need a dump truck? I am about 135 miles from Owensboro.Would the coal yard deliver at a reasonable price or would my best best be to get it myself? Thanks for your answers.

That's one ton of lump on a 6 1/2 X 16 foot trailer. Yes, Ernie delivers coal as far away as Peoria Illinois, keeps trucks in delivering in Indiana often, trucking is his main business.

ETA: Jimsmith, you have a PM.

CarolT,

I would indeed like the place you found coal in Birmingham. That is only about hour and half from me, so not too far. I googled but not sure I got any real coal suppliers there. Thanks.

CIW,

I will check the Elkhorn Coal Mine. Thanks!

KMA1

Wow, those are some big lumps there. Great pix.

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estaban, nice story about picking coal from the rr tracks.

I live in Brooklyn ny and we had a lot of homes that heated with coal. Trucks would come and pore coal down a shoot into basement storage rooms and people would shovel the coal into their coal fueled furnace to heat radiators. The old timers use to save the ash and burned up coal and in the winter they would scatter it on the icey sidewalks infront of their house. The ash would mealt the ice and the grit from the burned coal would give you traction so you wouldnt slip when you walked. Pretty smart.

I do recall what seemed to be an unhealthy smoke coming from their chimney though. Was it healthy or not, I dont know, but the way it felt going into my nose made me feel it was not healthy.

Stephen, thanks for all of the info you are providing. How do you burn the lump coal? Do you put it in as one piece or have to break it up into smaller pieces? I guess that is a dumb question but those look like big pieces. Are the difficult to break into somewhat consistent sized pieces? Also, people talk about burning coal in a wood stove with a "grate" and a thick layer of ashes. Is the grate just something like rebar welded together that is designed to hold the coal off the floor of the stove itself?

you can still find lots of coal along the rail lines.

for those unaware rail lines are private property, some places they have regular patrols by the rail road police (thats what we call them any ways)