need help Burning coal

Draft is very important when burning coal. Primary air should be coming through the grates under the fire. Does your unit have shaker grates?

I have the 526 Woodchuck and mix coal.
I load my furnace up to the door with wood . I then place a grocery bag with about 10-15 lbs of coal dead center on top of the wood and then top off with wood.
Works great.
Might want to check the operators manual. I don't think your supposed to use anthracite in a woodchuck. I could be wrong but it seems like I remember reading that.
I burn Bituminous.

Burning soft coal (bituminous) takes good air control & usually needs a burner designed for it, such as Hitzer etc. As was mentioned you need air under the coal bed & with shaker grates you should be able to burn anthracite, provided you do not have a V shaped grate/lower firebox. I know of one manufacturer that needed to change their furnace design because they thought they could burn anthracite in a V grate. They changed to a much larger area straight sided burn chamber with redesigned shakers. Good luck, Randy

A good thick bed of coals is also great for burning: somewhere along the lines of 4-6" thick.

If you don't have any luck, there is a coal forum like this one on the web. I forget the name, Google it.

You can go to http://www.nepacrossroads.com and they can help out. I tried coal in our old furnace, and like posted we had a v shaped firebox that wouldn't burn coal no matter how hard I tried. After waking up cold, and a firebox full of coal and out I gave up and stuck to wood. Forgot to add, if you don't have a barometric damper I believe you need one for coal to tame draft. Otherwise too much heat will go up the flue and not into the house. I have never seen a coal stove or furnace ran without a barometric damper.