Wanted to say thanks. Last wood fire

[coaly]

I have a stoke boiler,no shaker or manual grates. Full tub of ash every 2 days.

Yeah, I'm referring to freestanding stoves in the living area. We don't all have the BMW of burners.

 

[coaly]

Coal will eat clay liners as well yes. But if left in the chimney it absorbs moisture and gets hard like cement. That can cause several problems. One it will build up over time eventually restricting the chimney. It can also come off the walls of the chimney in sheets once you start burning again causing an instant and possibly full blockage.

Wow, that's a lot. I only get a light coating of dust. Bottom of the cap looks new.

I had the coolest experience this morning filling the stove. I shook it slowly with about 3/4 handle swing to knock the worst down and left it to heat up a little too long. I've had mini explosions opening the hopper door too fast, admitting oxygen in the air space above coal, or opening hopper too soon with a low fire, getting sulfur stink.... But it was just right to be hot enough for ignition, 3/4 full with enough air space to mix with the outgas of enough coal in the hopper for it to light slowly with a dull roar up through the coal, like cracking a window at 45, progressing across the pile inside the hopper and fizzling out like a slow motion explosion.
Now I'll try to duplicate that every morning. Pretty blue and no smell. Of course I was running around the house yelling did you hear that??

 

[bholler]

Wow, that's a lot. I only get a light coating of dust. Bottom of the cap looks new.

I had the coolest experience this morning filling the stove. I shook it slowly with about 3/4 handle swing to knock the worst down and left it to heat up a little too long. I've had mini explosions opening the hopper door too fast, admitting oxygen in the air space above coal, or opening hopper too soon with a low fire, getting sulfur stink.... But it was just right to be hot enough for ignition, 3/4 full with enough air space to mix with the outgas of enough coal in the hopper for it to light slowly with a dull roar up through the coal, like cracking a window at 45, progressing across the pile inside the hopper and fizzling out like a slow motion explosion.
Now I'll try to duplicate that every morning. Pretty blue and no smell. Of course I was running around the house yelling did you hear that??

That sounds pretty dangerous to me. I will have to see if I can find the pics of my face after a coal gas explosion when I cracked the door of my furnace. 2nd degree burns on half of my face. And it really doesn't have to be much buildup at all to form.a sheet that can block the chimney

 

[JVB]

Coal will eat clay liners as well yes. But if left in the chimney it absorbs moisture and gets hard like cement. That can cause several problems. One it will build up over time eventually restricting the chimney. It can also come off the walls of the chimney in sheets once you start burning again causing an instant and possibly full blockage.

What kind of coal are folks burning in your area?? In my 6th season burning primarily Blaschak nut & I've yet to see any of the issues you describe in this thread. Maybe the hopper in my Hitzer blocks it but I'm not getting "tons of fly ash" in my liner nor is anything baking on & clogging it when it falls off. I have it cleaned end of season as I burn wood early Fall & late Spring so I see what comes out of it after a full season & it's not much.

 

[bholler]

What kind of coal are folks burning in your area?? In my 6th season burning primarily Blaschak nut & I've yet to see any of the issues you describe in this thread. Maybe the hopper in my Hitzer blocks it but I'm not getting "tons of fly ash" in my liner nor is anything baking on & clogging it when it falls off. I have it cleaned end of season as I burn wood early Fall & late Spring so I see what comes out of it after a full season & it's not much.

Balaschak comes from right near me. It depends allot on the stove the height of the chimney the vein the coal came from etc. Some years certain customers have much less buildup one year then much more. If you have a round liner and clean it at the end of the season you won't have any thing falling and blocking the chimney. But with an uncleaned square clay liner it can and does happen

 

[webby3650]

Report back in a few years after heating with coal to see how you feel about it. You might like it, but probably won't. It is not something that most people that have alternative resources choose

I needed to cut some type of hard work out of my life. I install stoves and fireplaces for a living, I can’t totally quit my job, so something had to go. I’ve got an endless amount of wood to cut, I’m just not able. If I buy wood I’ve still got all the prep/storage work. Bags of coal are a great alternative for me. So far it’s been an incredible experience, I don’t see deciding to quit burning it in a few years. It’s not dirty, it makes incredible constant heat for 24 hours with little to no attention. It’s just what I needed at this time in my life. I’ve burned a bunch of high end woodstoves, and have enjoyed it and I still plan to burn wood somewhere in my house. I still don’t understand why everyone says how dirty it is. My basement and patio are way cleaner than when I burned wood. Maybe the hopper combined with a good ashpan system makes all the difference?

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

I needed to cut some type of hard work out of my life. I install stoves and fireplaces for a living, I can’t totally quit my job, so something had to go. I’ve got an endless amount of wood to cut, I’m just not able. If I buy wood I’ve still got all the prep/storage work. Bags of coal are a great alternative for me. So far it’s been an incredible experience, I don’t see deciding to quit burning it in a few years. It’s not dirty, it makes incredible constant heat for 24 hours with little to no attention. It’s just what I needed at this time in my life. I’ve burned a bunch of high end woodstoves, and have enjoyed it and I still plan to burn wood somewhere in my house. I still don’t understand why everyone says how dirty it is. My basement and patio are way cleaner than when I burned wood. Maybe the hopper combined with a good ashpan system makes all the difference?

There are a few intrepid folks like yourself, and in isolation, I actually think it's great.

Like I said before, if I had it free out my back door, I'd be heating with it.

But it is not clean. That carbon has been filtering out the heavy toxic metals from the Earth for thousands, or millions of years, and when it's burned without scrubbers, that poison goes in to the air, then water, then, us.

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

Growing up in The Netherlands in the early 1960's before we had natural gas, we had 2 coal stoves (Etna). Mother cooked on the one in the kitchen. We burned egg shaped anthracite coal. We had a coal kit outside the kitchen. Once a month the delivery man came to bring the coals. Our house was always warm, downstairs at least. No dirt. I do not recall our chimney was ever cleaned. We switched to NG in the late 60's. Stoves looked like these.

 

[webby3650]

if I had it free out my back door, I'd be heating with it.

It’s certainly not free unfortunately. Neither is wood though, even if it’s on my property. I find it more and more difficult to find time and energy to devote to processing.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

It’s certainly not free unfortunately. Neither is wood though, even if it’s on my property. I find it more and more difficult to find time and energy to devote to processing.

Yes, free is a relative term, when it comes to wood. It's there, but it requires an enormous amount of effort and time, at least in my circumstances. Probably in most others, as well.

In a perfect world, I'd have a combination of geothermal and solar/wind, powering minisplits and efficient electric heat in really cold temps. And no burning, except for ambiance.

In this less than perfect world, I cut and burn wood for heat, in the most economical EPA stove I could find, self-installed, with an old natural gas powered boiler for backup, using two dirty chainsaws that I got for free.

I'm with you!

 

[maple1]

It’s certainly not free unfortunately. Neither is wood though, even if it’s on my property. I find it more and more difficult to find time and energy to devote to processing.

You are not the only one. Seems every year, the time gets harder & harder to come by.

My choice was mini-splits. They have made a very big difference in the short time we've had them (14 months +). I don't think that will be the last add or change here - just kind of waiting to see how tech develops.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Im trying to phase out the coal for most of the winter. Will be easy for the shoulder months,but you just cant beat it for those brutal cold months when it never seems to shut down to idle for long. Crazy wicked heat at a reasonable price.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

In a perfect world, I'd have a combination of geothermal and solar/wind, powering minisplits and efficient electric heat in really cold temps. And no burning, except for ambiance.

I must have a semi perfect world . At home i burn wood for ambiance mostly. Coal for the most of the 24/7 heat with some solar thrown in. At work(old house rehabbing) its wood if theres an available flue. So most of my wood burning is done at work ,and most of the fuel is 100 year old wall studs and floor joists ,not much prepping and drying involved.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Balaschak comes from right near me. It depends allot on the stove the height of the chimney the vein the coal came from etc. Some years certain customers have much less buildup one year then much more. If you have a round liner and clean it at the end of the season you won't have any thing falling and blocking the chimney. But with an uncleaned square clay liner it can and does happen

I get mostly light flyash stays at the bottom of the chimney and in the stove pipe to be shoveled out once a month or so.

 

[Ashful]

It’s certainly not free unfortunately. Neither is wood though, even if it’s on my property. I find it more and more difficult to find time and energy to devote to processing.

No kidding, it’s not even close to free. I may be operating at a pace a little different than most here, trying to fell, haul, and process 10 cords of wood on my own in just a few free Saturdays each year, but I currently estimate my total costs specific to wood burning at $50k - $52k over the last nine years. But even with that investment, I’ve never gone into the red, always being able to show savings over heating exclusively with my oil-fired boiler that exceed my expenses on wood.

For anyone that needs to buy or upgrade any equipment to support their wood burning, the payoff becomes a long-term game, sometimes even counting on the eventual sale of said equipment to make the whole thing worth the effort. I can provide my own projected savings, but that’s likely a deep topic for a different thread.

 

[maple1]

No kidding, it’s not even close to free. I may be operating at a pace a little different than most here, trying to fell, haul, and process 10 cords of wood on my own in just a few free Saturdays each year, but I currently estimate my total costs specific to wood burning at $50k - $52k over the last nine years. But even with that investment, I’ve never gone into the red, always being able to show savings over heating exclusively with my oil-fired boiler that exceed my expenses on wood.

For anyone that needs to buy or upgrade any equipment to support their wood burning, the payoff becomes a long-term game, sometimes even counting on the eventual sale of said equipment to make the whole thing worth the effort. I can provide my own projected savings, but that’s likely a deep topic for a different thread.

What kind of costs are you including in those numbers? That works out to almost $600/cord. Almost $6000 per year would buy a LOT of oil.

 

[Highbeam]

My choice was mini-splits. They have made a very big difference in the short time we've had them (14 months +). I don't think that will be the last add or change here - just kind of waiting to see how tech develops.

I'm also waiting for those split heat pump water heaters that they keep promising. Game changer.

 

[Ashful]

What kind of costs are you including in those numbers? That works out to almost $600/cord. Almost $6000 per year would buy a LOT of oil.

Only costs I would not occur if I weren’t burning wood. For example, I’d still own a pickup truck, but it would be optioned at $4k less without the need to pull my 7000 lb firewood trailer. I might even still own a small utility trailer, but it would likely be a $2k utility instead of the $5k tandem axle with winches and batteries, so I only counted $3k of that.

The big two are the tractor, and the stoves themselves. I recently upsized for a $35k tractor due to the size of the logs I’m skidding (often over 5000 lb each), whereas I’d have spent less than $10k on my tractor without wood burning. The current stoves and chimneys were $10k total, not even counting the three stoves I used and resold in my first few years.

But even with all that, I’m still in the black by $5k - $10k today, and gaining on that by an additional $5k to $8k every year. I expect my only expenses other than fuel in the next 10 years to be two more wood sheds at $1k each, and maybe one more saw at less than $1k.

 

[bholler]

Only costs I would not occur if I weren’t burning wood. For example, I’d still own a pickup truck, but it would be optioned at $4k less without the need to pull my 7000 lb firewood trailer. I might even still own a small utility trailer, but it would likely be a $2k utility instead of the $5k tandem axle with winches and batteries, so I only counted $3k of that.

The big two are the tractor, and the stoves themselves. I recently upsized for a $35k tractor due to the size of the logs I’m skidding (often over 5000 lb each), whereas I’d have spent less than $10k on my tractor without wood burning. The current stoves and chimneys were $10k total, not even counting the three stoves I used and resold in my first few years.

But even with all that, I’m still in the black by $5k - $10k today, and gaining on that by an additional $5k to $8k every year. I expect my only expenses other than fuel in the next 10 years to be two more wood sheds at $1k each, and maybe one more saw at less than $1k.

Well those costs are a bit extreme I am sure you could have spent much less on each part of that list. I have about $2000 in my wood truck and it is a dump and a plow truck. You could always cut your logs in half and use a smaller tractor. Or cut them to length and use no tractor. Not saying you didn't spend that much just that you didn't have to

 

[begreen]

IMO, and this is just my opinion, but eventually coal will stop selling. It is a fossil fuel with a one-way path, carbon taken from the ground, transported, and burned, putting that carbon in the atmosphere. It is not renewable, wood is. Coal ash and smoke are acidic and can contain toxins and heavy metals. Environmentally it is not an ideal source of heat. I'm not dissing anyone for using coal, they're looking for cheap reliable heat, but it's being phased out and will become more costly as the carbon debt of fossil fuels becomes more aggressively discouraged.

 

[bholler]

IMO, and this is just my opinion, but eventually coal will stop selling. It is a fossil fuel with a one-way path, carbon taken from the ground, transported, and burned, putting that carbon in the atmosphere. It is not renewable, wood is. Coal ash and smoke are acidic and can contain toxins and heavy metals. Environmentally it is not an ideal source of heat. I'm not dissing anyone for using coal, they're looking for cheap reliable heat, but it's being phased out and will become more costly as the carbon debt of fossil fuels becomes more aggressively discouraged.

It is also getting more and more expensive to mine high quality coal. Yes part of that is due to regulations but it is also just the fact that they are having to go deeper and deeper to get it

 

[Ludlow]

That carbon came from the environment when it was being deposited eons ago. Just a thought.
Yes, coal will eventually run out. By then maybe we will have nuclear reactors in our basements, that heat and light our homes, and charge our cars. There will be collections of spent rods at the town hall on Sundays. Spent fuel will be blasted to the dark side of the moon. We will all be fine.
Humans will adapt.

 

[bholler]

That carbon came from the environment when it was being deposited eons ago. Just a thought.
Yes, coal will eventually run out. By then maybe we will have nuclear reactors in our basements, that heat and light our homes, and charge our cars. There will be collections of spent rods at the town hall on Sundays. Spent fuel will be blasted to the dark side of the moon. We will all be fine.
Humans will adapt.

Yes it came from the environment originally but we are releasing thousands of years worth of carbon in decades.

 

[Highbeam]

Meelions of years.

 

[bholler]

Meelions of years.

Well yeah probably but I wanted to be sure not to exaggerate