Pellet VS Coal Stoker

[shtrdave]

Was in a small hardware store and they have coal stoker stoves, Alaska I believe they were. the guy there said they are far better then pallets for heating, said could be direct vent/powervent so I would still not need a chimney.

Heat out put seemed to be better than my P43. I did not look into fuel price differences.

Anyone go from pellet to coal or coal to pellet? Thoughts on the coal stoves? I remember seeing them before, and did some internet searching, but really know of no one that owns one. I should have asked the guy at the store for a few references maybe.

 

[Mt Bob]

No readily available coal in lots of areas. But used to burn anthracite back in MD,years ago,loved it.

Anthracite & Bituminous Coal Forum - Residential & Commercial Heating | Coalpail.com Forum

Using anthracite or bituminous coal for residential and commercial heating.

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[MarkF48]

I still use coal occasionally in an old Warm Morning coal stove if the temps dip into the single digits for several days or if we lose power (full manual, no electric parts). The coal stove resides in the kitchen which offset from the main part of the house where we have a Harman pellet stove which takes care of most of the house on most Winter days. The coal stove can also take short pieces of wood if we want to take the chill off the kitchen at times.
The coal stove can throw off significantly more heat than the pellet stove and when loaded and properly attended to can burn easily through a night and into the morning. When I first started burning coal I had a trailer I would take to a local supplier and get about a ton and a half bulk loaded from a railside coal tower, take it home and shovel it into a coal bin in my cellar via a chute (old farmhouse had the bin and chute before I bought it to feed an old Crawford #21 coal furnace which I updated to an oil furnace). More recently I've bought coal in bags by the ton (current prices in Central MA... https://squierlumber.com/product-category/coal/ ). PA coal prices may be less.
I don't think I'd want to heat with coal full time. A stoker that is more automated would likely be easier to use than what I have, but coal ash and clinkers are more difficult to dispose of that wood pellet ash and the quantity of coal ash is significantly more than that from a pellet stove.

 

[shtrdave]

Yes I would be looking or comparing stoker stoves that work the same way as the pellet stove.