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Wood vs Coal
We still use anthracitic coal at our farm, it is widely known around here as 'nut coal'.
The problem the average person might have with burning coal is two-fold.
First the coal is capable of generating tremendous heat if given too much draft, the 'blast furnace' effect, similar to a blacksmith's forge. It will easily produce FAR more heat than the average woodstove is meant to take.
The second problem is that coal burning appliances are designed in such a way that the burning takes place on a heavy cast iron grate through which the ashes can fall into an ash pan below. Without this feature the ashes will quickly smother the heavy burning coal.
Coal oil is exactly that, they refine the coal and extract the oil, it is messy, sooty, smelly stuff. About the only good use UI have ever found for it was killing ticks on animals and burning in outdoor lamps to keep mosquitoes away from the patio. Kerosene is a petroleum distilate, it is a close relative of diesel & furnace oil.
Best of luck.
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Wood vs Coal
Grinder, our coal use is for a combination of both home heating and for heat in utility buildings.
In the houses, 3 of them, there is a combination of coal fired boilers and coal burning space heaters, two of the houses have cookstoves which also use coal.
The equipment is VERY old but still works like the day it was put in, which is both good & bad, dependinng on how you look at it.
Most of the coal consumed is the machine shed, our main workshop, it is 50' x 50' and is kept at a minimum of 50 deg. F. all winter long using a coal fired hot air unit. It is an extremely efficient unit, especially considering it's age. A magnetic thermometer on the flue pipe only a few feet from the unit barely ever moves off the end point.
Cost is lower than almost anything else we could use, especially as we buy in relative bulk. Years ago we built a 'bunker' for the coal, it is basically a building with a concrete basement but no floor into which the coal is dumped by opening a bay door and tipping the coal off the truck and into the hole. We get deliveries by a tri-axle dump truck. There is an auger built into the bunker which delivers coal to anything (wagon, truck, trailer, etc.) parked under it next to the building. We have a small wagon, like a grain bin, which is used to distribute coal around the farm with a truck or tractor, it gravity dumps into the coal bin at each location. The labour is minimal.
I think the slow steady burn of the coal makes for good efficiency, you get a lower heat output than say oil or gas, but it goes non-stop. You never get a fluctuation in temperature like with other types of heat, cold just as the thermostat kicks the burner on, sweating by the time it shuts off.
Best of luck.
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01-23-2004, 16:42 
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