Ok here's an update in 2023. The key this year is redundant systems because anthracite coal is so high ($410) a ton. I have 4 redundant systems in which to heat the house. Two systems can be used with no electric and all 4 can be used with electricity. I have been forced into burning firewood during the day (14 hrs) and I burn the coal at night.I have only been through 3/4 of a ton so far. I can augment the heat supply with a hot water furnace powered by fuel oil when it's really cold and also my two Mr Cool Mini-splits during mild temps above 20 degrees. Now for neigh sayers that like to bash my stove for being inefficient. It only burns 15 pieces of wood in 14 hrs, and the stove only burns one 5 gallon bucket at night (10 hrs) Oh and I power my electric systems with my on grid solar system. When electric goes down I have a small inverter generator and a Pro Trans2 manual switching system.
Stove might be inefficient compared to the new ones but that's fairly true of anything these days. It's certainly more efficient than an open fireplace. Plus, welll seasoned firewood is better for the environment than less seasoned firewood. Multiple energy systems is the way to go, using the one that costs the least at the time.
Question for you, I have a coal stove (franco belge) that uses pea coal. I can get a good deal on a ton of nut coal. Is there any risk or benefits if I use the nut coal instead of pea?
@@jreg0028 I'm not really familiar with that brand but I'd say it depends on the size of the grates. If they are super small you may have problems shaking the ash down....I'd experiment with a couple of bags and see how it goes before you buy tonnage of coal
In Belgium, the cheapest anthracite coal (100%) I can buy will cost me about €900/ton ($ 960) and that is for the small stuff (12/22). You'd be lucky to find some decent sized anthracite (20/30), even if you could afford it. Of course, this is without delivery. You have to go and get it yourself in 25 kg bags. Maybe someone will deliver it, but you better grab deep into your wallet for that. I use mostly compressed wood briquets, because they're still somewhat affordable, and for the really cold days I use my stockpile of coal. Luckily, I bought it when it was affordable and should have enough for 3 or 4 winters...
If you have a dual use stove that burns wood and coal, when you burn coal after burning wood, the heat from the coal will burn off the creasote in the chimney liner
It's not so much the heat from the coal but the chemical makeup of the smoke, it drys and crystalizes the creosote.. I tend a pressurized magnum coal boiler that my step-dad built and since we can't get coal this year it's really gummed up. Still works fine with wood but a nice coal burn would sure clean it up
i have a harman mark 1 coal stove, when i first bought it, i thought it wasn't gonna heat much cause of its small size, the best coal stove ever!, runs over 24 hours if i want it to go out, i top it off in the morning, and when i get home from work for normal run time, one turn of the air knob, my house is over 100 degrees, , very happy running stove, super eazy to clean, super easy to start, super easy to run, i have to open the door when its below freezing for 30 mins to cool the house, i needed a stove for my basement, bought the harman mark 3, for the size, cause i will be burning wood mostly, and coal when i'm lazier, price per ton where i live is $380 a ton, pea coal for the mark 1, nut coal/ wood for the mark 3
@@plnthrd new england, yes there is a war on fossil fuels unfortunately, my house is electric heat, still much cheaper than paying for electricity at this point in time
@@ethanbailey3799 wow....I guess the price is based on transportation from PA or WV....yea last year electric was fairly cheap so I took advantage of my solar power and Mr Cool heat pumps to supplement my heat... thankfully I can use multiple sources
We burn both , makes for a longer burn time to sleep without having to get up to load stoves..? 2 stoves burned 6 mixed hardwood cords and 1 ton of coal all last winter . 2.200 square foot house . This year we installed a old timer cook stove with warmer and water tank in the mudroom next to our kitchen . That should make for a warm and cozy kitchen all winter long and save on electricity..?
yea I went through 4 cords and 1/12 tons of coal last winter. Thankfully I also have solar and pay nothing for electric all year long so I added two Mr Cool Units and they work great for a/c and heat so i can extend my time before lighting off the stove in the fall and spring
Options are good. How does the mass rocket stove fit into the equation? I know in parts of Russia they use massive stoves that sometimes even have a sleeping surface on it. The mass of these stoves stores a great deal of heat so that it heats even after the fire dies down.
Here in America only one manufacturer of a rocket stove has been approved so far for indoor use. I know mass stoves have been used in many countries for years especially in Adobe homes. But with America's strict building codes and strict EPA and insurance regulations I doubt they will ever be accepted here
I’m lucky I suppose. Clean coal is $44 per metric ton here in Mongolia. However it’s subsidized and we get an allocation of 150kg per week roughly from mid September to mid-May which are the heating months in Mongolia. We can keep the extra we don’t need for the colder months. Firewood is available too but it costs about 4x more by weight and is probably half the energy. So about 8x more expensive per BTU. Also when it’s -40C/F at night in December and January, who wants to get up several times in the night to top up the furnace which is next door in a shipping container. We used electricity for heating last winter and it almost bankrupted us. About $400 for a month (December 2022). The power station uses coal to generate electricity so none of it’s clean energy. Well, there is a small amount of solar and wind but it’s insignificant in the scheme of things.
This is the best synopsis of coal versus wood that I've heard yet and I'm 73 and have been burning solid dinosaurs for over 40 years. As a kid in the 50's we had a coal burner and bin in the basement so in my case nostalgia and sentimentality are the reasons I like burning coal. I have used wood in the past but with having lived through two chimney fires I stopped that. I also have a pellet stove as a backup in case our other heating system malfunctions. A few more pros and cons about coal I'd like to add if I may. Pros: Coal doesn't attract mice and insects like wood does. Animals won't nest in it, eat it or chew it. When brought into the house there's no hitchhiking bugs or animal scat to deal with to contaminate the indoors. It's much neater and cleaner when transporting into the house - no twigs, leaves, branches, sawdust that has to be swept up. It's easily bucketed and contained. Coal, when burned properly is an even, steady heat. Experienced folks like myself can start a coal fire and keep it burning continuously for a whole season. Cons: Coal burning tends to deteriorate metal chimney pipe much faster than wood. So, for new installations or replacement chimneys the cost is much much higher for stainless steel-lined stovepipe, adaptors or any metal chimney parts. Of course that's up to the homeowner to decide which pipe to use. "Clinkers" - sometimes burnt coal will harden into a lumps called "clinkers" that'll jam the grates while shaking down the daily ash. I've had them, not sure why it happens but sometimes I've had to shut the stove down and start it up again from scratch. Coal burning generally needs more tending than a wood fire - you have to "shake down" the ashes at least once, many times twice daily and load the stove with fresh fuel to always keep a bed of red coals. I have to agree with you on all you've stated like the fact that coal prices have risen sharply. I paid $200 at ton a few years ago and now it's $300 from a local guy. Our local Tractor Supply sold coal for $8.00/40 lb bag a few years ago, now it's 12.99. Lastly, thirty years ago there were at least six places to buy coal here in Western NJ/Eastern PA. One place even allowed you to load up your own and pay by weight. Now there's only one, a local supplier who'll deliver. I'm praying that he outlives me because when he's no longer available it'll be the end of an era and I'll be done using coal. Maybe the November election will determine whether us poor folks/fixed income types can keep burning the stuff. Thank you for a well thought out video and for taking the time to share your wisdom and experience with us.
i use bituminous almost exclusively these days in my hitzer 254. $110/ton and it will roast you out of the place. i have several cords of wood out back and use it only on 40 degree plus days. coal is king. love the smell of coal burning. i dump the ashes on my gravel driveway.
I have loads of white oak on my property. It burns like hellfire. Highest BTU hard wood in existence. I just burn it. Yes it costs money to saw it, split it, haul it, store it etc but I don’t mind because it keeps me warm. I have a buck model 80 catalytic wood stove. I’m still young, when I get old I doubt I’ll be able to keep cutting and processing it. I’ll switch to something else then. Also a wood fire smells nice.
Great video! I would like to add that another pro of coal is the long, consistent heat which is another con of burning wood, I call it "peak and plummet" of wood, the temperature never remains consistent like coal.
Wood stoves will always make more smoke than a coal stove, too many variables, type of wood moisture content etc. At my age harvesting wood is now a chore that I don't enjoy
@@denverbasshead as does mine, minimal might be one thing but coal makes no smoke whatsoever, so my initial statement stands " wood always makes more smoke than coal"
ASH, ASH ON COAL IS 24% OF ORIGINAL AMOUNT FUEL..GREAT JOB..HAVING TROUBLE WITH GETTING PALLETS THIS YEAR..THESE GREENIES HAVE DESTROYED THE COAL SUPPLY..STAY WELL.IN MAINE...BTW 700$@ 2300 LB
How many tons of coal would you say you use a year? I live in anthracite region in PA and have the same Harman stove as you. I'm really considering making the switch.
Anywhere from 4 to 6 tons a year depending on how cold it is but you have to understand I like my house warm in the winter the living room is constantly 75 to 80°
that white dust on the glass from the coal burn is easily wiped off with a paper towel and water, no biggie! Watch my video on cleaning the door glass when burning wood
4:15 let's remember that the powerplants in most countries (not china) have scrubbers on the chimney stacks that remove everything except the co2 and water that are exhausted.. but yes I do still agree with what you said
William you really need a dedicated coal stove because you need shaker grates to control ash....you can burn wood in a coal stove but you really need the grates to burn coal. Not sure I'd want to haul coal around in a caravan either
Central Pennsylvania, November 1st Anthracite nut coal $385/ton. Here is a question for y'all: Why is home heating oil much more expensive than gasoline? And gas is much more expensive to produce.
Yea it's pretty much a Northeast kinda fuel.....MD PA Northern Appalachia a little bit of Ohio...the farther you go outside of there, the transportation costs kill ya
I believe they have coal sales in Kentucky. I have a big old 35 year old Craftstove woodstove with a fan. I have it going now and last night too. It's pretty heavy duty but probably not something I'd want to shovel coal into. If I had a protective grid or pan I'd put a few handfuls in there for sure. We get down into the thirties and forties here and sometimes colder. I can't believe Tractor Supply doesn't have a few bags in the state. @@plnthrd
my friend has to replace his double wall chimney every so often because the , i guess acid from the coal eats it. after the season he cleans it and slobbers water and baking soda in it to counter the acid.
@@davevann2925 actually the fly ash from anthracite coal isn't acidic it's alkaline..... bituminous coal is primarily acidic but each can be corrosive.... I've never had a problem with mine...now at the end of this year I will have my chimney cleaned for the first time in 20 years because I have been burning wood during the day
Average cost per gallon of oil in my area Is $7per gallon and around $3000 per 275 gallon tank and that may only last a month so coal is way cheaper and our coal supplier is less than half a mile from us and I live next to the railroad where coal trains run through regularly so you'll always find it lying around glad we use coal along with wood now especially because we can use it without power and my state is already rationing heating oil because of a shortage of it coming into the local port near the Hudson river.
@@plnthrd that's about the price if you buy coal bagged around my area but we have major railroad infrastructure in my area of new York state that ships it in on the regular from the mines and I'm right next to a secondary rail that our fertilizer packing plant uses to park their fertilizer cars and if I wanted to I could get a permit from CSX rail and I could even order coal by the car load
I got my burned ordered at the weekend, they told me not to burn wood and coal together.... I had no idea! My Dad would always burn both together at weekends.....
Let's try something, comment with your state, and how much coal is per ton and oak firewood is a cord, and fuel oil is per gallon for the 2022/2023 season
I'm in the U.K. prices here have gone through the roof compared to last year 2021. Anthracite coal £600 per ton. Columbian house coal for open fires £750 per ton!!!! Hardwood logs £150 per cubic metre (3.6 cubic metre in a cord? Approx £500 a cord?) Heating oil approx £1 per litre........and don't start me on gas and electric......
@@plnthrd Central New Hampshire here and in May 2021 Green Cord wood was $200 per cord. $225 @ cord for green for the last 5 years Cut Split and Delivered. We burn 5 cords like clockwork. We won't start the wood furnace until November 1st and shut it down in sometime in March. I added pellet stove into the mix just to check it out since some of the kids are moving out and I never did like the stacking and re-stacking and all the cord wood games that I have been playing since I was a kid. I like the laziness it provides from not having to stack in the sun, de-stack to shoot some down the bulkhead and re-stacking in the basement but the heat output on the pellets is not quite there come January for someone who lives in a somewhat large house built nearly 150 years ago. October 2022 I ordered 4 pallets of VT softwood pellets @ $355/Ton. 1 pallet stove coal @ $525/Ton from these guys way at Harris Energy in Northern NH. $360 delivery charge but they do park these pallets wherever you want them and they seemed to be the only guys around doing Pellets and Coal. Prices today per their website Feb 2023 same VT softwood pellets @$395/Ton and the stove coal is $625/Ton still better for me then their cost on Heating Oil is #2 Heating Oil is $4.59 per Gallon and K1 Kerosene is $6.09 per Gallon. Just getting into burning the coal I grabbed a bunch of bags a few years back . Nice and steady just add 10 roughly 10 pounds 3 or 4 times a day and hit the shaker grate to keep the ashes from blocking the air flow and remembering not to stir the hot coals up like you would want to do in a wood fire seems to work best for me. If you overload it refueling or stir up the coals at all they tend to snuff itself out pretty quick in my experience.
@@plnthrd stoves other than Hartman Draft dial in back that let’s the infeed air in to fuel the stove works off a spring like the old caborators do in cars. Adjust the air intake as they heat up. The lower the heat the more they open up. The hotter it gets it closes up depending where you have the dial set
I've burned for over 20 years and only burned coal a handful of seasons. I'd love to burn more coal but wood is more convenient for me. I greatly prefer coal.
(20+ years w\Harman TLC-2000). Just paid $560.00 in Jan 2023 for a ton. (my first ton delivered in Oct 2022 was $450). Getting expensive (Democrat🤡’s war on fossil fuels) but worth every penny and still cheaper and heats better than Oil… Floats the house temp between 72-76 degrees all winter. 😅 Love those “Black Diamonds”. Burn baby burn!
People used to subscribe to junk mail and use it for heat. You can easily get 10# of it, delivered every day for free. Add in scavenging scrap wood and burnable trash, save it up during warm weather, and it will heat you all winter.
funny you say that, I burn almost all house trash (paper) and even plastics aka petroleum in my stove to either light the stove or for heat, the ultimate recycling
In Belgium, the cheapest anthracite coal (100%) I can buy will cost me about €900/ton ($ 960) and that is for the small stuff (12/22). You'd be lucky to find some decent sized anthracite (20/30), even if you could afford it. Of course, this is without delivery. You have to go and get it yourself in 25 kg bags. Maybe someone will deliver it, but you better grab deep into your wallet for that. I use mostly compressed wood briquets, because they're still somewhat affordable, and for the really cold days I use my stockpile of coal. Luckily, I bought it when it was affordable and should have enough for 3 or 4 winters...
Wow that's expensive!.... I picked up some of those compressed wood bricks also just try them out they were $7 for 12 of them.... Do you have any idea where the anthracite comes from that you're burning in your country?
You can burn wood in all coal stoves, but you can't burn coal in all wood stoves. It's not so much a heat rating as it is a mechanical issue. Coal needs a grate to burn on where air can circulate up through the bed of coals, typically a wood stove doesn't have a grate at the bottom
My stove is a replica made in Thailand. It has a grate but my concern is the cast iron thickness. Will my stove handle coal? It burns wood no problem. Help
Here's a really cool chart, just plug in the costs for different fuels in your area to find out the best deal per btu coalpail.com/fuel-comparison-calculator-home-heating
@@plnthrdBituminous coal equal to anthracite coal is available for $90 per ton at the mine is Sparta, Illinois in bulk, shipping from that point is extra.
@@theraptureisnearbelieveinj448Thanks for the kind comment. I'd still do a wood/coal combo stove, I'm NOT in love with the Harman Mark III however, it has a lot of poorly designed flaws. If you go with a split use stove I doubt it could have a catalytic combustor however
my local coal supplier has told me that the reason my price has gone up so much is that the coal mines are shipping over to Europe where they can get up to $1000 a ton!
@@dimmacommunication At least, once you've bought the coal, you know exactly what you've paid for it. With gaz... prices fluctuate so much that nobody really knows what the exact bill will be at the end of the year.
Wood is actually considered carbon neutral as your burning fuel that is already in the carbon cycle. Where as coal is putting carbon into the atmosphere from carbon that has been locked up millions of years ago.
It's only been declared by the EPA carbon neutral since 2018, just another move by the left to bolster the wood pellet businesses. How can it be carbon neutral when all you end up with after the burn is carbon? But it sure makes carbon Monoxide!
@@plnthrd when you put more CO2 in the atmosphere, plants grow more. That’s why greenhouse operators use CO2 generators. It’s also why total biomass on the planet is at an all time high. Then the plants turn it all into oxygen and hydrocarbons. It’s called the carbon cycle. Net ZERO! Read up.
@@plnthrdThe wood ash left after the fire has gone out is full of carbon that, within our life time, was once carbon in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Burning wood is actually carbon negative. This is a fact regardless of what any organisation declares.
Ok here's an update in 2023. The key this year is redundant systems because anthracite coal is so high ($410) a ton. I have 4 redundant systems in which to heat the house. Two systems can be used with no electric and all 4 can be used with electricity. I have been forced into burning firewood during the day (14 hrs) and I burn the coal at night.I have only been through 3/4 of a ton so far. I can augment the heat supply with a hot water furnace powered by fuel oil when it's really cold and also my two Mr Cool Mini-splits during mild temps above 20 degrees. Now for neigh sayers that like to bash my stove for being inefficient. It only burns 15 pieces of wood in 14 hrs, and the stove only burns one 5 gallon bucket at night (10 hrs) Oh and I power my electric systems with my on grid solar system. When electric goes down I have a small inverter generator and a Pro Trans2 manual switching system.
Stove might be inefficient compared to the new ones but that's fairly true of anything these days. It's certainly more efficient than an open fireplace. Plus, welll seasoned firewood is better for the environment than less seasoned firewood. Multiple energy systems is the way to go, using the one that costs the least at the time.
@@billb945 at my age I'm not replacing it....lol
Question for you, I have a coal stove (franco belge) that uses pea coal. I can get a good deal on a ton of nut coal. Is there any risk or benefits if I use the nut coal instead of pea?
@@jreg0028 I'm not really familiar with that brand but I'd say it depends on the size of the grates. If they are super small you may have problems shaking the ash down....I'd experiment with a couple of bags and see how it goes before you buy tonnage of coal
In Belgium, the cheapest anthracite coal (100%) I can buy will cost me about €900/ton ($ 960) and that is for the small stuff (12/22). You'd be lucky to find some decent sized anthracite (20/30), even if you could afford it.
Of course, this is without delivery. You have to go and get it yourself in 25 kg bags. Maybe someone will deliver it, but you better grab deep into your wallet for that.
I use mostly compressed wood briquets, because they're still somewhat affordable, and for the really cold days I use my stockpile of coal. Luckily, I bought it when it was affordable and should have enough for 3 or 4 winters...
I have the same harman stove bought in,97..never realy knew how to burn coal until I watch you videos...thank you...im getting 15 hrs of burn...
I'm jealous......I only get about 6 hrs
If you have a dual use stove that burns wood and coal, when you burn coal after burning wood, the heat from the coal will burn off the creasote in the chimney liner
It's not so much the heat from the coal but the chemical makeup of the smoke, it drys and crystalizes the creosote.. I tend a pressurized magnum coal boiler that my step-dad built and since we can't get coal this year it's really gummed up. Still works fine with wood but a nice coal burn would sure clean it up
Thank you. Very helpful video. Tom
i have a harman mark 1 coal stove, when i first bought it, i thought it wasn't gonna heat much cause of its small size, the best coal stove ever!, runs over 24 hours if i want it to go out, i top it off in the morning, and when i get home from work for normal run time, one turn of the air knob, my house is over 100 degrees, , very happy running stove, super eazy to clean, super easy to start, super easy to run, i have to open the door when its below freezing for 30 mins to cool the house, i needed a stove for my basement, bought the harman mark 3, for the size, cause i will be burning wood mostly, and coal when i'm lazier, price per ton where i live is $380 a ton, pea coal for the mark 1, nut coal/ wood for the mark 3
Yikes! $380 a ton?...was that last year price? I'm almost afraid to price coal this year...what area are you in?
@@plnthrd new england, yes there is a war on fossil fuels unfortunately, my house is electric heat, still much cheaper than paying for electricity at this point in time
@@ethanbailey3799 wow....I guess the price is based on transportation from PA or WV....yea last year electric was fairly cheap so I took advantage of my solar power and Mr Cool heat pumps to supplement my heat... thankfully I can use multiple sources
@@ethanbailey3799 I think redundancy is the key to surviving this war on fossil fuels until more level headed people get into office
We burn both , makes for a longer burn time to sleep without having to get up to load stoves..? 2 stoves burned 6 mixed hardwood cords and 1 ton of coal all last winter . 2.200 square foot house . This year we installed a old timer cook stove with warmer and water tank in the mudroom next to our kitchen . That should make for a warm and cozy kitchen all winter long and save on electricity..?
yea I went through 4 cords and 1/12 tons of coal last winter. Thankfully I also have solar and pay nothing for electric all year long so I added two Mr Cool Units and they work great for a/c and heat so i can extend my time before lighting off the stove in the fall and spring
Options are good. How does the mass rocket stove fit into the equation? I know in parts of Russia they use massive stoves that sometimes even have a sleeping surface on it. The mass of these stoves stores a great deal of heat so that it heats even after the fire dies down.
Here in America only one manufacturer of a rocket stove has been approved so far for indoor use. I know mass stoves have been used in many countries for years especially in Adobe homes. But with America's strict building codes and strict EPA and insurance regulations I doubt they will ever be accepted here
I’m lucky I suppose. Clean coal is $44 per metric ton here in Mongolia. However it’s subsidized and we get an allocation of 150kg per week roughly from mid September to mid-May which are the heating months in Mongolia. We can keep the extra we don’t need for the colder months.
Firewood is available too but it costs about 4x more by weight and is probably half the energy. So about 8x more expensive per BTU.
Also when it’s -40C/F at night in December and January, who wants to get up several times in the night to top up the furnace which is next door in a shipping container.
We used electricity for heating last winter and it almost bankrupted us. About $400 for a month (December 2022). The power station uses coal to generate electricity so none of it’s clean energy. Well, there is a small amount of solar and wind but it’s insignificant in the scheme of things.
Wow that's awesome
This is the best synopsis of coal versus wood that I've heard yet and I'm 73 and have been burning solid dinosaurs for over 40 years. As a kid in the 50's we had a coal burner and bin in the basement so in my case nostalgia and sentimentality are the reasons I like burning coal. I have used wood in the past but with having lived through two chimney fires I stopped that. I also have a pellet stove as a backup in case our other heating system malfunctions.
A few more pros and cons about coal I'd like to add if I may.
Pros: Coal doesn't attract mice and insects like wood does. Animals won't nest in it, eat it or chew it. When brought into the house there's no hitchhiking bugs or animal scat to deal with to contaminate the indoors. It's much neater and cleaner when transporting into the house - no twigs, leaves, branches, sawdust that has to be swept up. It's easily bucketed and contained.
Coal, when burned properly is an even, steady heat. Experienced folks like myself can start a coal fire and keep it burning continuously for a whole season.
Cons: Coal burning tends to deteriorate metal chimney pipe much faster than wood. So, for new installations or replacement chimneys the cost is much much higher for stainless steel-lined stovepipe, adaptors or any metal chimney parts. Of course that's up to the homeowner to decide which pipe to use.
"Clinkers" - sometimes burnt coal will harden into a lumps called "clinkers" that'll jam the grates while shaking down the daily ash. I've had them, not sure why it happens but sometimes I've had to shut the stove down and start it up again from scratch.
Coal burning generally needs more tending than a wood fire - you have to "shake down" the ashes at least once, many times twice daily and load the stove with fresh fuel to always keep a bed of red coals.
I have to agree with you on all you've stated like the fact that coal prices have risen sharply. I paid $200 at ton a few years ago and now it's $300 from a local guy. Our local Tractor Supply sold coal for $8.00/40 lb bag a few years ago, now it's 12.99.
Lastly, thirty years ago there were at least six places to buy coal here in Western NJ/Eastern PA. One place even allowed you to load up your own and pay by weight. Now there's only one, a local supplier who'll deliver. I'm praying that he outlives me because when he's no longer available it'll be the end of an era and I'll be done using coal.
Maybe the November election will determine whether us poor folks/fixed income types can keep burning the stuff. Thank you for a well thought out video and for taking the time to share your wisdom and experience with us.
@@mariofilippi3539 I'm going to call my supplier this week to get the price this year....just in time for a Halloween scare!
i use bituminous almost exclusively these days in my hitzer 254. $110/ton and it will roast you out of the place. i have several cords of wood out back and use it only on 40 degree plus days. coal is king. love the smell of coal burning. i dump the ashes on my gravel driveway.
I have loads of white oak on my property. It burns like hellfire. Highest BTU hard wood in existence. I just burn it. Yes it costs money to saw it, split it, haul it, store it etc but I don’t mind because it keeps me warm. I have a buck model 80 catalytic wood stove. I’m still young, when I get old I doubt I’ll be able to keep cutting and processing it. I’ll switch to something else then. Also a wood fire smells nice.
Great video! I would like to add that another pro of coal is the long, consistent heat which is another con of burning wood, I call it "peak and plummet" of wood, the temperature never remains consistent like coal.
Great point!
1 bag of pellets will get 18 plus hours of consistent heat depending on model.
Wood stoves today shouldn't have any smoke when burning properly. Also harvesting wood and getting it ready to burn is a great feeling
Wood stoves will always make more smoke than a coal stove, too many variables, type of wood moisture content etc. At my age harvesting wood is now a chore that I don't enjoy
@@plnthrd I could see the age factor, it is a lot of work, but my point about minimal smoke stands
@@denverbasshead as does mine, minimal might be one thing but coal makes no smoke whatsoever, so my initial statement stands " wood always makes more smoke than coal"
@richcasino9486 yup.....1year plus a little for maple and cherry...2years for oak
Another con for wood is that it has to be seasoned at least a year.
ASH, ASH ON COAL IS 24% OF ORIGINAL AMOUNT FUEL..GREAT JOB..HAVING TROUBLE WITH GETTING PALLETS THIS YEAR..THESE GREENIES HAVE DESTROYED THE COAL SUPPLY..STAY WELL.IN MAINE...BTW 700$@ 2300 LB
Wow my ash content is about 50-75% of original size
@@plnthrd I DO,4 ,,50LB BAGS TO 1 BAG ASH..I USE KIMMEL'S COAL.I AM HAVING LOTS TROUBLE GETTING COAL HERE IN MAINE.STAY WELL
I don't know but I get anthracite coal from Pennsylvania and OMG $700 for little over a ton....is that this year's price?
@@plnthrd ABASHAWN HARDWARE IS ASKING 700$@2300LB,NO DELIVERY..I BEEN PAYING 470$ @2500LB,DELIVERED.
ITS KIMMEL'S COAL FROM PA..
HANG IN THERE..TY
How many tons of coal would you say you use a year? I live in anthracite region in PA and have the same Harman stove as you. I'm really considering making the switch.
Anywhere from 4 to 6 tons a year depending on how cold it is but you have to understand I like my house warm in the winter the living room is constantly 75 to 80°
don't forget with wood the temp tends to swing where coal is steady all the time coal by me is $525 plus delivery so i burn wood presently
Yea coal is so high here that I'm burning wood during the day and coal overnight
DS basement 4, Burn antracite coal , no smoke, load every 12/ 24 hours
what is ash flash om my glass does it come from wood.. white fog and it cant be cleaned
that white dust on the glass from the coal burn is easily wiped off with a paper towel and water, no biggie! Watch my video on cleaning the door glass when burning wood
4:15 let's remember that the powerplants in most countries (not china) have scrubbers on the chimney stacks that remove everything except the co2 and water that are exhausted.. but yes I do still agree with what you said
Well you should only burn 🪵 wood in a wood burning stove . You can burn coal and wood in a multifuel stoves.
Mark III can run both fuels
I'm looking to install a burner in my caravan. Can I burn coal on a wood burner! Thanks, Will
William you really need a dedicated coal stove because you need shaker grates to control ash....you can burn wood in a coal stove but you really need the grates to burn coal. Not sure I'd want to haul coal around in a caravan either
Wonderful! Thank you for replying. Have a wonderful evening, thank you! 🙏🏻
Your instruction has been helpful,
Thanks Rich
Depends if wood has to be bought or not ? !
@@SheldonRunkle true, but it's never truly free unless it has been bucked and split
If the ash is a carcinogen how do you dispose of it?
Central Pennsylvania, November 1st Anthracite nut coal $385/ton. Here is a question for y'all: Why is home heating oil much more expensive than gasoline? And gas is much more expensive to produce.
Agree with everything in this video own mutifuel stove for 30 years.
There's no where to buy coal in South Carolina, even at Tractor Supply stores.
Yea it's pretty much a Northeast kinda fuel.....MD PA Northern Appalachia a little bit of Ohio...the farther you go outside of there, the transportation costs kill ya
I believe they have coal sales in Kentucky. I have a big old 35 year old Craftstove woodstove with a fan. I have it going now and last night too. It's pretty heavy duty but probably not something I'd want to shovel coal into. If I had a protective grid or pan I'd put a few handfuls in there for sure. We get down into the thirties and forties here and sometimes colder. I can't believe Tractor Supply doesn't have a few bags in the state. @@plnthrd
Did you totally miss the most important con for wood?
It rots. You have a hard time storing it for 10 years.
Lol...I don't know anyone that burns wood that lets it sit for 10yrs
Does the chimney ever "rot" the chimney out?
huh?
my friend has to replace his double wall chimney every so often because the , i guess acid from the coal eats it. after the season he cleans it and slobbers water and baking soda in it to counter the acid.
@@davevann2925 actually the fly ash from anthracite coal isn't acidic it's alkaline..... bituminous coal is primarily acidic but each can be corrosive.... I've never had a problem with mine...now at the end of this year I will have my chimney cleaned for the first time in 20 years because I have been burning wood during the day
Yes, after many years mine got small holes in it in various places.
Average cost per gallon of oil in my area Is $7per gallon and around $3000 per 275 gallon tank and that may only last a month so coal is way cheaper and our coal supplier is less than half a mile from us and I live next to the railroad where coal trains run through regularly so you'll always find it lying around glad we use coal along with wood now especially because we can use it without power and my state is already rationing heating oil because of a shortage of it coming into the local port near the Hudson river.
Man are YOU lucky!! Best of luck this winter....how much is coal?
@@plnthrd my area last I checked coal is anywhere from $175 to $250 a ton and a cord of wood is about the same.
@@lesackerman9271 wow those prices are pretty good in Maryland a cord of oak is 300 and a ton of coal is 405
@@plnthrd that's about the price if you buy coal bagged around my area but we have major railroad infrastructure in my area of new York state that ships it in on the regular from the mines and I'm right next to a secondary rail that our fertilizer packing plant uses to park their fertilizer cars and if I wanted to I could get a permit from CSX rail and I could even order coal by the car load
@@lesackerman9271 yea I get it, whatever source you pick, transportation seems to be the driving factor in the pricing
I got my burned ordered at the weekend, they told me not to burn wood and coal together.... I had no idea! My Dad would always burn both together at weekends.....
Burn ordered? You have to start a coal fire with wood.... I'm confused
Can u run coal in any cast iron wood stove ?
I'd lean towards saying no because you need a shaker grate and a way to get air underneath the bed of coal
No. You can burn wood in coal stove but not other way around..
Coal burns hotter
Let's try something, comment with your state, and how much coal is per ton and oak firewood is a cord, and fuel oil is per gallon for the 2022/2023 season
I'll start out North Central Maryland coal $407 a ton, oak firewood $300 a cord, fuel oil (in the early fall) was $3.90 a gallon
I'm in the U.K. prices here have gone through the roof compared to last year 2021. Anthracite coal £600 per ton. Columbian house coal for open fires £750 per ton!!!! Hardwood logs £150 per cubic metre (3.6 cubic metre in a cord? Approx £500 a cord?) Heating oil approx £1 per litre........and don't start me on gas and electric......
Northern NJ at the PA state line, coal up to $415 some places a ton, we don’t use wood anymore, but hardwood pellets are around $320/ ton
Missouri - Ozarks - $450 a ton for anthracite - $250-$300 a chord hardwood.
@@plnthrd Central New Hampshire here and in May 2021 Green Cord wood was $200 per cord. $225 @ cord for green for the last 5 years Cut Split and Delivered. We burn 5 cords like clockwork.
We won't start the wood furnace until November 1st and shut it down in sometime in March. I added pellet stove into the mix just to check it out since some of the kids are moving out and I never did like the stacking and re-stacking and all the cord wood games that I have been playing since I was a kid.
I like the laziness it provides from not having to stack in the sun, de-stack to shoot some down the bulkhead and re-stacking in the basement but the heat output on the pellets is not quite there come January for someone who lives in a somewhat large house built nearly 150 years ago.
October 2022 I ordered 4 pallets of VT softwood pellets @ $355/Ton. 1 pallet stove coal @ $525/Ton from these guys way at Harris Energy in Northern NH. $360 delivery charge but they do park these pallets wherever you want them and they seemed to be the only guys around doing Pellets and Coal.
Prices today per their website Feb 2023 same VT softwood pellets @$395/Ton and the stove coal is $625/Ton still better for me then their cost on Heating Oil is #2 Heating Oil is $4.59 per Gallon and K1 Kerosene is $6.09 per Gallon.
Just getting into burning the coal I grabbed a bunch of bags a few years back . Nice and steady just add 10 roughly 10 pounds 3 or 4 times a day and hit the shaker grate to keep the ashes from blocking the air flow and remembering not to stir the hot coals up like you would want to do in a wood fire seems to work best for me. If you overload it refueling or stir up the coals at all they tend to snuff itself out pretty quick in my experience.
Love your stove. Great video.
I'm interested in coal but don't know what the options are for coal ash disposal?
It can be a problem if you don't have a large property it is a known carcinogen
@@plnthrd We dump our ash in the gravel driveway and rake it out but I have a large property and no neighbors.
@@kmb957you are very lucky!
I just bag mine, let it sit a few weeks to be sure there are no hot coals, then dispose in the garbage.
Can’t wait to you do your next video. How to burn coal. I have a few questions. Wich one is better. Manual air infeed. Or. Auto air infeed
yes i need to address that also, thanks for the reminder!
not sure what the terms that you are using mean..are you referring to auger feed vs manual feed?.
@@plnthrd stoves other than Hartman Draft dial in back that let’s the infeed air in to fuel the stove works off a spring like the old caborators do in cars. Adjust the air intake as they heat up. The lower the heat the more they open up. The hotter it gets it closes up depending where you have the dial set
@@rickyamsbaugh7397 gottcha, I'm not familiar with them the Harman only has one air bleed
did you get to see the final video ricky?
I've burned for over 20 years and only burned coal a handful of seasons. I'd love to burn more coal but wood is more convenient for me. I greatly prefer coal.
(20+ years w\Harman TLC-2000). Just paid $560.00 in Jan 2023 for a ton. (my first ton delivered in Oct 2022 was $450).
Getting expensive (Democrat🤡’s war on fossil fuels) but worth every penny and still cheaper and heats better than Oil…
Floats the house temp between 72-76 degrees all winter. 😅
Love those “Black Diamonds”. Burn baby burn!
How long does the liners last on a coal insert?
liners meaning firebrick?
I tried using Indonesian coconut shell briquets. They are amazing, last longer and have way less ashes than coal and woods. Have you tried those?
Where do you buy this? Does it go in a wood stove or coal stove?
People used to subscribe to junk mail and use it for heat. You can easily get 10# of it, delivered every day for free. Add in scavenging scrap wood and burnable trash, save it up during warm weather, and it will heat you all winter.
funny you say that, I burn almost all house trash (paper) and even plastics aka petroleum in my stove to either light the stove or for heat, the ultimate recycling
In Belgium, the cheapest anthracite coal (100%) I can buy will cost me about €900/ton ($ 960) and that is for the small stuff (12/22). You'd be lucky to find some decent sized anthracite (20/30), even if you could afford it.
Of course, this is without delivery. You have to go and get it yourself in 25 kg bags. Maybe someone will deliver it, but you better grab deep into your wallet for that.
I use mostly compressed wood briquets, because they're still somewhat affordable, and for the really cold days I use my stockpile of coal. Luckily, I bought it when it was affordable and should have enough for 3 or 4 winters...
Wow that's expensive!.... I picked up some of those compressed wood bricks also just try them out they were $7 for 12 of them.... Do you have any idea where the anthracite comes from that you're burning in your country?
have you tried Indonesian coconut briquets?
@@julesherman6802 never heard of them
Can you use this kind of coal in a typical wood stove? Or is the heat rating a problem? Just curious.
You can burn wood in all coal stoves, but you can't burn coal in all wood stoves. It's not so much a heat rating as it is a mechanical issue. Coal needs a grate to burn on where air can circulate up through the bed of coals, typically a wood stove doesn't have a grate at the bottom
@@plnthrd thank you for the info!
My stove is a replica made in Thailand. It has a grate but my concern is the cast iron thickness. Will my stove handle coal? It burns wood no problem. Help
@@markweber5296 I think the bigger question would be is.....if you burn out a grate can you get a replacement?
Isn't coal brutal on your cast iron or steel burner? I have a modern wood stove and clean out my chimney once every fall, and with almost no smoke
well the coal does burn hotter over a longer time. but the cast iron holds up very well
Planning on lining mine with 1/2" ceramic blanket
Using anthracite exceeds temperature that often cause's cast iron to crack. Look it up. It's over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.
@@colbolt54 I never let it get that hot 600 is the hottest I've ever burned it.
@@colbolt54 wood also burns well over 1000 degrees
I burned wood for 6 years now I burn coal and sell my firewood 😀
Now there you go!
Heating is an exchange of money for BTU's. Coal hands down is the best way to save money.
Here's a really cool chart, just plug in the costs for different fuels in your area to find out the best deal per btu coalpail.com/fuel-comparison-calculator-home-heating
@@plnthrdBituminous coal equal to anthracite coal is available for $90 per ton at the mine is Sparta, Illinois in bulk, shipping from that point is extra.
@@theraptureisnearbelieveinj448Thanks for the kind comment. I'd still do a wood/coal combo stove, I'm NOT in love with the Harman Mark III however, it has a lot of poorly designed flaws. If you go with a split use stove I doubt it could have a catalytic combustor however
Here in my country coal is super expensive , that would be a big NO 😅 otherwise the coal fire looks magic
my local coal supplier has told me that the reason my price has gone up so much is that the coal mines are shipping over to Europe where they can get up to $1000 a ton!
@@plnthrd Yeah basically that's the street price here , I will stay with Gas 👍😅 I can regulate it much better
@@dimmacommunication that's insane!
@@dimmacommunication At least, once you've bought the coal, you know exactly what you've paid for it. With gaz... prices fluctuate so much that nobody really knows what the exact bill will be at the end of the year.
Why is your fire not flickering there seens to be no life there. ?
Lol... really?
Yeah, it looks like a printed image of a fire 😄
Coal doesn't flicker, it glows. Very different than a wood fire.
In a survival situation I would use wood anytime if the week unless of cause the world get chard then you have radio active coal everywhere 😃
Wood is actually considered carbon neutral as your burning fuel that is already in the carbon cycle. Where as coal is putting carbon into the atmosphere from carbon that has been locked up millions of years ago.
It's only been declared by the EPA carbon neutral since 2018, just another move by the left to bolster the wood pellet businesses. How can it be carbon neutral when all you end up with after the burn is carbon? But it sure makes carbon Monoxide!
@@plnthrd when you put more CO2 in the atmosphere, plants grow more. That’s why greenhouse operators use CO2 generators. It’s also why total biomass on the planet is at an all time high. Then the plants turn it all into oxygen and hydrocarbons. It’s called the carbon cycle. Net ZERO! Read up.
@@plnthrdThe wood ash left after the fire has gone out is full of carbon that, within our life time, was once carbon in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Burning wood is actually carbon negative. This is a fact regardless of what any organisation declares.
i like wood its free
Well the wood itself might be free but it's not free to cut it up in your labor and all that
@@plnthrd Well, they say wood heats you twice: one while cutting, once while burning. :)