Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Burning Coal Instead of Wood

Our wood stove has a shaker grate and removable ash pan below, which seems to be a couple things a coal stove must have. So my question is, can I burn coal? And what's the difference in quantity, we use about 4 cords per year, how much coal would that be? I'm fairly close to where I can buy coal, so just wondering if there is an advantage to it over wood.

You need to have someone who is an expert on coal-burning stoves look at your stove and especially the flue and chimney structures.

Coal stinks!! Smells up the house and the neighborhood.

Coal burns hotter than wood, so your stove may not like it. I use coal for forging steel in the blacksmith forge, it can get real hot.

Ya ain't seen a mess until you have coal dust in the house and on the carpets. They call it carbon black for a reason.

Besides all that, way back in the 50's Dad burned coal in the big stove in his auto repair shop. Toasty warm!

Listen to VA. Only a hand full of stoves out there are either/or and many people never even consider the chimney as a weak point.

I have a coal boiler that I built a Shed/bin for in a spot that I originally planned to have an outside wood boiler. As far as smell goes; the only way I can tell that its burning is the heat mirage rising from the chimney.

Coal is difficult to keep burning if the system is not calling for a lot of heat and I switch back to fuel oil (the original boiler that is still in my basement) when the temperature gets warmer.

You say you burn only four cords of wood a year which is only about twenty percent of what most people who heat with wood up here typically use so my guess would be that you'd use less than a ton of coal (I use around 6 tons during the heating season).

The advice about having a pro look at your system is sound, wood and coal are not that similar in how they burn.

When I first started deer hunting in the early 60's the camp had a military mess tent with a potbellied stove. During the day wood was used, but in the evening we switched to coal. Coal definitely increased the heat output. I never remember any black ash being deposited in the tent. Obviously, due to the increased heat the stove & flue have to be rated accordingly. If, your stove is capable the heat increase should be significant. Cost would be difficult to evaluate since you may be getting wood for free. The clean up is more messy as stated.

How do you ignite coal? I'm guessing that matches and newspaper aren't going to cut it.

You need more than a shaker grate and a ash pan. You need a good stove liner, either cast iron or firebrick, and the right draft system.

If operated correctly a coal stove is not that dirty in the house as some may think. If you have a good chimney setup for woodburning now there should not be any problems with a coal fire.

I have been looking at converting to coal, also. Many of the Amish in the county burn coal and I have visited a couple of homes that were set up. They are using Harmon and Hitzer coal stoves and are buying bagged anthracite coal from out east. Several of the Amish pool together and buy truckload quantities to keep the cost down.

The only downside to coal is the lack of that sweet woodsmoke.

Not to mention the OP will have to deal with 'clinkers'..

IMHO, he's better off with wood. That gets dirty enough in a house - coal will only be dirtier.. Then there's the issue of feeding - getting the right amount to maintain the right heat..

Wood is easier to keep even heat.. I've been burning wood for over 35 years.. We had a coal-fired boiler decades ago in my father's greenhouse. He burned about 30 tons/year - and we shoveled every bit of it into the hopper on that damn thing.. Twice a day we had to remove the clinkers. After they cooled we'd haul 'em up a stairway to dump out back.. The soot and dirt from that coal and that furnace permeated everything..

And I don't even wanna get into the few times it would 'backfire'..

I have a Hitzer 354 wood/coal burner in my place, and have burned a lot of coal over the years growing up. Bare minimum is fire brick lined, shaker grate, good ash pan, and a good flue. If you have all of that, then you need a good source of clean coal. I have had loads before that were more rock than they were coal. If you can get clean coal and have a good setup, I don't find it to be any more of a hassle/dirty than wood.

Re the question of how to light coal - I usually just put down a nice layer of coal in the bottom of my burner and then build a small wood fire with some kindling right on top of it. I leave the bottom door open to get things rolling and then cut back the draft once it is going.

We have a super insulated house and use very little fuel period, so maybe if we had to use more, it would create more dirt? IDK? YMMV

FWIW, I kind of like the smell of a coal fire? Must be strange. I like beans in my chili too!

My stove is a Tremont, which is made by Harmon, and it has fire brick liners. I will check with the manufacturer about the coal use. My flue/chimney is in great shape, very clean and intact. Wood is starting to get a bit hard to find at times, without paying the "suburban" homeowners price. I cut as much as I can, but I don't want to clear my woods out completely. When I see a "good deal" for wood for sale, the old saying of you get what you pay for is right. It's usually not the best stuff.

I'm only about 20 minutes from West VA, and I'm sure I can find a source for coal. I don't know what the cost is for it, but this is all just a thought process for next year. My grandparents used to burn some coal, mostly wood. I don't recall it being any more dusty/dirty than wood ash dust. I do love the smell of wood though.....

Wayne;

Without the technical inspection of the stove and chimney, you're literally playing with fire.

Also, check on nearby national forests and getting a permit to cut firewood there. My father did that for years; it may still be as cheap and as easy to get as it was back then.

I had a seam of crop line coal here on the farm, and used a couple chunks at night on the back logs, burns well with post and red oak, and Yes it was toasty warm all night.

But it also gives the house a tarry smell.

Gunner

I burned hard coal in the small VT Castings wood stove in the basement for a few years. What with all the work to carry the coal, the ashes and to start it and keep it going I am glad I stopped.

I got a grate kit and a 'magazine' to hold the coal above the grate.

If there was much of a smell we did not notice it.

One problem is that the ashes stay hot forever and after removal from the stove I kept them in steel pails until they cooled a day or so later. Then you don't want to dump that junk on your land so off to the dump it goes.

The way I got it started was to make a wood fire from kindling and then add coal to the top.

Years ago most houses in the city heated with coal. After the war more new houses came with oil fired furnaces.

Many houses then in my old home town of New Britain, CT were three family rents and every floor had their own coal burning furnace in the basement. There were barrels of ashes in trash cans on the curb for pickup.

fuel Density: --- Lbs --- Energy Content
Birch1 41.0 -- 3,485 -- 23,600,000 Btu/cord
Hemlock1 33.6 --- 2,856 -- 22,000,000 Btu/cord
White Spruce1 30 -- 2,550-- 18,100,000 Btu/cord
Sitka Spruce1 30 -- 2,550 -- 18,100,000 Btu/cord
Aspen1 28.4 -- 2,414 -- 16,600,000 Btu/cord
Tamarack2 38.2 -- 3,247 -- 16,000,000 Btu/ton
Black Spruce2 29.2 -- 2,482 -- 15,900,000 Btu/cord
Poplar1 25.5 -- 2,168 -- 15,000,000 Btu/cord
Cottonwood2 24.8 -- 2,108 -- 14,500,000 Btu/cord
Wood Pellets -- 16,000,000 Btu/ton
Lignite Coal3 -- 17,400,000 Btu/ton
Oil3 -- 134,000 Btu/gal
Electricity3 -- 3,413 Btu/kWh
Natural Gas3 -- 1,000 Btu/ft3
Propane3 -- 91,800 Btu/gal

If you were burning bituminous (soft) coal, I would agree with you. It is very dirty. My parents burned anthracite (hard) coal for years and there was minimal dirt. I love the smell of an anthracite coal fire.

I heat with a coal boiler, its plumed in series with a oil boiler.

As compared to wood I would venture that coal is about 30-50% more BTU dense, I buy my coal bagged by the pallet for about 240 a ton delivered. It takes about 1.5 ton to heat my 2500sqft home in CT and we usually heat to about 76-77 degrees. There is about a month in the fall and spring where we don't heat with coal and intermitantly run the oil on chilly mornings. As one poster said, its hard to run a very small coal fire, so rather than diddle with it we burn some oil in the shoulder seasons.

as to wood, well I have friends who tell me wood is free, but I get my heat for maybe 300-350 dollars/year and I takes me about 20 minutes to tell the guy where to drop it. I figure it would take several days for me to cut, split and stack the same amount of wood.



I think odor is coal dependant. probably about 2 days a month I can smell a faint sulpher smell down in the basement near the boilers, and I suspect there was just a touch of poorer grade coal that gets burned.

Coal produces ash, its dirty and a pain, I put it in garbage can and twice a month I carry it outside and dump it in our garbage collection thingy. Its an unpleasant 5 minute job. Our basement does stay dusty because of the coal, I think 95% of the dust comes from ash, while there is some coal dust its really a minor thing in comparason.

Not all the coal will burn completely and you will need to shovel out the clinkers from the firebox, I let the coal go out once every two-three weeks and do this. I could probably go 4-6 weeks, but sooner or later I forget to stoke the coal and it goes out. A really full load will go 24hrs in my house, but I usually shake the ash down and refill the firebox with coal twice a day, morning and night.

My coal lighting technique is sort of the opposite of Stush's. I use some newspaper and some small kindling and light a small fire, I give it about 5 minutes so its burning well and then I will load coal over it. It will take about 30 minutes to get the boiler up to temperature.

I think the boiler in the basement works pretty good, I would think one of those outside furnaces powered by coal would be great. We have a small old potbelly that burns wood and coal at the camp and its ok, but coal (and to a lesser extent wood)is dirty enough I wouldn't want to heat full time up here in my house. It turns out our house isn't very rustic and has cream colored wall to wall carpet in much of the first floor, it would be more doable if we had a more rustic place with wood floors.

Back to op, I would have your system looked at and if safe to do so buy a 10 bags and see if you like it.

Me too
It reminds me of my PA home

" We burn Anthricite! "

Used to see those signs in every store and office.

Kinda hard to compare each as there are cords, Kwh, ft3 ,gal, and tons.
I supect non of the woods mentioned would go a ton per cord.
Hardly any hardwoods mentioned, specifically oak, gives off lot more heat per unit.Around here,oak goes for 2-3 times what pine does.

Years ago when wood heat was really getting popular again( late70's around here),any wood stove could burn coal in it if had a grate. I supect any code rated triple wall chimny material could hande it.Most I know of did. My family heated with coal when I was growing up 1943 thru late 50's or so.It was bituminous soft coal. Some of it was strip mine coal that usally burned dirtier than deep mine coal that was washed.Std chimney at that time was brick lined with a terra cotta type liner. Some of them were just brick.

Up until about 5-8 years ago,my parents still burned coal at night in thier open fireplace and wood during the day.In the AM,they just stirred up the fire and then addded wood. That fireplace burnt 24-7 all thru the winter and the chinmey was straight brick.

It does smell some, but I would have no reservations about burning it in the stove the OP mentioned.Probably don't want to burn it with the draft full open. Coal can be banked down a lot easier than wood to make it burn longer,but cooler.

Unless the wood is free,I suspect coal would give more heat per dollar than wood.It also may depend on what part of the country you are in,whether coal is easily available or not. I heated with pine for about 15 years,as all we had was electric,expensive heat. The wood was free on my property except for the cost of chain saw,oil,fuel and time spent.The chimney had to be cleaned about twice per winter to keep from having chimney fires from the creosote.

Just like anything on the internet, a lot of folks chime in when they have never used it or very little. Very much like the guys who start off by saying I have never hunted or killed an elk,but!!!!