I heated exclusively with a wood stove for over 30 years. I loved the house at 80 degrees all winter. We used about 3 cords per year, all free wood.

Then I got a wood/coal boiler. Since it involved heat transfer to a water jacket, I started going through more wood than I cared to cut, store and prepare every year. So, I now use 2 tons of anthracite coal in the winter and wood for the rest of the year. It's a very nice trade off.

You must live in pecan valley.. With the price of pecans I would think most residents would want to save most of the Pecan's by trimming them up to manageable tree (before the storm) and using the cloistral lower nuts for consumption...

"anthracite coal in the winter" don't you know the gov. has war on coal and you will have to buy you a wind turbine gen. to replace the coal and use elect. heater. You know this is all for the GREEN Revolution! "O by the way you electricity in Pa. and elsewhere will probably triple by 2015 and you will get carbon tax to boot.. But being from the great liberal NE your probably use to over taxation.

Yup, I just got three ton of anthracite delivered. Stuff is from Tamaqua PA. Just need a little more firewood.

Even with fuel oil level or dropping, coal/wood is by far the cheapest way to go. All set for another cold winter.

Tamaqua is from the lower coal pockets. It can be good or bad depending upon where they are mining. The consistently good stuff comes from farther north in PA. I pay $190 a ton for chestnut and use about $350 worth for heat and hot water for the Winter.

What is the brand of your coal burner?

Loger, outside of the large cities, PA is conservative. Not like New England at all.

Hi bayme. I have a Harmon SF 2500. Paid about $2700 four years ago, from Stoves and Stuff, Stroudsburg. Seems prices are up a bit since then. It's the iron content.

I burn 3 ton chestnut + 2 cords hardwood each season. Works well, warm and dry.

How can you tell good coal from bad coal??

Coal contains varying amounts of impurities, such as slate or shale. Anthracite is almost pure carbon, and as you know, makes no smoke. There are charts that will show you the btu content per pound of coal, depending upon which mine or area it came from.

Strip mining gathers coal from all different layers and it ranges from good, on downwards. Up in Mahonoy City, they set up a dragline machine that will not move for 20 years, just bringing up coal from stripping old mines. It also brings up old equipment and timbers from 150 years ago, which is separated at the breaker. The pieces of wood you find in your chestnut are old mine beams from that era.

Coal is separated into various qualities using water of a specific gravity. Anthracite floats, shale sinks, and the stuff in the middle gets redone. It might also end up at your stove, if somebody isn't watching the quality.

A ton of coal, $200, is equal to 180 gallons of fuel oil, $585, in heating value.

For loger, since I don't want to steal your post, anthracite is shipped all the way to the Rockies by Blaschak in Mahonoy City, PA. By the way, anthracite is only found in northeastern PA. in this country. And very few other places in the world.

Here is a picture of the coal separator at Blaschak.

Baymee, thanks so much for that.

I had wondered where the broken wooden pieces came from. They do look old. I guess that if there is shale in it, I'd know after a few fires. Presumably, the shale does change much even at 1,000 degrees, or whatever it is.

My retail coal guy is Mike from People's Coal, Stroudsburg. He says he have never had a problem with this coal from Tamaqua. This will be my third winter using it.

Downtown Jim Thorpe, PA. Imagine putting that in your basement ...

{{gwi:313156}}

I was the coal boiler specialist for a manufacturer for 8 years and always dealt with the public as the rep. When your ash looks unburned (black) and you know the pot was red hot, you can assume it's not coal.

Thanks baymee! This is some good Sharing of Info as far as IâÂÂm concerned.

I did get a good a chewing locally and replied. The words âÂÂFree Firewoodâ was recently misunderstood. âÂÂBeing RationalâÂÂ, âÂÂFreeâ will always include some of your personal work In My Opinion. Enough Said!

My last offer after I realized I had more wood than I had room or time for was 10.00 cut to BBQ specs and a bad Electric Poland chainsaw (if I had the needed parts). The fellow realized his friend had misled him vs me as on other trees. He apologized for taking my time and said, IâÂÂll take the half you want moved for 20.00 (if you will make 4 cuts due to no chainsaw). I surprised him with about 20 cuts vs him using his Sawzall.