To burn or not to burn?

That's the way ours worked too. The damper which was located on the lower, ash clean-out door was a flat, roughly 8" square panel. I don't remember exactly how it worked but I do recall there was a small chain attached to it which ran to a lever on some sort of unit mounted on the ceiling. That unit was wired to the thermostat in the living room. When the temp dropped, the thermostat sent a signal of some sort to the basement unit which would lift the lever thereby opening the damper, allowing more airflow and stoking the coals.

 

I wouldn't even attempt to try it in a stove with no grates. The coal will get buried in the ash and on reload(air introduction) will ignite = massive amounts of smoke in house/back puff.
If your stove isn't rated for coal and has grates I definetLEE wouldn't try anthracite ,,,,, it will turn your grates into a molten pile of puss. I may try bituminous in a non rated for coal stove with grates BUT why chance it. My furnace is NOT rated for anthracite but is rated for Bituminous. I tried 3 bags of anthracite and knocked out/melted two middle fingers in the grate.I scrounged an old cast iron heat duct floor vent out of a dumpster, cut it to size and fit over existing eF'dup grate and it works well,,, actually better than stock grate as the holes are slightly bigger.
My furnace does well with Bituminous and have burned TONS of it. If anyone does try it , I would recommend putting a layer of wood in on coals before loading the coal. It will keep the coal from starting right away . Coal makes a massive amount of smoke on ignition. Don't let it ignite until door is shut. I actually pour 10-15lbs into a walmart bag and put in on a layer of wood. The bag keeps it in one place so it congeals together and burns a LOOOOONNNGG time. Then top off with wood. Think,,,, coal sandwich.

There is a reason for ratings that I had to learn the hard way. Don't learn the hard way.

 

I would get a copy of the stove manual and review it. Make sure your venting is also installed and rated appropriate for burning coal. If your conditions are compliant with the manual, then happy heating!
I used to burn some anthasite p coal. They are small hard nuggets that burn fairly clean. Gets really hot.

 

Thanks. It was more of a hypothetical than anything, I have no interest

 

I believe it's the sulpher that causes corrosion. I have a special made heavy gauge stainless chimney. Different type stainless and gauge than the standard box store light duty chit.
Had to replace it this fall. ( Had I removed bottom clean out cap over summers to avoid condensation buildup in bottom 1" of chimney would still be OK). Got poopooed pretty good in a thread on "the darkside" forum for burning coal and using a vented unlisted "homebrew" chimney. It works, has for many years, and is proven by me and many others.
In trying the anthracite vs bituminous ,,,, obvious visual emissions between the two are noticeable but negligible and all in the first 30-60 minutes of ignition. After ignition the smell and visual appearance is equal. Now maybe if an EPA "pollution sniffer" were hooked up it would tell a different story.

 

Coal dust sucks. That said I shovel into buckets from an outside bin and once inside pour into walmart bags in an attached but confined from house/living quarters, furnace room. Dust is minimal and non existent in house.
My coal is in a covered bin but if we have high winds some snow gets in the bin and dampens the coal. Despite what most might think coal burns well wet.

 

This is after a few hours of forging using coal. It takes a few days to get all of the fine dust out of my pores. I do love the smell of coal burning though.

 

I've never burned coal. Our wood boiler at the cottage is designed for coal and wood. It has grates at the bottom, and an ash tray underneath. Next time I go up north, which may be soon, I'll take some pics of the dual boiler ( one ng modern crown, and the wood boiler) hydronic setup my dad created. He used to sell, setup, engineer boiler systems.

Now, as to coal dust, I can speak about that. I was a foreign exchange student to Germany like 2 years after reunification. My host family was on the Baltic sea, very close to Poland in former East Germany. There was a huge difference in former communist Germany to the west. The one job I had to do while living with my family was shovel the coal they had delivered for winter heating season. I had to shovel it into the chute into the basement, and then shovel the coal from that shoot into a corner of the basement. It was summer, and very hot. At the time it was a record breakingly hot summer. The sweating I did made the dust stick to me. I was black, head to toe when I was done. They gave me a mask, but I'm sure it did little to keep that out of my lungs.
It took a shower, and a couple of hours playing in the ocean to get that off of me.

 

When I was a kid, I remember my dad buying "cantle coal" I tried to look it up but it comes up candle coal, don't know if that was just a nick name or it was a type of coal. We burned a chunk or two at a time in our fireplace, more for viewing than heat. I heard it burns hot and will melt a plate steel stove if over fired.

 

It will cause a steel stove to warp. Absolutely.

 

That sounds like alot of fun you had Horkn.

 

SO Ray, all the info about emissions has me wondering what I happening to the health of those on the Hawaiian Islands who are living downwind from the volcanoes on the Big Island -- there has been unremitting VOC/smog/ poor visibility for years now. Enough acidic fallout to kill lots of the plants. What is it doing to lungs and other tissue of residents???

 

Going to the beach nearly every day as a 17 yr old, drinking and being in a scooter gang was actually a pretty fun summer. Topless beaches too.