Coal availability (Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, Durango: environment, for sale, vacation)

[gregabob]

I'm planning on moving to the Peyton area next year, and was researching different home heating methods. I'd like to use a coal furnace/stove, due to the high cost of propane, and the fact that natural gas is not available at many of the properties I'm looking at. Rice coal is easy to get in Pennsylvania, but how about CS/Peyton? I've done some research online, but haven't found many links to coal dealers in CO. With all the coal mines in CO., I thought I'd have had better luck!

[Bob from down south]

If you're really bad, Santa might leave you some in your stocking!!

Bob

[COflower]

Coal to heat homes? Not a likely thing. That went by the wayside back in the early 1900s.

Most homes in Peyton and in other areas of El Paso county - outside of Colorado Springs proper - are heated via propane. Big old tanks that you have to fill just like getting the septic system cleaned out every month or so.

Other alternatives are pellets (which you can look up) so it's a cleaner fuel than something as archaic as coal.

Now, had you lived in the house I owned, back in the early 1900s there was an alley designated just for coal delivery. Not happening in 2007.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by COflower

Coal to heat homes? Not a likely thing. That went by the wayside back in the early 1900s.

That depends on what part of Colorado you live in. There were a number of towns that had significant percentages of coal-heated homes, businesses, and govenment building well into the 1980's. When I lived in Gunnison in the 1970's, probably half of the homes in town were still coal heated. The college used natural gas as their primary fuel but would switch to coal when their gas supply was "interrupted" (they got a favorable gas rate if they promised to switch to coal if gas demand from other gas company customers got too high in cold weather). Most businesses still had coal furnaces. Travel around western Colorado and some areas in south-central Colorado and you will still find homes with coal stoves, or coal furnaces with the old Stokermatic automatic stoker. I am in western Colorado as I write this, and I can smell coal smoke right outside the door--right now!

There aren't too many mines that still produce lump or stoker coal for sale. A couple I know are in the North Fork Valley of Gunnison and Delta counties. The coal mine near Durango is still producing lump coal. There are probably a few dealers around who still get coal from those sources, though I doubt any dealers are around Colorado Springs.

[COflower]

jazzlover - huh. I would never have thought that any homes in 2007 would be coal heated, even in remote places.

Propane is the main source of heat outside the bigger cities. Heck, when I lived in Grand Junction, they replaced the natural gas meter while I was on vacation. I had to have them come out and turn it back on (I'd been camping - read that as stinky woman) on 4th of July.

Anyhow, coal is a stinky and is really bad for the environment. Other than major providers of electric like Colorado Springs, I can't see many uses for coal these days in a home.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by COflower

jazzlover - huh. I would never have thought that any homes in 2007 would be coal heated, even in remote places.

Propane is the main source of heat outside the bigger cities. Heck, when I lived in Grand Junction, they replaced the natural gas meter while I was on vacation. I had to have them come out and turn it back on (I'd been camping - read that as stinky woman) on 4th of July.

Anyhow, coal is a stinky and is really bad for the environment. Other than major providers of electric like Colorado Springs, I can't see many uses for coal these days in a home.

Old-timers will tell you that coal heat was a very "warm" heat. Psychological, probably, but a coal-heated house does seem "cozy." Yes, it's dirty. I worked in a building that had been coal-heated for years, but had been converted to gas probably 20 years before I started to work there. Every time I would dust my office, I would still get soot on the dust rag.

Funny, though, one of my endearing memories of living in Gunnison was the smell of coal smoke on a cold morning, and the musty smell of wet clinkers. People would shake the grates of their furnaces every morning to clean the fire, and would dump the clinkers in the alley to melt the snow there. They worked quite well for that (the city also used them to "sand" the streets). The only bad thing--nobody went barefoot in the alleys or streets in the summer. Walking on clinkers is like walking on broken glass.

We may have to get used to coal again, someday. Long after petroleum and natural gas become scarce and unaffordable, there will still be a lot of coal around . . .

PS--They still make coal furnaces--like this one: http://www.vogelzang.com/NorsemanFurnaces.htm

[gregabob]

Thanks for the replies-I've found that modern coal stoves,like anything else, are much more efficient and cleaner burning than they were before. Plus I like the idea of using domestic sources of energy to heat my house. I did some research, and Pennsylvania alone has a 200 years supply at current production rates. It's just getting the 'rice' coal to the Springs is the challenge. I'll probably have multifuel capability,depending on the price and availability of different fuels. I like coal because of the very high BTU content per pound. I'm planning on a visit in late January for a taste of winter weather---thanks again!

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by gregabob

Thanks for the replies-I've found that modern coal stoves,like anything else, are much more efficient and cleaner burning than they were before. Plus I like the idea of using domestic sources of energy to heat my house. I did some research, and Pennsylvania alone has a 200 years supply at current production rates. It's just getting the 'rice' coal to the Springs is the challenge. I'll probably have multifuel capability,depending on the price and availability of different fuels. I like coal because of the very high BTU content per pound. I'm planning on a visit in late January for a taste of winter weather---thanks again!

Wyoming's coal reserves make Pennsylvania's look small. Wyoming currently ships around 65 unit trains per DAY, and--at those production rates--they have somewhere around a 400 year supply (approximately 11,000-13,000 tons per train--do the math). One particular Wyoming mine produces more coal per year than all of the mines in Colorado produce per year--and Colorado is in the top 10 of coal production in the US.

[Mike from back east]

I recall one home heated with coal...from my childhood, 50+ years ago or more. Took the B&O train from Baltimore to central WV to visit one of Mom's relatives, Stanley Barker, down in Glenville, WV. Stan had an old coal stove in the old family farm house. Neat thing was that Stan had a seam of coal coming up right behind the house, no kidding, all he had to do was take a pick out there and chop out a chunk. I recall that place was COZY that night, despite the blowing snow outside.

I also recall his old hand-cranked milk separator on the covered front porch, and the hogs that got out during the night... Stan was a great guy, never married, went to church weekly and was a WW-2 vet. Stan turned down a Purple Heart....seems he jumped in a foxhole when shooting started during the Italian Campaign, but a half-pint bottle in his hip pocket busted and cut his ass, requiring stitches. His Sergeant put him in for the PH but he declined it.

Used to heat lots of homes in Baltimore with coal, still see the metal doors on the front of row homes, wagons or truck would back up and dump a ton or two down the front chute. The coal bins got ripped out and replaced with oil tanks, most of which have been ripped out and replaced with natural gas lines.

[awoods2]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Wyoming currently ships around 65 unit trains per DAY, and--at those production rates--they have somewhere around a 400 year supply (approximately 11,000-13,000 tons per train--do the math).

A couple of things. 1) 55-65 trains a day is what one of the big two (UP and BNSF) ship. So depending on the day between 100 and 130 load coal trains come out of the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. Unit train can be up to 18000 tons of coal. (150 cars X 120 tons of coal per car). Anyway a lot of coal.
2)Wyoming coal is a lot different than eastern coal. There are a lot of different types of coal. Do a lot of research find out what type is best, and what types will work.
I will talk to some people, I remeber the masons we had on some projects in the Springs used coal to keep there sand pile from freezeing. I will have to see where they got it.

Adam