Will the Anthracite Coal Industry find a revival? (Altoona, Johnstown: versus, bill)

[tremontpa]

The county actually just approved a plan from PPL to use both coal and natural gas. There will be two boilers for each fuel and the county will usee whatever fuel is cheaper at the moment. It is projected to save more than the honeywell proposal would have. Honeywell pulled its proposal anyway. I am really glad that the county is going to keep our coal.

[HappyRider]

Would have never thought people are still burning coal for heat, at home! How do you even do it? How do you even buy coal and where do you store it? They still make coal furnaces? Do you shovel the coal in like in Western movies?

[tremontpa]

Originally Posted by HappyRider

Would have never thought people are still burning coal for heat, at home! How do you even do it? How do you even buy coal and where do you store it? They still make coal furnaces? Do you shovel the coal in like in Western movies?

There are still coal furnace makers, you just have to know where to find them. Also, many of the furnaces still in use are decades old.
To buy coal all you need to do is contact a local mine or supplier and they deliver it straight to your home. The coal is usually stored in a chamber in the basement adjacent to the furnace. And No, you do not reed to shovel coal into the furnace regularly, the furnaces are self fed. The only thing that really must be done other than that is to empty the ashes once or twice a week.

hard-coal.com -- - An organization in Tremont that may help if interested in seeking coal as a heat source.

[thecoalman]

I'll explain, put on your reading glasses because this is going to be a long one.

Typically for those that are unexperienced with coal the first thing they think of is some sweaty guy in the depths of hell shoveling coal into some medieval looking monstrosity. They think of billowing black smoke, dirt and dust etc. That's not the case with anthracite coal and a "modern" stoker. Modern is in quotes because these designs have been around for more than half a century. That's not to say its perfectly clean, there is some dust involved with moving the ashes and the coal but this can for the most part be eliminated with caution and taking a few minor steps like dampening the coal before moving it. Isolation of a large boiler eliminates the dust problem all together, smaller stokers mean for inside the living space will be the most problematic. Overall from the consensus i gather from my forum members that have used wood or wood pellets in the past its not any more dirty that using either of those.

Bituminous coal found in Western Pennsylvania and just about every other state in the U.S. can resemble that description, it does produce a lot of smoke, soot and a powerful sulfury odor. What we are discussing here is anthracite coal which is the highest rank of coal. It's nearly 100% carbon. On the North American continent its only mined in Northeastern Pennsylvania, there are only a few other places in the world this type of coal is found. It burns with a bright bluish flame, cleanly without any smoke and you'll never smell it unless you get close to the top of your chimney. This makes it ideal for home heating. Fuel for residential and to some extent commercial heating is its primary use, it's also used as a medium for water filtration among other things.



Environmentally speaking the CO emissions are slightly greater than even Bituminous coal in a laboratory environment however unlike bituminous coal other emissions are very low and rival those of oil and gas and in some cases are below them. I'm just mentioning this for the benefit of those that are ultra environmentally conscious (although I think you're nuts ) because I don't want to give the impression that it does not produce the "dreaded" CO2 when I say it burns cleanly. That's really for another debate anyway and there are many other factors involved other than raw laboratory data.

Getting back to its use Anthracite coal is quite easy to manage and use, that's one of the benefits. There's two distinct types of units, stokers and hand fired stove. Stokers are the most popular type because these are automatic. They are not much different than any conventional heating system. Hand fired units are quite popular too and would be more like using a wood stove. Each has their advantages and disadvantages.

The stokers internally pretty much haven't changed in years, they are time tested design that work. There's really nothing to improve, they run around 80% efficiency but as high as 90%. You can't make it 100% because you need some heat escaping to maintain the draft in the chimney to pull the gases out.

There are three basic designs used in stoker units. One is auger fed with a firepot, there is the anthratube design and lastly the most common in smaller stokers the bed design. They all rely on the same principle, they force air through the coal. This is the boiler that's been in our basement for 25 years, it will be there for at least another 25. They are that durable.



As you can see other than the two doors on the front it looks no different than any furnace. This boiler uses an auger and firepot design, It's the Cadillac of coal furnaces. You'll notice the wood bin behind it, that space will hold enough coal to heat our 4000 sq foot home for about 1 year. Not shown is the auger, this is a pipe that comes out of the furnace into the bin. Inside the pipe is an auger that feeds the coal into the firepot inside the stove.


Here is newly assembled firepot for an EFM:



Note the holes inside the pot, this is where air is forced through to make the coal combust. Stokers do not rely on a natural draft. The pipe sized opening on the lower left is where the coal would enter via the auger. It feeds up from the bottom of the pot, as more coal is fed the ashes spill over the sides into ash can below. Basically all you need to do is put coal in one side and take the ashes out of the other. You can find a complete pictorial of the EFM assembly from start to finish by here:

Pictorial of all DF520 Stoker Parts and Assemblies - e-f-m Heating

Axeman-Anderson and AHS make another type based on the athratube design which was part of a study, this is the one that can achieve the highest efficiency. It was introduced after WW2 in part in an attempt to help save the anthracite industry. This too employs an auger feed.

Bureau of Mines Report 4936 Axeman-Andersen Antratube Boiler - Coal Stokers: Boilers, Furnaces and Stoves

Lastly there is the bed type, these use a hopper on the side of the furnace or the stove. They are used in both large boilers and the more common smaller hot air stokers. This is a smaller keystoker made for supplementary heat. These typically are 90KBTU though and can provide most of the heat in a 2000 sq ft. home providing you get it to circulate well, Note that there is hopper on the back you fill and the coal is fed from there:


They also make a large boiler, note the hopper on the side.


This what it looks like, the coal is pushed from the back and off the end into an ash pan:





These stokers are thermostatically controlled. They will ramp up or down depending on the demand for heat. It's no different than any other furnace except for the little bit of work. Typically during the coldest days of the winter you will need to add coal about every 2 days and take the ashes out. Overall not more than few minutes each day to keep it going.

Hand fired stoves as already mentioned are very similar to wood stoves. they use a shaker grate system. These generally need to be attended too once every 12 hours, in comparison a wood stove needs to be refueld ever 4 or 5 hours. The benefit of having a stove like this is they don't need electricity to run. If the power goes out in your area frequently this would be an ideal solution. Here's a picture of shaker grate, this is from a unit EFM will be reintroducing:



This grate sits in the bottom of a firebox, twice a day you will need to shake the coal down to get rid of the ashes and add new coal. The combustion is controlled via the draft, you can turn the heat up or down by adjusting the amount of air. These are not like stokers with on demand heat. If for example you put more air on the coal it will take up a length of time to ramp up. Turning it back down takes even longer. Most people find an appropriate setting and just leave it there and do there twice a day routine.

Ran out of room for images, see next post.

[thecoalman]

Most of the hand fired stoves are smaller and meant for supplementary heat but again they have a very high BTU output and can provide most of the heat especially in a smaller home. BTU's will vary by model.

Larger hand fired boilers are pretty rare but they do exist. Harman makes one and EFM is reintroducing a model because of the demand for them that they stopped production on nearly 30 years ago . Here's some pictures of the prototype. Note that the insulated jacket that will come with the production model is not pictured. This unit will also be able to burn wood. :








The maintenance on either a hand fired stove or boiler is pretty limited. The biggest part is cleaning the flue. When you burn coal fly ash will accumulate inside the flue on any horizontal plane and in the bottom of your chimney. If you do not clean this out it the flue pipe will eventually get blocked and flue gases will back up into your house. You will most likely die of CO poisoning if this happens. I'm Not trying to scare anyone and this can happen with any type fuel you burn in your home but due to the fly ash it does happen with coal more fequently. This is the only safety concern with coal and in every instance that I'm aware of it was due to no maintenance. Coal has been burned in homes for better than a century and its safety record is outstanding.

For larger boilers this is usually a once a year chore and may take an hour or longer. Ours has an enormous flue pipe and a lot of room in the chimney cleanout and could probably go at least 3 years. Ours is trivial to clean because of the way we set it up. No more than a few minutes because the flue pipe does not have to be removed from the furnace. How often you need to do this will vary by manufacturer, the smaller stokers are usually recommended to be cleaned out once a month because they have much lower tolerances than the larger boilers. It will vary and you can adjust your schedule as needed.

Other maintenance will be cleaning it out if you shut it down for the warmer weather. On the boilers and stokers there is other minor maintenance that has to be performed occasionally like putting a few drops of oil on the motors but overall its only an hour at most per year.

Another benefit of a coal fired stoker/stove is the Domestic Hot Water coil which can be purchased separately. This provides domestic hot water or you can pre-heat the cold water before it enters the hot water heater. We run our large boiler year round for this reason. From about mid May until September we burn about 1 ton of coal. This provides us with domestic hot water. It's on par with using other fuels if not cheaper during this time f the year. During the winter its practically free. This continuous burning will also prolong the life of a large boiler significantly and cuts down on maintenance costs. On our setup we pipe the hot water into the hot water heater, this is on a thermal siphon loop. The hot water naturally circulates from the coil inside the furnace into the hot water heater continually replenishing the lost heat. The hot water heater rarely ever comes on, its not much more than a glorified storage tank. The other benefit of this setup is endless hot water and the hotw water haeter acts as a buffer between the scalding hot water produced by the coil. The boiler is fully insulated and is so efficient stack temperatures are minimal so heat going into the basement during the summer is minimal. During this time of the year you'll have to take the ashes out every week and half.

Here's some links to the major manufacturers of stokers and stoves in Pennsylvania:

Leisure Line Coal Stoves - Automatic Coal Stoker Stove Home Heating Systems
efm Heating - Coal Heat - AF Coal Heater / Coal Furnace - The Coal Stoker-Fired Warm Air Furnace
Keystoker
AHS Coal Stoker Boilers
Axeman-Anderson - Anthratube Coal Boiler
Alaska Stove - Home
Harman Stove Company - Add Beauty and Warmth to Your Home. Pellet Stoves, Wood Stoves, Coal Stoves, Gas Stoves and Fireplaces, Fireplace Inserts

I think thats a pretty complete list but I may have forgotten one. Each of these companies make an outstanding product. You will not be disappointed in any of them, which one to to look at really depends on your needs and budget and other considerations. Sit down and decide what you want and need. The cheapest start under $2K and you can spend in excess of $10K for a very large boiler with installation costs. It's a solid investment though, you will be able to use one of these for decades with minimal repair and proper maintenance. In the case of the boilers you can will it to your grandchildren. The initial investment can be significant however it will pay for itself in a very short time with reduced heating bills.

The coal itself can be purchased from either the breaker by yourself or you can have it delivered. Prices will vary but summer prices were around $130 per ton for self pick-up and $160 a ton delivered. The costs have risen slightly since then. You can also purchase in bags but be aware this will double the cost. It's far cheaper to have someone deliver it to your house than what it would cost to purchase and pick it up yourself at a retail outlet in bags. There's plenty of dealers, check the Yellow pages or you can peruse this topic on my forum:

http://nepacrossroads.com/about1043.html

As far as cost goes I already mentioned its the cheapest fuel available. It's even cheaper than wood if you're paying market value for the wood and its most definitely easier to use. Costs have risen a little recently but this is due to increased costs for diesel fuel and other energy costs used to produce and move it. Coal historically has not been subject to the wild fluctuations in price such as other fuels. For the last few decades you generally have a modest price increase at this time of the year, generally you'll also have a slight decrease in the spring. Adjusted for inflation according to my records going back to the 80's the average cost per ton is actually a few dollars less now. This winter will decide if anthracite can maintain that track record.

The coal can be stored anywhere, either inside your house, outside etc. You can dump it on the ground and leave it there for 20 years and use it then. It may lose some oomph over those years but its not much. Moisture has no effect on it even if you throw it in stoker or stove wet.

In conclusion there is one more benefit. This is a product of NEPA as well as the stoves and stokers themselves. The money you spend on the fuel or on purchasing one of these units stays right here. Support your local economy and burn premium Pennsylvania Anthracite.

There's a wealth of information on my forum and plenty of people willing to give hand: Anthracite Coal Forum

[HappyRider]

Coalman, you have posted a treasure chest of information! I did not (and still don't) know much about coal. I remember the first time I saw coal I didn't even recognize it. I was riding through Shamokin where I noticed a huge "hill" on the side of the road. I am sure if I was driving I may not have noticed it. You really have to look to know you are in "coal country". I did not know how central coal was to Pennsylvania's economy and how deep it has embedded itself in region's psyche and culture. I get a feeling that people view coal with some degree of reverence and nostalgia. So central it has been to their livelihood for so long. I was riding through Ashland the other week and noticed those wind mills. Interesting juxtaposition of old and new but I doubt anyone gets emotional about wind mills though. I hope coal can make a come back.

[thecoalman]

Unless that pile was next to processing plant or next to a working mine it was most likely a culm bank. This is the waste product that they get after separating the coal from the rock and sub standard product. After more than a century of mining and very heavy mining at the turn of the century these banks dot most of NEPA. They may not be visible in a lot of places because of overgrowth but they are there. The other reason you may not see them is because they are right in front of your eyes, some of these banks are enormous and are now part of the landscape.

Many of them still contain usable product. What they'll do if there is enough usable product in the bank is set up "mobile" processing plant to extract any coal left in the pile. This product is used to fuel co-gen plants. They'll contour and reclaim the land when they are done. The ash generated by these operations is used to fill stripping mines which can be huge scars on the land. Some are very deep and very dangerous.

If your from Wilkes Barre you would have seen one of these operations when going across the Cross Valley heading into Wilkes Barre on the left hand side just after the river. The bank is gone and so is the plant. That plant was actually located in Plains where they ran a bank through there, they then moved it to the Wilkes Barre location. If my information is correct they sold it for scrap after completion of the bank in Wilkes-Barre. The entire project must of lasted at least 10 years.


The plant is still viewable on google maps: wilkes barre - Google Maps

Here's alink from about 3 or 4 miles up the road where the first worked before moving there:wilkes barre - Google Maps

Anthracite is very dark and shiny compared to the banks you'll see:

[HappyRider]

That chunk of anthracite makes for great conversation piece. How can I get some? Souvenir shops perhaps?

[tremontpa]

To get some anthracite I would reccomend you just take a hike in the woods surrounding Tremont, Pottsville, Minersville, or Tamaqua and pick yourself out a piece or two. (there are many old mine sites in the State Game lands around Tremont) Another option is to go to the souvenir shop at the Pioneer Tunnel in Ashland, they are bound to have some.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by HappyRider

That chunk of anthracite makes for great conversation piece.

I took a piece nicer than that out to Phoenix for a buddy of mine that was a school teacher and it made a good conversation piece out there. Not so sure it will make a good conversation piece around here unless they aren't local.

As suggested if you go out into a old mining area you'll find some.