heating in nepa (Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre, Jessup: house, contractor, calculator)

[unionjack3902]

Can anyone give me some idea of the best alternative to gas/oil heating. I've seen folks use coal and wood pellets? Used to live in New Hampshire where winter temps got well below 20 deg for the entire winter and a LOT of 20 to 30 below temps also, used to burn wood there in a new wood furnace so I'm used to the "old fashioned way" I'm seeing "seasoned" wood for $125/cord and up, is this usually a full cord, 4/4/8 or what I call a face cord 4/whatever cut length/8. Looking at a house in jessup and finding the heating with gas is about $500.00/month, seems kind of high for a 1200 sq ft house even with little to no insulation (which I will be remedying quickly)

[thecoalman]

Coal.

There's literally hundreds of options available from small 40KBTU inserts to 1 million BTU fully automated boilers.

$125 for full face cord sounds very cheap, be sure to check it's not quote for face cord which is 1/2 to 1/3 full cord. Even at that cost it's about equal to coal. Coal has a lot of benefits over wood, it's easier to use, far less mantence, longer burn times for hand fired stoves, no creosote so no fire hazard... about the only thing better about wood or wood pellets is less ash.

There's calculator here for doing comparisons, you'll need to find out what the rates are in your specific area. If you know what the cost is per unit of natural gas fill in the first part and you can use the second to get an estimate on what it would cost for a variety of fuels based on $500 for natural gas.

Fuel Comparison Calculator for Home Heating

Keep in mind bulk delivery is half the cost of bagged coal. Less space for storage too, you can store 3 tons in the same are 1 cord takes up and that is equal to about 3.6 cords of wood.

Any more specifics just ask, be happy to answer them.

There's more information on my forum here:

Energy, Anthracite & Bituminous Coal, HVAC

[ki0eh]

What do you do with home coal ash? (Link to the forum seems not to be working.)

[thecoalman]

The ash is considered clean fill, I know it gets bad rap but the elevations of toxins in it are not that much greater than common dirt. Locally many boroughs/cities will still pick them up. If not the refuse collector will usually provide this service for a fee, usually for a yearly charge. I think my Grandmother pays $125 extra each year.

If you live in a rural area it can be used for filling in just about anything, works good for roadbeds especially if you already have gravel down it works fantastic as filler to firm up surface. It provides excellent material for concrete mix. Some have used it for "Dirtcrete" which is where you mix a small amount of portland with it and let it set. This can be used to firm up soft spots in land, dirt basements or even to firm up a dirt driveway. Not exactly a concrete driveway but for small traffic areas with light loads it will work good.

I've been experiencing some problems with server the last 2 weeks perhaps you visited when it was down.

[RurNEPA]

We tried the pellet route. We bought a stove, and put it in our basement since there wasn't really a great place for it in the living area. In the end, we don't get enough heat out of it. We're going with an outdoor wood burner (which I'm sure you can't do in Jessup) next year.

[jimazee]

Originally Posted by ki0eh

What do you do with home coal ash?

Not relevant today, but old timers remember people tossing ashes from coal stoves on snowy/icy sidewalks or even on hilly streets to help traction. In fact thinking about it further, it was amazing that cars of the day got around at all in a snowfall.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by RurNEPA

We tried the pellet route. We bought a stove, and put it in our basement since there wasn't really a great place for it in the living area. In the end, we don't get enough heat out of it. We're going with an outdoor wood burner (which I'm sure you can't do in Jessup) next year.

The pellet stoves are meant for supplemental heat, there really isn't whole lot on the market for primary heat. They have coal stoves meant for same purpose but you can also get full furnaces or boilers. Besides that the cost of pellets aren't exactly cheap.

Coal Ton@$160............$08.33
Coal(40lb. Bag)@$6.00...$15.62
Wood Full Cord@$250......$16.23
Wood Pellets Ton$250.....$21.65

They make boilers and furnaces to fit any requirement. For example if you were looking at outdoor wood boiler I'd suggest looking at this which is wood/coal combo and is meant to be installed inside a house:

The Re-introduction of the efm WCB-24 - e-f-m Heating





While on the topic If you're looking at any of these outdoor wood boilers they often will label them wood/coal combos. It's important that they have a firebox similar to the design in the second image because if they don't it's NOT going to burn coal very well. The firebox need to be deep and it needs vertical sides. The one advantage of the outdoor wood boiler is you can throw anything in it, this unit from EFM is designed to burn seasoned wood only.

I should also note that coal can be used in the city if you want. There is no smoke or smell to annoy the neighbors.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by jimazee

Not relevant today, but old timers remember people tossing ashes from coal stoves on snowy/icy sidewalks or even on hilly streets to help traction. In fact thinking about it further, it was amazing that cars of the day got around at all in a snowfall.

Amazed? Ashes provide about the best traction you could possibly expect. It's like putting down concrete. People still use them for that purpose, I believe some of the boroughs still might use them as well, trouble with ashes though is once they get wet they freeze which is going to jam up the equipment. It would be the only reason they have moved away from using them.

[lialleycat]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

Amazed? Ashes provide about the best traction you could possibly expect. It's like putting down concrete. People still use them for that purpose, I believe some of the boroughs still might use them as well, trouble with ashes though is once they get wet they freeze which is going to jam up the equipment. It would be the only reason they have moved away from using them.

I use the ash from my pellet stove on my driveway and walkways after snow and ice storms. It really helps melt the ice and it doesn't ruin the cement and nearby grass/plants like salts would. Gives good traction too - I've not fallen down hauling my garbage to the curb since I've started using ash instead of shovel and ice melt.

Only downfall is that I have to leave paper mats inside the house to put the outside shoes on as soon as I get in the door and I keep an old sponge to wipe the floor down between weekly moppings too.

[ki0eh]

I've been using our ashes to fill in holes in our "yard" (1/3 acre of trees) - the township's trash hauling contractor usually takes them too although sometimes they leave the bucket if it's not bagged. The trash goes to the Harrisburg incinerator though and ash doesn't do much to keep the Capitol Complex supplied with hot air.

I happened to stumble on this article in the recent DEP news clips: A trash ‘coal’-lection tradition | The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, PA (http://www.timesleader.com/news/A_trash__lsquo_coal_rsquo_-lection_tradition_12-08-2009.html - broken link)