access to coal for home heating

How many people out there and where, can find a coal dealer?
In Ontario the only ones I know of are in the Brampton/Hamilton area. And in Blyth where there are still numerous stoker furnaces.
Many people in those centers crying the blues now. 10 years ago they yanked out the coal units to install the cheaper natural gas furnaces.
For the past 5 years natural gas has been going nowhere but up in price.

Seems this must have some connection to all the Canadian hydro-power and lack of dependency on coal. Here in the USA, they burn so much coal to make electricity, that huge loads of it are constantly coming to the ports on ships, barges, etc.
Makes me wonder though, I've seen some huge smokestacks in Canada, especially around the lunar landscape of Sudbury. What were, or what are . . . those stacks used for?

I'm lucky. I live in Pennsylvania on the edge of prime anthracite country.
I have a Vermont Castings coal stove with shaker grates, (no electricity needed for an auger), so those instances when we lose power, (54 hours, one winter), we stay toasty warm. It's extra work, but what a beautiful rock-steady heat.
And I live in a split-level with the stove at the far end of the lower level, and with no structural impediment to the air, a natural whole-house circulation occurs. 3 tons sit in a coal bin outside my house, and 2½ will heat us the entire winter.
Coalmen aren't stupid, and coal's creeping up with the others. When I put this in maybe 10 years ago, coal was $95/ton-delivered, and now it's $210/ton-delivered.
I heard, on a local coal mine tour, that there's still enough anthracite under Pennsylvania to fuel the entire eastern seaboard for 200 years. Amazing statistic!

i also live in pennsylvania i bought a keystoker coal stove about 4 years ago i burn about 2 tons a year in my ranch style on a full basement with attached garage best investment ever cheaper than buying wood plus less work and a more even heat but u do need elactric for it so i have a generator the first year i had a power inverter so i could run it off my truck but it would only last 3-4 hours on a truck battery prolly longer on a marine bat. never tried that we still have lotsa coal here local just nobody can mine it as its on state game lands i hunt up there, there is coal on top of the ground back in the 1800"s there was a coal mining town up there but small pox and diptheria whiped em out they got all the easist coal there was a coal outfit come in and surveyed in the 80"s said there was a vein of anthracite about 300 feet down that would last pa 300 years now tell me why is the game commision crying about money and politicians crying about foriegn oil? we got these resorces right here that will create jobs and cost ppl less money just too easy i guess

One ton of coal has 20 to 30 million btu. That's equivalent to 144 to 217 gallon of oil.
Plenty of coal burned here at the steel plants in Hamilton and Sue Ste Marie.
Sudbury was a desolate place because they used to open air smelt nickle,copper, gold, platnuim, etc. Acres would be covered with ore then piled high with timber cut from the surrounding forest. The entire mess was set ablaze burning for weeks. The sulfur dioxide fumes from the ore killed every living plant downwind 10-20 miles away. This stupidity went on until the mid 1960's.
Now the smelters used tall stacks with scrubbers.
There used to be Lakeview, an 8X450MW coal plant on the south west corner of Toronto. Boaters and pilots used the stacks called the "Four Sisters" to navigate until the stacks were blown last year.
Windsor had I think a 2X500MW coal plant. Both plats have been replaced with gas turbine "peaking plants".
Nanicoke on Lake Erie has 8X540MW coal. Sarnia has the 4X540 MW coal Lampton plant between lake Huron and Lake Sinclair. There's a 200MW coal plant near Thunderbay.
On any given day if it hasn't been a dry year or the rivers froze. The bulk of the power is nuclear, hydro electric, wind if available plus coal and/or gas peaking plants.
Lots of coal burned in Ontario, provinces east of Quebec except in PEI and much burned in the prairie provinces.
The small scale consumer market is tough to come by. Everybody want touch button convenience with zero technical skills.

"One ton of coal has 20 to 30 million btu. That's equivalent to 144 to 217 gallon of oil."

Lucky you!

Here in ND. our lignite coal runs in the area of 6000 to 7000 BTU per lb, or 12,000,000 to 14,000,000 BTU per ton.

STILL cheap heat, though!

Those huge stacks at Sudbury are from the nickle mines where all or a great part of Canada's nickle is mined and smelted. I was through Sudbury last week and with new tecnology catalytic converters and scrubbers on those chimneys the natural vegetation has come back, green trees, grass and shrubs, deciduous trees, beautiful natural landscape that was decimated 30 years ago...proved that with some technology you can burn coal and it can be environmentally friendly

Hey B&D,

Have you looked at closed down coal mines in your area for a source of free coal? We did this in Colorado and in a couple hours you could load a huge pick-up out of one area.

T_Bone

Only source of coal in Ontario is a small vein of lignite coal in the middle of a bog in Northern Ontario.

Feed dealer in the nearest town has a pile or two of coal, not as much as he used to.

A friend says his uncle, in southern Illinois,
has a seam of coal on his land, used to go out
with tractor, trailer, pick and shovel, and dig
some each day, to heat the house.

There is a local coal "dealer" about 1/2 hour from me (north central Ohio). A lot of Amish in the area and I think there is a good demand for it there. We used to have a coal burner when I was a kid, good heat but dirty. Current place has a gas well on it so gas is free. Have a outdoor woodburner if the gas ever goes.
Dave

Sounds like a business oppertunity for you... Buy a boatload and sell it!
Cripes... we sit on umpteen million tonnes of it down here ans NSPower is importing petcoke and low sulphur coal while using scab labor to unload it while the local workforce is locked out.
The only coal coming out of the ground here is stripped coal, not the highest quality and mostly going to the power plant. If you want coal for home heating you better know somebody with a truck and hoe.... It'll probably arrive in the early morning hours on a weekend if you get my drift.
Good luck in finding any unless you know of a bootleg source...

Rod

I have a coal yard 10 miles away...I live in western PA
I burn about 8 ton a year in two Hitzer stoves one in basement, other in attached garage....have a nat gas furnace but only comes on if its really cold....price last year was $50 per ton for soft nut ....I fire it up in mid October and shut it down around April...depending on the weather..

I have a large house and I save several hundred dollars each month by shoveling a little coal.....