# Can I burn coal in my woodstove? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2000, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-burn-coal-in-my-woodstove/30908 "2000-08-27T05:22:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-burn-coal-in-my-woodstove/30908/21 "2015-01-11T07:56:27Z")
Anthracite? In 2015? I thought I heard 40 years ago that anthracite (“hard coal”) was “commercially extinct” in the US. (Well, except for the Centralia Fire). Were additional deposits found, are we importing it, or did I either hear wrong/remember wrong/had a loony source? ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-burn-coal-in-my-woodstove/30908/22 "2015-01-11T08:09:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Current U.S. anthracite production averages around 5 million tons per year. Of that, about 1.8 million tons were mined in the state of Pennsylvania.[14] Mining of anthracite coal continues to this day in eastern Pennsylvania, and contributes up to 1% to the gross state product. The anthracite market size of Pennsylvania is $150 million, by far the highest in the nation.[15] More than 2,000 people were employed in the mining of anthracite coal in 1995. Most of the mining as of that date involved reclaiming coal from slag heaps (waste piles from past coal mining) at nearby closed mines. Some underground anthracite coal is also being mined.[16] > **[Anthracite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthracite)** > > Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the highest ranking of coals. > The Coal Region of Northeastern Pennsylvania in the United States has the largest known deposits of anthracite coal in the world with an estimated reserve of seven billion short tons. China accounts for the majority of global productio... On the other hand it is two to three times as expensive as regular coal making it prohibitively expensive for power plant use–perhaps that is what your source was talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-burn-coal-in-my-woodstove/30908/23 "2015-01-11T09:52:25Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Anthracite? > > In 2015? You might want to check the dates on this thread again. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-burn-coal-in-my-woodstove/30908/24 "2015-01-11T13:16:09Z")
> [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](#): > > You might want to check the dates on this thread again. Do zombies burn? ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-burn-coal-in-my-woodstove/30908/25 "2015-01-11T13:26:06Z")
Get a good hot coal fire running and they’ll go up OK. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-burn-coal-in-my-woodstove/30908/26 "2015-01-11T13:44:37Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Anthracite? > > In 2015? > > I thought I heard 40 years ago that anthracite (“hard coal”) was “commercially extinct” in the US. Well, she changed her username; not quite the same as being commercially extinct. ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-burn-coal-in-my-woodstove/30908/27 "2015-01-11T13:48:36Z")
the things I noticed were: Coal heats amazingly. Just one or two small pieces was equivalent in heat output to several logs. and, Compared to wood, it smells horrible. having said that, I think it was coal i was burning, I bought some pieces at a shop in California from a sack to burn in my wood stove. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-burn-coal-in-my-woodstove/30908/28 "2015-01-11T15:03:33Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Do zombies burn? Beat 'em or burn 'em. They go up pretty easy. ---
**Author:** ![sidecar\_jon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sidecar\_jon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sidecar_jon)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-burn-coal-in-my-woodstove/30908/29 "2015-01-11T15:04:02Z")
Some quick points from the real world of keeping warm. I burn wood and coal in a theoretically wood only stove. The difference is wood draws air from the top, coal from bellow, so for optimum heat you need a great or some way of holding the coal up above the air control or you can ignore it and make do with less efficient burning. I do sometimes burn wood and coal at the same time without a problem. I might be lucky as the stove i have seems designed to burn neither fuel and the doors were put on upsidedown leaving the air control near the bottom, the wrong place for wood. Basically all stoves are metal boxes for burning things, steel wont melt with either coal or wood unless you force air into it. Wood seems to burn hot and fast coal slower and at least here comes in cheaper and less trouble. Gas wise, get a carbon monoxide alarm, thats just sensible, but stoves are usually leaky things but the gaps let air in rather than out. Warm air is less dense than cold so as long as the air in the box and chimney is warmer than the room it exits upwards so there’s no problem. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2015, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-burn-coal-in-my-woodstove/30908/30 "2015-01-11T18:55:25Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Coal stoves draft from the bottom, wood from the top. Coal can burn very very hot, if it gets away from you, hot enough potentially to melt through the bottom of a stove. This is a recipe for disaster. In order to prevent this coal stoves also need what’s called a barometric damper. > > If the wind is blowing over your chimney it can draw air through your stove in just the same way that a coal fire in a forge gets fed with a bellows. Meltdown! THe barometric damper counteracts Chimney draw and keeps the coal fire stable. > > Burning coal in a stove not designed for it is a good way to burn your house down. > > In a proper stove, it’s great heat. I fill mine twice a day, and that’s it. THe heat stays consistent all 12 hours, and you can really fine tune the output. I have a big house ans will burn 2-3 tons of coal in a year. Cost? About $400.00. Our stove is prety modern, and we don’t have any trouble with everything getting coated with ash, and it beats the hell out of burning $2,000 worth of heating oil! > > You need the right stove though. Seriously. My parents bought a house right after they got married that was the classical Queen Anne Victorian that had that huge old coal burning furnace in the basement [and a pair of coal rooms complete with chutes for dumping coal into the cellar!] My grandparents more or less forced my dad into deciding to convert it to ‘city gas’ when they found my mom down in the basement one evening topping up the coal. _Unladylike_ ROFL. [They would not have made any complaint if she had asked the family handyman/hired man to do it … but she grew up on a farm with no modern conveniences other than they had a water pump in the kitchen and didn’t see any reason why she couldn’t toss a few shovel loads of coal into a furnace last thing before bed.] I would love a huge old victorian with a coal furnace [if they could do the more efficient burn/less polluting burn stuff like they have with the catalytic wood stoves. I don’t know enough about coal combustion to know if it is possible.] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-burn-coal-in-my-woodstove/30908.md?page=1)