Rocks that burn

[layla]

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that coal ... burns. I can't get over how bizarrely cool it is that you can make a fire, then dump a bucket of rocks on it and come back 12 hours later to find that the rocks have burned down to ashes.

I'm currently running a mixture of wood and coal in the boiler, using the wood to make the initial fire and then putting a plastic 5-gallon bucket full of coal on top of it. I do this about twice a day and ignore it the rest of the time. It's wonderful -- the coal gets really hot and stays really hot, and I have a nice warm house without having to spend a lot of time fussing with the fire.

Comments

coals

[vogelein.livejournal.com]

Question for you: how smelly is it? Our fireplace was designed for coal, and we've been told we oughtn't burn wood in it because coal doesn't burn as hot. That seems contradictory to me. But still, I know we have some ancient coal left on the farm that my dad'd let me have. Does it have a petrolly stink to it when it burns? One I wouldn't want in my living room?

Janer

Re: coals

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Wood burns hotter than coal? That doesn't sound right to me. Wood *does* flare up higher, whereas coal doesn't really do a bonfire sort of thing, so maybe that's what they mean -- because the coal fire seems to run the boiler hotter than an all-wood fire.

As far as smell ... it *does* have a smell. It reminds me a little bit of burning plastic, but not so sharp. I don't find it too bothersome, especially since coal doesn't smoke nearly as much as wood, and I have a big outdoors to disappate the smoke. I had nightmare visions of firing up the coal burner and getting massive clouds of black smoke like those dystopian images of London during the Industrial Revolution, so I was relieved to find that it doesn't smoke too much. If the smell of wood smoke doesn't bother you, this probably won't either -- it's a sharper, more chemical smell, but the general effect is the same.

From what I understand of coal stoves, you shouldn't be able to smell it in the house at all -- I remember being told as a kid that coal stoves have to be airtight because they generate so much more carbon monoxide than wood stoves ... burning coal in a woodstove would asphyxiate you. If you get smoke, you're probably getting carbon monoxide.