Heart of Coal

[Stan]

Fair...My pellet stove cost me $1800 ten years ago and saves me $600 per year in nat. gas costs (which is going up like crazy) .  I've replaced one $125 electronic module in it but nothing else.  Even the auger drive motor is only $100 new and almost anyone can strip one of these down to it's bare frame in a couple of hours.  I figure not counting smashing the glass on it (which is expensive $300), that it should last a dozen more years at least with a few repairs such as replacing fan motors etc.  Not a bad investment.

Oh and as an added bonus I can store just over 2 tons of pellets under my basement stairs in side the house.  Not bad for storage.
Stan

[dieseldave]

   I pay $37.00/tonne(2200lbs). I get it at Dodds Coal Mine in Riley,Alberta. Round trip is 60 miles. I will use about 14tonnes a year to heat my house and my shop when working in it. Crazy, when we are sitting on a zillion cubic feet of natural gas!

[Stan]

Wow, that's a lot of coal!
Stan

[Jim Mc]

   I pay $37.00/tonne(2200lbs).

Bituminous?

[rcavictim]

   I pay $37.00/tonne(2200lbs).

Bituminous?

Certainly BTUminous.  Anyone know where a feller could buy coal in Ontario?

[dieseldave]

     It's a soft coal,about 5000btu/lb.  But it is a 'low sulphur' coal.  Sure beats heating with natural gas.

     The same area where the mine is located,they are going to build a gasifier plant to make natural gas for processing tar sand.

      They are going to buy up the farmland in the area. A total of 312sq.miles!!!

     It's just nuts out here!   I am starting to question all this developement.

[Doug]

Dave I live in the Nickel city......
Cursed earth and rocks scorched balck from S02.
Question everything, because somethings can't be undone.

I realy don't care what the price of gas is in the USA if it means raping Alberta.....

Unchecked development.
Its the same boom cylce here again as new head frames go up and the cookie cutter homes spring up all over the place.
I hate the greed and I think I liked things better when things were stagnent and I worked for a Canadian company that was just strugling to stay alive

[rcavictim]

   
     It's just nuts out here!   I am starting to question all this developement.

That isn't development, it's utter destruction of valuable habitat.  I figure Alberta will be mostly uninhabitable in less than ten years.  For what, so fat Americans can continue to drive their gas wasting SUV's to the local video rental store?  The previous Premiere Ralph Kline signed deals that gave all that oil away for nothing.  Canada hardly gets to use any of it, and that we use we have to pay world market price for.  That's not right IMO.

[Doug]

National Energy program II anyone?

[Stan]

Aw come on guys, Alberta is getting $1/barrel for the oil!  Just because Sweden and Norway are getting somewhere around $50/barrel (I understand that's tied to the world price)  and Danny Williams in nfld got 4.9% equity ownership of the Hebron oil development just by saying NO to Exxonmobil/chevron/petrocan & Norsk for 4 months after which they caved and agreed.
Stan

That show on the oil sands project a couple of weeks ago had lots of info on how Al is getting screwed, can't remember the name of it.

[MacGyver]

I figure Alberta will be mostly uninhabitable in less than ten years.  For what, so fat Americans can continue to drive their gas wasting SUV's to the local video rental store? 

Yep, the US is pretty horrible as far as energy usage goes.
But as far as total energy consumption per capita goes, at least we're not as fat and sloppy as the Canadians.
Shit, the US doesn't even make the top 5...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_energy_consumption_per_capita

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/energy_consumption_per_capita

I hate to see Alberta (or anywhere) destroyed for energy just as much as the rest of you, and we ALL need to do some serious cutting back on our consumption.

[europachris]

Do the math?  Been doing it for it for years, as someone once said...

I'd burn coal for heat, too,  if Indiana coal was a better fuel. (No anthracite here)

Where are you located, Jim?  I used to live in Jasper many years ago, and we burned the local coal during the early 80s energy crunch.  Pretty dirty stuff.

Now I'm in N. Central Ill. and I'm burning Pennsylvania Anthracite.  I guess I'm a die-hard coal burner.  Looking to set up some sort of central heating system that is stoker fed and designed to burn the Illinois coal (which is basically the same as the Indiana stuff).

chris

[dmp]

Well, this thread has legs. 

This morning I dumped the remaining ton on my truck on the driveway.  A friend of mine decided on a coal stoker.
Yesterday the manufacturer called to say the stoker is ready.  No wharehouse.  Get now!

First stop, Mahanoy City, PA.  Get a tare weight.  Drive up to the breaker and yell, "ton of Buck Rice mix".

Too much noise, dumps a ton of rice before I can stop him.  O.K., throw some Buck on top.

Back on the scale, 1.35 tons @ $170 = $229 .50.  I pay cash.

Truck over the mountain, stop in Shenadoah for a Kielbasy fix, then head to Schuykill Haven to pick-up the
stoker boiler.

Sometimes life can be wonderful.  Coal is in my veins.  Should it not, I,ll be in a nursing home in diapers.


The math:

B.T.U. wise, 2000 lbs(ton) of Anthracite equals 188 gals. of No. 2 F.O., more or less. 
That equals, 254 gals.
Today's newspaper had a C.O.D discount oil Co. @ $4.019/gal.  A discount oil company, not full service. 
#2 FO - $1020.83     -     Anthracite - $229.50     =  $791.33


I'd call that a WOW!


David       

[Tom]

Aright you guys. Now you've got me thinking about setting up a home version of the Fischer/tropsh system to convert coal into diesel. Just what I need to go with my bio-diesel processor and home grown vacuum distiller. Now I have to decide which to do first.

[rmchambers]

Tom,
   That would be really cool!  There's a shedload of coal under the US and Canada (or the North American Union if you prefer) and being able to make a diesel type fuel out of it would be very handy indeed.  As long as you keep it dry, coal doesn't realy degrade at all does it?