Some Consumers Turning to Coal This Winter

PHILADELPHIA _ Add another option to the list of alternatives people are considering this winter instead of expensive oil and natural gas.

It’s an old reliable, homegrown in Pennsylvania: anthracite coal.

“I wish I’d gone to coal 10 years ago,” said Francis Weiss, 37, who attached a coal-burning furnace to his ductwork this fall and keeps his house at a summery 78 degrees.

Numbed by the thought of $400 heating bills, people are turning back to the age-old fossil fuel that kept their parents and grandparents warm. While not the cleanest option, the black stuff is so cheap that some customers are waiting three months to buy a coal stove or furnace.

“We can’t get the stoves fast enough,” said Brenda Groff, owner of Groff’s Stove Shop in Boyertown, Pa. “People are so desperate they want the display model.”

There are other alternatives to high heating bills, including corn kernels, cherry pits, wood and even used cooking oil, which can cost less than half the price of oil or gas for the same amount of energy.

Coal is also less than half the price of gas _ much less, if you’re willing to pick it up in your own truck, like Weiss did.

A shop foreman at a truck-repair garage, Weiss stores his coal in a corner of his basement that he walled off with wooden studs and plywood.

Weiss picked up 4 tons of coal in September, at $110 per ton, and simply dumped it through the basement window. Getting coal delivered costs more _ about $180 per ton, said Groff.

Older folks can recall the dreaded chore of tending to their coal stoves and furnaces decades ago, shaking the grill to remove ashes and dislodging “clinkers” with a poker. Dust was everywhere.

But people who own the modern variety, such as those made by Keystone Manufacturing Co. in Schuylkill County, Pa., say it’s easier to use and far less messy than the old models.

Indeed, the Weiss’ Cape Cod-style house in Sellersville, Pa., was spotless during a recent visit, even as pebble-sized chunks of coal glowed red-hot in the basement furnace. Fears of dust appear to have been unfounded.

Weiss said the key to cleanliness is a “stoker” _ a mechanism that pushes ashes into a bin periodically and fuels the fire with more coal. The stoking occurs automatically while the furnace door is shut, keeping the spread of ashes to a minimum.

The door needs to be opened only when the ash bin has to be emptied, once every other day for Weiss. He shovels a fresh supply of coal into the furnace hopper every night, though he said he can really go up to three days before refilling.

Weiss bought his furnace directly from Keystone. Company owner Jim Somers declined to provide exact figures, but said sales have doubled in the last two years.

Weiss has used up about 2 tons of his coal since lighting the fire in September.

He turned on the heat much earlier than he did last year with his old propane furnace, and his wife keeps the house much warmer, but he still figures he’s coming out way ahead.

Propane cost him $400 every month and a half last year, and this year so far he has burned just $200 worth of coal.

But what about the pollution?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not have data on the newer coal-burning stoves, but is thinking of testing them as they become more popular, according to Donna Heron, an agency spokeswoman.

Burning coal generates fine, sooty particles _ a form of pollution for which the EPA proposed tougher standards in December. At high levels, the particles are believed to trigger asthma and heart attacks. Diesel fumes are another source of these particles, and scientists are not sure whether the soot from coal and diesel is equally dangerous.

Burning coal also releases mercury into the air _ a concern when large amounts are consumed, as in power plants.

Harold Schobert, director of the Energy Institute at Pennsylvania State University, said the anthracite variety of coal used by Weiss burns fairly clean. The pollution from one house is negligible, he said.

“There are issues of concern if all of a sudden, 50,000 homeowners converted to coal in a relatively small city,” Schobert said.

Weiss said the air in and around his house is clean, but keeps a carbon monoxide detector running in the basement just in case.

He heats more than just his house with coal. He also ran a pipe from his hot-water heater through the furnace. The heater normally runs on propane, but the heat from the coal furnace works so well that Weiss hasn’t turned on the propane flame all winter.

His wife, Judi, allows that she was apprehensive about “all the dust and the dirt” that she thought would come with coal, but said she has been pleasantly surprised.

“I don’t see much of a difference” from using the old propane-powered furnace, she said. “It’s quite toasty and I like it. That’s all that really matters.”

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