I burned Coal back in 1979-1982,,I had access to anthracite,, never did find bituminous,,
I had a stove with a thermostat controlled air inlet.
A half bushel of coal loaded in the stove would heat the 1,600 square foot house for 6 days.
It was a VERY comfortable temp in the house, usually 75+ degrees F
We lived just north of Boston MA,,
From what I remember,, the typical heat values were
1 ton Anthracite = 1 cord of dry hardwood = 275 gallons of oil
This may be debatable,, is was just a "rule of thumb" to get you in the ballpark of actual cost.
It was never intended to be exacy.
My wife and I both worked,, the fact that the stove heated the home for 6 days was a BIG plus.
The NEGATIVE thing about the stove,,
If half way through the burn (2 or 3 days) ,, if you stirred the coals,,,
THE FIRE WOULD SNUFF ITSELF OUT!!
We learned real fast,, do not even open the door, if the fire was still producing enough heat.
The automatic air damper was the trick to keeping the fire burning perfectly.
I only have a wood stove now, but, I have the automatic air damper accessory for that stove.
It functions PERFECTLY!!
That stove will run an almost constant temperature for the entire burn of the load of wood.
No fiddling needed,
Back when I bought it, work was tossing out a paper chart recorder
I brought it home, and put the thermocouple on the stove,,
The recorder showed that a full load of dry oak could deliver constant heat for up to 8 hours.
