In today's Wall Street Journal (January 30, 2001) on page B1 there is a good article on the growing popularity of coal stoves, "Coal Stoves Are Hot Again."

-- walt (longyear@shentel.net), January 31, 2001

Answers

We will soon be making wood pellets and coal pellets for our rural poultry growers to use as an alternative to the high priced propane. It will be a throw back almost. I must say I am not looking forward to the smell of coal smoke in the air so we are recommending gasifier combustion units to avoid the air pollution.

Some of the city folks might sign on to the fuel cooperative to avoid the high gas bills in town and to give them some confidence that they can stay warm during the next ice storm.

-- neal Van Milligen (cavm@aol.com), February 04, 2001.

We got a Harmon Coal/Wood burning stove this year (Model TLC-2000). Very nice product. Does great with wood or coal. Only two things I don't like about coal buring are (1:)impact on envirornment and (2): the amount of soot (specifically "fly ash") that is puts in my driveway.

The inside for our house stays very clean, but the fly ash gets all over the driveway and on the cars. If I had it to do over again, I would still get a coal burner but would of placed it in a different part of the house so the chimmney would not be as close to the driveway and front sidewalk, letting the ash fall in the yard instead of the drive.

I am also experimenting with mixing shelled corn in with my coal and wood. THe corn burns clean and help ignites the coal gases after fueling with coal. I'm going to the grain elevator to get 1/2 ton of shelled corn today and am going to get more aggressive on corn usage. I'll have info and expereince to share in a couple of days

Email if you wish: dkhenry@grics.net Pekin, IL

-- D.K. Henry (dkhenry@grics.net), January 29, 2002.