Electric Shop Heat

[nsula_country]

Coal is cheaper than anything else unless you have access to free firewood. Is there a coal delivery service near you? A company should deliver it just like propane or fuel oil.

I know of no residential use of coal here.

There are several coal fired power plants and an activated charcoal plant that use the coal.

CT

 

[shaggyant]

I know of no residential use of coal here.

There are several coal fired power plants and an activated charcoal plant that use the coal.

CT

I was speaking more to the OP who shows his location to be southern Illinois.

Seems wasteful to burn the coal to make electricity and then turn the electricity back into heat.

I’ve never been to northern Louisiana. Only the Gretna, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge area. I had no idea there were coal mines

 

[TractorJeff]

Search Craigslist for Coal!
There was a fellow in South Dakota selling Western Soft Coal cheap in December.
There is a Coal Yard in Illinois that sells Soft Coal.
There is Hard Coal for sale in Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan as the Amish are primary users.
There is a web page for Coal Users in Northeast Pennsylvania for home users.
Out on the Eastern half of the US it is actually quite popular as it is cheaper than Home Heating Oil.
Other places to inquire is at Gas & Steam Shows as quite often they supply it for the guys who have the big Threshing Steam Tractors!

 

[Skiff Builder]

In my northern NJ location you can get bulk anthracite coal delivered, for $275/ton.
That's 28,000,000 btu.

 

[yeldogt]

In my northern NJ location you can get bulk anthracite coal delivered, for $275/ton.
That's 28,000,000 btu.

My old PA studio had a wood/coal stove from the early 1900's -- It was really designed for coal. Gorgeous looking thing -- actually had coal delivered for a few years. Wood is a pain .. way too much work for me. If I knew I was going to be working at they property for more than a weekend -- I would start it up. Also -- on really cold weekends the coal was so toasty. My neighbor at the time used coal to heat his barn and I would have them dump some at my place .... This was back in the mid 00's and I was paying $180.00. South of Quakertown -- you can still get high quality hard anthracite -- burns hot w/o a lot of soot.

Still a fair amount of coal used in that area -- with auto augers .. it's somewhat painless even for large buildings. PA has a lots of NG .. but vast amounts of the population can't benefit due to no pipelines.

 

[rburke65]

I have cut and split wood since 1980 an$ I am now 70 yo and I think now I am ready to supplement my wood with some coal. The difference in heat is really noticeable
.

 

[skippydoo]

I've got a new 30x40x13 ft celing pole building with closed cell foam, 3inches in ceiling, 2 in walls. While waiting for my radiant heat to get hooked up, I had to do something. I bought a 20k electric heater. I keep it 50 to 54 with a max of 60 if working inside. My December electric bill was 100-110 more and January was 200 dollars more than normal . I don't think thats bad at all for electric .

 

[macdabs]

I heat with Hard coal in the north east . Burn 8-10 ton year no soot. I use the ash for traction on the icy driveway without killing the concrete or rusting your car out. I tried wood since I have trees falling from storms and free wood all around me. To much work compared to 4 min, day to fill the coal hopper in the boiler and empty ash twice a week.

Average cost for coal is 215.00 ton . I heat 3500 sq foot heated floor shop at 70* with 22' ceilings and a 4000 sq ft house with a 3 car garage . The boiler is in the garage 300' from the house with underground pex.
Mac

 

[rtz]

2 previous examples:

"December electric bill was 100-110 more and January was 200 dollars more than normal"

So $1,200-$2,400 a year if you heated at that rate year round.


"Burn 8-10 ton year" "Average cost for coal is 215.00 ton"

$1,750-$2,150"

And coal is cheaper than electric?

Get a good size bank of cheap solar panels to run everything during the day; and get a Tesla battery pack or two out of wrecked cars to get through the night.

This guy in Missouri has all the prices and numbers documented; and videos running a shop and AC in the summer on the system. He uses the grid as a backup. Not the other way around. He sells the parts to make the system work.

http://evtv.me/

 

[ripperd]

2 previous examples:

"December electric bill was 100-110 more and January was 200 dollars more than normal"

So $1,200-$2,400 a year if you heated at that rate year round.


"Burn 8-10 ton year" "Average cost for coal is 215.00 ton"

$1,750-$2,150"

And coal is cheaper than electric?

Get a good size bank of cheap solar panels to run everything during the day; and get a Tesla battery pack or two out of wrecked cars to get through the night.

This guy in Missouri has all the prices and numbers documented; and videos running a shop and AC in the summer on the system. He uses the grid as a backup. Not the other way around. He sells the parts to make the system work.

http://evtv.me/

Did you even look at the examples?

The guy with coal is heating a 4000sqft house AND a 3500sqft shop. The electric guy is heating a 1200sqft shop.

 

[shaggyant]

2 previous examples:

"December electric bill was 100-110 more and January was 200 dollars more than normal"

So $1,200-$2,400 a year if you heated at that rate year round.


"Burn 8-10 ton year" "Average cost for coal is 215.00 ton"

$1,750-$2,150"

And coal is cheaper than electric?

Get a good size bank of cheap solar panels to run everything during the day; and get a Tesla battery pack or two out of wrecked cars to get through the night.

This guy in Missouri has all the prices and numbers documented; and videos running a shop and AC in the summer on the system. He uses the grid as a backup. Not the other way around. He sells the parts to make the system work.

http://evtv.me/

Anthracite (AKA hard coal) has about 28 million btu per ton. That 10 tons of coal the poster mentioned above gives you 280 million btu. That’s over 82,000 kilowatts of energy. You aren’t getting that from a Tesla battery pack.

Try this link and put in your electric rates for a comparison.

https://coalpail.com/fuel-comparison-calculator-home-heating

 

[rods&cycles]

Just my two cents but Crazyjake8493 is right on the money.
I installed a 7500w heater in my 24' x 32' insulated garage after calculating the cost to trench in NG from the house which required other upgrades and the install which I cannot do living in town. I cannot use propane in town so electric was the way to go based on the cost of the unit and my ability to wire it myself, plus the payback using NG would be many years down the line.
The problem I've had is finding a quality electric heater. I bought a ProFusion hanging unit from Menards, it worked great for a month, the the heating coil died. They replaced it, no problem, but the second one just died so they refunded me but now I have no heat.

 

[850xpeps]

Just my two cents but Crazyjake8493 is right on the money.

I installed a 7500w heater in my 24' x 32' insulated garage after calculating the cost to trench in NG from the house which required other upgrades and the install which I cannot do living in town. I cannot use propane in town so electric was the way to go based on the cost of the unit and my ability to wire it myself, plus the payback using NG would be many years down the line.

The problem I've had is finding a quality electric heater. I bought a ProFusion hanging unit from Menards, it worked great for a month, the the heating coil died. They replaced it, no problem, but the second one just died so they refunded me but now I have no heat.

Get a used electric furnace...... disconnect as many banks as you need for the heat you want. I paid $150 for a used 20kw furnace. Knocked it down to 5kw and hung it from the ceiling. Moves a pile of air and heated nicely.

 

[macdabs]

If decent coal is around your area using the right sized boiler you will never find anything else to heat with less work and the BTu output that coal offers. Not to mention you can store it stock it with out it going bad like wood. Natural gas is probably your second best choice if available. What creeps up in natural gas is the taxes and monthly delivery charges whether you use it or not in the summer months. The only downside I have with coal is if you want to leave for more than three days at a time someone needs o empty the tub of ash about two 5 gallon buckets.
Mac

 

[Cougar]

I would wire for a 5000 watt heater, I have one in my 26x56x9 but it's attached and a lot easier to heat.

Installing a curtain to keep the heat (or cooling) where you are working can save on energy costs.

Is that a Cyclone.

 

[hefnerconstructionlc]

I would be looking very closely at this. Installed one in my office just fantastic, now you have heat and A/C. But you get more efficiency with a heat pump also.

https://www.pioneerminisplit.com/co...r-heat-pump-system-with-full-installation-kit

Going to install one in my 24 x 24 pretty soon I think.

You can use their load calucluator below: Looks like you need 36k btu

https://www.pioneerminisplit.com/pages/hvac-calculator