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Coal stoves in the Northeast -- how many of those are there? I know of quite a few places in RI and MA with oil heaters, though I'd wager natural gas is on in p

Coal stoves in the Northeast -- how many of those are there? I know of quite a few places in RI and MA with oil heaters, though I'd wager natural gas is on in probably 50% of my network's residences.

slavapestov 7y ago
Coal furnaces are common in rural areas where you might not even have a natural gas line.
- Analemma_ 7y ago
  I looked this up and all I could find was [0], saying there are a small number of households using it in Pennsylvania. As for the rest of PA and New England, natural gas is the norm and I haven't heard of anyone using coal. Houses that don't have natural gas lines use storage tanks in the yard that are topped off by a delivery truck every couple months. [0]: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/03/699325560/for-the-few-who-heat-homes-with-coal-its-still-king https://www.npr.org/2019/03/03/699325560/for-the-few-who-hea...
  - saalweachter 7y ago
    Fuel oil is pretty common as well, and the delivery method is the same, a truck comes round and tops of your tank periodically -- usually every few weeks or once a month in the winter, depending on how much heat your house leaks.
- ctrl-j 7y ago
  How common? It seems like it would be cheaper for most parts of the country to install electric baseboards than to ship in the coal you'd need for the winter.
  - generatorguy 7y ago
    You’ve clearly never paid the electric bill for a house that used electric baseboards for heat in the winter. 5k cad/yr in BC for a 3000 sq ft house with 6 occupants. Bill for June and July is only $100, it’s all winter heating load. Comparitively natural gas bills are about $200 for two months in the winter. Many people heat with wood and the air quality goes to shit.
    - khuey 7y ago
      Living in and heating a 3000 sq ft house is a massive luxury.
    - triceratops 7y ago
      > Bill for June and July is only $100 Holy hell $100 in the mild BC summer?! According to Google Vancouver varies between 14 and 22 degrees Celsius in June and July. That's t-shirt weather - don't even need heating at night if you've got good insulation. I think your problem might be your general usage patterns (running clothes dryer, dishwasher too much or at peak times, inefficient lighting or leaving lights on everywhere, zombie draw from electronics) and the efficiency of your insulation, not merely the cost of electric baseboards. Or maybe power is just crazy expensive up there, I dunno.
    - cmrdporcupine 7y ago
      In BC or Ontario, sure, but in QC most places are electric resistive heating because electricity there is like 4 cents a kwh. Cheap.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  Not really. Rural areas tend to go wood.
  - maxerickson 7y ago
    Or propane or fuel oil. (depends on local prices and availability of course)
  - hermitdev 7y ago
    I grew up in rural Montana. We had electric base boards, but it was far more economical to utilize the 2 wood stoves. We typically had 8 cords of wood on hand for the winter. We were far outside of anywhere NG lines were run, and while some of our newer neighbors had Propane tanks, we didnt have any sort of central air, so propane wasnt really any option without a very expensive remodel. House burned a few years ago in a wildfire, so kind of a moot point now.
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    Edit: Relative to coal. I guess I shouldn't have taken it for granted that people would know most people in areas too rural for gas mains use propane or oil (because those are orders of magnitude more convenient than anything that requires you to move the fuel yourself.
- YPCrumble 7y ago
  You’re probably conflating wood furnaces with coal furnaces. Lots of people use wood stoves which are much cleaner than coal and a renewable resource. Unless you live next to a coal mine you wouldn’t even be able to purchase coal in the US.
  - slavapestov 7y ago
    No, I’m not. I lived in a house with a coal furnace in rural NY.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  I live in NY, and I'm aware that people who don't have gas service use oil furnaces, but I've never heard of or seen coal furnaces being used. I would have assumed that was limited to a small population maybe in rural PA or WV that are near coal mines where it's particularly cheap. Where are the statistics for "millions"?
  - Frondo 7y ago
    Millions is off by an order of magnitude. In 2015 it was estimated that around 127k homes still used coal heating. Source, found on a ddg search: https://forgreenheat.blogspot.com/2017/06/trends-in-heating-with-coal-in-united.html https://forgreenheat.blogspot.com/2017/06/trends-in-heating-... Other sources give comparable numbers, in no case more than ~150k

Coal stoves in the Northeast -- how many of those are there? I know of quite a few places in RI and MA with oil heaters, though I'd wager natural gas is on in probably 50% of my network's residences.

slavapestov 7y ago

Coal furnaces are common in rural areas where you might not even have a natural gas line.

Analemma_ 7y ago
I looked this up and all I could find was [0], saying there are a small number of households using it in Pennsylvania. As for the rest of PA and New England, natural gas is the norm and I haven't heard of anyone using coal. Houses that don't have natural gas lines use storage tanks in the yard that are topped off by a delivery truck every couple months. [0]: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/03/699325560/for-the-few-who-heat-homes-with-coal-its-still-king https://www.npr.org/2019/03/03/699325560/for-the-few-who-hea...
- saalweachter 7y ago
  Fuel oil is pretty common as well, and the delivery method is the same, a truck comes round and tops of your tank periodically -- usually every few weeks or once a month in the winter, depending on how much heat your house leaks.
ctrl-j 7y ago
How common? It seems like it would be cheaper for most parts of the country to install electric baseboards than to ship in the coal you'd need for the winter.
- generatorguy 7y ago
  You’ve clearly never paid the electric bill for a house that used electric baseboards for heat in the winter. 5k cad/yr in BC for a 3000 sq ft house with 6 occupants. Bill for June and July is only $100, it’s all winter heating load. Comparitively natural gas bills are about $200 for two months in the winter. Many people heat with wood and the air quality goes to shit.
  - khuey 7y ago
    Living in and heating a 3000 sq ft house is a massive luxury.
  - triceratops 7y ago
    > Bill for June and July is only $100 Holy hell $100 in the mild BC summer?! According to Google Vancouver varies between 14 and 22 degrees Celsius in June and July. That's t-shirt weather - don't even need heating at night if you've got good insulation. I think your problem might be your general usage patterns (running clothes dryer, dishwasher too much or at peak times, inefficient lighting or leaving lights on everywhere, zombie draw from electronics) and the efficiency of your insulation, not merely the cost of electric baseboards. Or maybe power is just crazy expensive up there, I dunno.
  - cmrdporcupine 7y ago
    In BC or Ontario, sure, but in QC most places are electric resistive heating because electricity there is like 4 cents a kwh. Cheap.
dsfyu404ed 7y ago
Not really. Rural areas tend to go wood.
- maxerickson 7y ago
  Or propane or fuel oil. (depends on local prices and availability of course)
- hermitdev 7y ago
  I grew up in rural Montana. We had electric base boards, but it was far more economical to utilize the 2 wood stoves. We typically had 8 cords of wood on hand for the winter. We were far outside of anywhere NG lines were run, and while some of our newer neighbors had Propane tanks, we didnt have any sort of central air, so propane wasnt really any option without a very expensive remodel. House burned a few years ago in a wildfire, so kind of a moot point now.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  Edit: Relative to coal. I guess I shouldn't have taken it for granted that people would know most people in areas too rural for gas mains use propane or oil (because those are orders of magnitude more convenient than anything that requires you to move the fuel yourself.
YPCrumble 7y ago
You’re probably conflating wood furnaces with coal furnaces. Lots of people use wood stoves which are much cleaner than coal and a renewable resource. Unless you live next to a coal mine you wouldn’t even be able to purchase coal in the US.
- slavapestov 7y ago
  No, I’m not. I lived in a house with a coal furnace in rural NY.
perl4ever 7y ago
I live in NY, and I'm aware that people who don't have gas service use oil furnaces, but I've never heard of or seen coal furnaces being used. I would have assumed that was limited to a small population maybe in rural PA or WV that are near coal mines where it's particularly cheap. Where are the statistics for "millions"?
- Frondo 7y ago
  Millions is off by an order of magnitude. In 2015 it was estimated that around 127k homes still used coal heating. Source, found on a ddg search: https://forgreenheat.blogspot.com/2017/06/trends-in-heating-with-coal-in-united.html https://forgreenheat.blogspot.com/2017/06/trends-in-heating-... Other sources give comparable numbers, in no case more than ~150k