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Residential coal heating is extremely rare in the US[0], to the point where it occasionally gets a human interest story whenever a reporter runs into someone wh

Residential coal heating is extremely rare in the US[0], to the point where it occasionally gets a human interest story whenever a reporter runs into someone who uses coal. Most of America uses gas, some newer buildings and the south uses electricity, and wood handily outnumbers coal. The roughest equivalent we have here is oil heating, which is really only common in the northeast. It’s my understanding that that’s being phased out, because it’s unpleasant to live with. I don’t even know where I’d go to buy coal, to be honest. For most of America the closest we get to the stuff is a charcoal grill. 0 - 130,000 households two years ago, half in Pennsylvania.

hutzlibu 5y ago
"I don’t even know where I’d go to buy coal, to be honest. For most of America the closest we get to the stuff is a charcoal grill." Well here in germany in winter time, you can buy 10 kg packs in allmost every supermarket. Probably a side effect of the still big ongoing open coal mining. But its gotten quite rare in comparison, when I was a child, it was common for many houses, to have coal in the basement and regular getting a truck for resupply. Now it is mostly for additional heat.
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  That’s genuinely shocking and horrifying to me. Outside of coal mining areas, it’s viewed as a dirty and inferior fuel here in America. The idea of there being just stacks of the stuff where I buy my food is pretty hard to accept for me. Outside of a specialist delivery company (“high quality bituminous”, heh), I’d have to travel to a feed & seed store in the nearby farm country to buy coal for heating ($9 for a 40lb bag of anthracite). They’re out of stock, but it’s not clear to me if that’s because of supply chain issues, or because nobody ever actually wants it in my area. Meanwhile firewood is super easy to get. It’s available everywhere, including in huge stacks outside our grocery stores. I can even buy it from my city at $90 a cord, but it needs to be split.
  - hutzlibu 5y ago
    "it’s viewed as a dirty" It is. I lived in a small town in a river valley some years ago: you couldn't open the windows in late afternoon, when everyone started to burn their dirty fires.
    - stefan_ 5y ago
      That's funny, because you get the same thing with firewood and wood furnaces now. Not particularly better on the unhealthiness scale, either. Actually, between people burning whatever looks wood-like and coal, I'd probably prefer the coal.
      - ashtonkem 5y ago
        You say that, but the EPA has been slowly tightening emission rules for wood burning stoves. Just this year the EPA is beginning to reduce the allowable soot emissions for stoves from 4.5g/h down to 2.0g/h. Old stoves are obviously a problem, but they’re getting measurably better with time. The model I’m considering purchasing has an actual catalytic converter in it, just like a car, to ensure combustion is as complete as possible.
        stefan_ 5y ago
        And cigarette filters are 30% effective at removing solids from inhaled smoke. But you are still smoking! It's 2021. Burning wood makes no sense from a global warming and certainly not from a public health perspective.
        throwaway0a5e 5y ago
        Unless you can wave a magic wand and make alternative sources of energy sufficiently cheaper (or make people sufficiently richer, two sides of the same coin really) people are going to heat with wood where that is economically favorable.
        psd1 5y ago

hutzlibu 5y ago

"I don’t even know where I’d go to buy coal, to be honest. For most of America the closest we get to the stuff is a charcoal grill." Well here in germany in winter time, you can buy 10 kg packs in allmost every supermarket. Probably a side effect of the still big ongoing open coal mining. But its gotten quite rare in comparison, when I was a child, it was common for many houses, to have coal in the basement and regular getting a truck for resupply. Now it is mostly for additional heat.

ashtonkem 5y ago
That’s genuinely shocking and horrifying to me. Outside of coal mining areas, it’s viewed as a dirty and inferior fuel here in America. The idea of there being just stacks of the stuff where I buy my food is pretty hard to accept for me. Outside of a specialist delivery company (“high quality bituminous”, heh), I’d have to travel to a feed & seed store in the nearby farm country to buy coal for heating ($9 for a 40lb bag of anthracite). They’re out of stock, but it’s not clear to me if that’s because of supply chain issues, or because nobody ever actually wants it in my area. Meanwhile firewood is super easy to get. It’s available everywhere, including in huge stacks outside our grocery stores. I can even buy it from my city at $90 a cord, but it needs to be split.
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  "it’s viewed as a dirty" It is. I lived in a small town in a river valley some years ago: you couldn't open the windows in late afternoon, when everyone started to burn their dirty fires.
  - stefan_ 5y ago
    That's funny, because you get the same thing with firewood and wood furnaces now. Not particularly better on the unhealthiness scale, either. Actually, between people burning whatever looks wood-like and coal, I'd probably prefer the coal.
    - ashtonkem 5y ago
      You say that, but the EPA has been slowly tightening emission rules for wood burning stoves. Just this year the EPA is beginning to reduce the allowable soot emissions for stoves from 4.5g/h down to 2.0g/h. Old stoves are obviously a problem, but they’re getting measurably better with time. The model I’m considering purchasing has an actual catalytic converter in it, just like a car, to ensure combustion is as complete as possible.
      - stefan_ 5y ago
        And cigarette filters are 30% effective at removing solids from inhaled smoke. But you are still smoking! It's 2021. Burning wood makes no sense from a global warming and certainly not from a public health perspective.
        throwaway0a5e 5y ago
        Unless you can wave a magic wand and make alternative sources of energy sufficiently cheaper (or make people sufficiently richer, two sides of the same coin really) people are going to heat with wood where that is economically favorable.
        psd1 5y ago