Every year, I ask Santa for coal, but every year he brings delicious cheese and beautiful gifts instead. I just don’t get it – what am I going to have to do to get some coal? I guess I’ll just have to buy it myself. As you can guess, coal doesn’t smell nearly as nice as wood when it burns, but it is easier to store, it is much less labor intensive to use (unless you are the one mining it), and it doesn’t have to cure like wood.

Actually, what I like to do is to burn both wood and coal. During the day we burn wood, but at night we like to put a couple of really nice BIG chunks of coal in the fire before going to bed. The big pieces of coal burn a lot slower than wood and it lasts all night. In the morning, our house is still warm and we generally have some nice coals left to start up our wood fire again.

It is important that you have a stove that is made tough enough to burn coal so that it won’t be ruined. The highest grade coal is called anthracite and it is very low in sulfur. You can still effectively burn a lower grade coal, but it will be higher in sulfur. Either way, there is sulfur involved and it will eventually cause corrosion to the smokestack and it can eat its way through the grate, or the bottom of the stove, if it isn’t made for burning coal. Fortunately, I have a stove that can burn either, but I do have to use the heavier grate if I’m going to use the coal exclusively.

As far as storing coal, it is much easier than storing wood. For one thing, insects don’t burrow into coal like they can with wood (and then come back to life when the wood warms up inside your house.) Also, coal can’t rot or deteriorate like wood…., but wood smells so good when it burns.

You can store coal in a pile out in the open, but I would suggest that you keep it covered because it just makes it easier to pack it up and bring inside the house without making too much of a mess. You can also bury it if you want. Just think about it, where do you get coal? Out of the ground of course. I have a friend that doesn’t use coal on a regular basis for heating, but their family wanted to have a year’s supply of alternative fuel. So, they buried a large amount (a ton or two) in their yard. So that they would not forget where it was when they needed it, they planted a lovely flower garden over it to mark the spot. Brilliant! Prepared and yet beautiful too!

Coal fires are a little trickier to start than wood fires, but I found a really good step-by-step set of instructions at: hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/coaltips.

They have lots of really good information. If you don’t know if your fireplace can burn coal, my suggestion would be to contact the manufacturer of your stove and ask them. You could probably Google the name and find it. If you have the model number I’m sure that they could send you the information you need. If you don’t have the model number, then take a picture of it and send it to them electronically to see if they can help you.

Get prepared to stay warm before it starts to get really cold – and get your water stored!