Here in New Zealand you can buy it at the Hardware store in 20KG bags. Older houses have pot belly “stoves” for heat, which are smaller then log burners usually, and coal is the best fuel for them.
A friend of mine bought a literal ton of coal for $75 to heat his pole barn in a wood burner that could also be used to burn coal. His chimney wasn’t tall enough and wind would drag the smoke down to ground level as it passed over the gambrel roof. It was nasty. I believe later on I learned that coal from my region is of poor quality and gets sent overseas
Yes. On a camping trip. At one end of the lake is the remains of an old WWII POW camp. There were at the time some small piles of coal. We took a couple of pieces and burned it in a camp fire. Only because I had never seen coal burn before.
A lot of homes where I grew up still had coal fires, so yes, a lot, but its been a long while since I have seen a coal fire. Charcoal as the other commenter said i still see regularly on bbq’s .
I lived in wv, you find chunks of it out in the ground sometimes. I was a curious kid and tried to get some to light. It was real low quality though so it burnt like shit
I was often in charge of lighting the grill when I lived at home with my parents, we used a hot air gun to light the grill, and it worked really well, we never used lighter fluid, just hot air, and during the process you easily see flames comming up from the burning coal.
Failing that, I used to be an active member of a herritage railroad with steam trains, looking into the firebox of a steam enging you clearly see the coals burning.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen coal burn, but you can find pieces of it along the abandoned railways and beaches in my area. We have a coal dock that’s been abandoned for 50 years and the ground is still black with coal dust
Edit: actually a scenic railroad in my area still has a coal fired steam locomotive so yes, I can say I’ve seen coal burn!
Charcoal is wood that has been heated above combustion temperature without oxygen. That does drive off water, but it also chemically decomposes the lignin and other organics into primarily carbon while creating a volatile mixture of gasses known as woodgas.
Source: Have a woodgas generator. Byproduct is charcoal.
While growing up my family’s home had heating stoves capable of burning both wood and coal. While we primarily burned wood, coal would sometimes be used, particularly on nights when it was really cold out as it tended to burn hotter and usually burned longer than wood of the same volume.
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