No. I lived in a house with two coal-burning fireplaces. It was beautiful. We burned wood in the fireplaces but had to cut it very small. When we first married we lived in an old apartment building owned by my FIL. We paid our rent by keeping the hallways clean (me) and shoveling coal into the boiler making sure everyone had heat and hot water and doing repairs (hubby). Messing with the coal was a dirty job. I did think it was cool for that old building to have an exterior short door that the coal people would open and fill that area with coal. Hubby could open a door in the basement to get to the coal. I grew up in a part of the state where coal mining was, and still is, big. West of my city were many mines. The mining companies built what they called "camps" which were dozens of small cabins for the miners and their families to occupy. When I was grown I worked with a lot of people who grew up in the 'mining camps.' They had such a love of all things luxurious....long baths and lotions and hair products, etc. etc. Like they say: We all come from somewhere and that had a lifelong effect on us.
Interesting. I had a wood stove one time to replace the oilstove for heating because there were lots of trees around where I lived and dead wood suitable for burning. I picked up a few bags of coal to use 'case I got lazy and didn't have enough cut wood available. Only trouble with coal is that it leaves a lot more ash than wood and the stove has to be cleaned out more often.
I have never used coal, but I still know it is not as easy or as nice as wood. We had a wood burning heater in 1948 and we would often drive the old Pontiac into the desert, no roads, and collect some ironwood to burn at home. You collect ironwood with a sledge hammer, not an axe or a saw. Most of the time you can pick up loose pieces, so it was very easy to get fire wood.
No. Coal mining is dirty, dangerous work, and burning coal emits poisonous gases. Storing coal is equally problematic. Not really ideal for in-home heating. That said, here in Fla we can run (most) everything on solar.
Thriftymaid 