By Way of Comparison

We still find lumps of coal in the barnlots and around the house. I can't imagine what 11 tons of coal would've looked like in the basement! The company (Brown Brothers) that sold the coal is long gone, and it's tough to find sources of heating coal now. But I did run across this article with the following tidbit:

One ton of coal costs about $200 on average, that equals 200 gallons of oil, 310 gallons of Propane, 1.7 tons of wood pellets, 1.4 cords of wood, 27,000 cubic feet of natural gas, or 8,200 kWh's of electricity.

So that 9 and a half tons of coal that was $125 in 1954 would be $1900 in 2009. What a difference 55 years makes, eh? But in the end, it's pretty much the same: $2000 is about what I spent last year on propane to heat the house throughout the season.