The Gift of Heat

To some extent I could welcome the gift of a lump of coal for Christmas. If given in the right context, it could probably be a rather genuine gift. Similar to what a hive of bees from the Heifer Project is like, or a designated gift to a radio station like MPR, Jazz 88 or RadioParadise. It could be something given that is enjoyed by others, rather than just an individual.

When burned, coal gives off heat. For those of us that live in the middle of a large continent, with a northern climate, which tends to experience colder spells through winter - we appreciate heat. Although its probably underrated a bit - and perhaps it's become expected.

Photo courtesy via CC

At some point in Minneapolis and other northern towns and cities, folks realized that they preferred individual homes. Some form of heat was needed to warm these homes. The structure we live in was originally heated by a coal fired furnace and boiler system – which then distributed heat to the rest of the house via radiators.

A furnace, boiler and radiators still warm our house, it's just that natural gas now “keeps the fire going”, rather than coal. We recently ripped the coal storage room out of our basement. It was an unused waste of space and we look forward to doing something else with that space. (Like a "study" for dad.)

Our house has a fireplace that still works too. Though most people mention that it is quite inefficient to run the fireplace as it heats only one room and sucks the air out of the house. We use it for special occasions, usually when the entire family is around. It will probably be lit sometime at Christmas.

The United States is said to have 200-300 years worth of coal still available. So, it doesn't seem to be a very rare substance here on Earth (says the carbon-based life form). Though I read recently that Germany has used up most of its coal and is looking to renewable energy, partly because it's an energy source they don't have to import.

Seems funny to me that we are still so reliant on coal, with all our latest technological advances in such important things as e-readers and phones...? Google, recently, invested in solar energy. This is part of an initiative by them to get off of non-renewable energy (like coal). I suppose they need to keep those server storage clouds cool somehow, perhaps they should move'em to Minnesota.

We're fortunate to afford heat. We're fortunate to have the option for heat. Right now we're fortunate to have coal. Perhaps some day we may have solar panels generate electricity to warm our radiators... who knows.... then we could think long term and invest with coal... as diamonds since they're such a rare commodity...

Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their jobs. - Malcolm Forbes