Anthracite power, consuming 1 pound of fuel per horsepower-hour, or less. Large quantities of anthracite for power purposes were formerly exported from South Wales to France, Switzerland and parts of Germany. , widespread commercial anthracite mining in Wales has now ceased, although a few large open cast sites remain, along with some relatively small drift mining operations. Anthracite generally costs two to three times as much as regular coal. In June 2008, the wholesale cost of anthracite was US$150/short ton. The principal use of anthracite today is for a domestic fuel in either hand-fired stoves or automatic stoker furnaces. It delivers
Anthracite difficulty of igniting it. This was a particular concern in smelting iron using a blast furnace. With the invention of hot blast in 1828, which used waste heat to preheat combustion air, anthracite became a preferred fuel, accounting for 45% of US pig iron production within 15 years. Anthracite for iron smelting was later displaced by coke. From the late 19th century until the 1950s, anthracite was the most popular fuel for heating homes and other buildings in the northern US, until it was supplanted by oil-burning systems and more recently natural gas systems. Many large public buildings, such as