I have a smoker that runs on charcoal or propane , with charcoal you'll get about a 3 hour burn time . You can double that by having another pan of charcoal prepped and ready when the first coals begin to die back , but it's a bit of a hassle and 3 hours is usually more than sufficient for smoking . I most frequently use smoker pellets that I get from Wal-Mart . One half cup of them wrapped in foil lasts about 1 hour . Wood chips have to be soaked for 30 minutes , then wrapped in foil or put into a smoker box , smoke time will depend on how much chips you put in it . Make sure that the foil or box doesn't allow much air to get to the chips or pellets since this can shorten their lifespan . I make foil "smoker chubs" of pellets or presoaked chips with just a single toothpick hole or two for the smoke to escape , this allows them to slowly smolder . Sometimes I preload used pot pie tins with foil covers for later use , they're very convenient .