coal fired heating advice please

mardatha

We have a big coal fired stove in the livingroom, heats radiators in all the rooms. Live high on open moorland in Scotland, get long snowy winters. The house is very warm and cosy, and I love it --but we are spending £90 a month on coal, and £60 on elect. Any suggestions to lower the cost without freezing my a** off, gratefully accepted ! It's a bit draughty in gales, cracks round windows & skirtings. I have no lined curtains, in fact not many curtains at all, just white ikea blinds because we arent overlooked, except by sheep & they arent very nosy

knightstyle

Insulate and draft proof are the most cost effective. Then look at your stove, is the firebox totally enclosed and sealed? This lets you burn the fuel slower with little loss of heat output. Electric, are you on the right tariff? Are you heating the whole house to living in temperature? Better to warm the whole house and only heat the room you are in to living in temperature. Thermostatic valves are good for this but check you can fit them to your system.

mardatha

stove is good yes, the radiators have indiv controls on them. I wonder if maybe we should cut the rooms down and keep the livingroom really cosy...would that use less coal ? It's on all the time anyway, but we don't know how to cut down the amount of coal it burns.
And I will lookat lined curtains, for sure. TY !

knightstyle

To cut down on the amount of coal it uses shut the air intake right down. If the firebox is big you can leave ash piled up at the back or put an old firebrick from an old stove or storage heater in the stove. Just thought, do you have a flue liner? This helps as it means you can burn at lower temperature and not loose so much heat up the chimney.

mardatha

No, its an old house and the chimney is needing lined actually, bits keep falling down . Its got a good control and cane be turned right down to 0. Ok ta, now I will look to saving the elect. Draught proofing and sealing gaps next on the hitlist