Coal as fuel for heating?

Beccatje

Can someone give me some advice on using Coal as a fuel to heat the house?

I'm a total rookie with the stuff but do see some possibillities. My stove will burn wood but was designed for coal!.

Sooo...

Is it cheaper than wood?
how far does a 25 kg supply of coal go? Is there anybody that uses coal to heat their house? Can you tell me how much you use as a rule?

How do you store it?

Is it very messy in terms of dust and ashes?

Help please??

Becca

Farway

Since it was over 40 years ago I last used coal fires my memeory regarding prices is of no use, it was about 10 shillings a hundredweight then [like I said no use to you]

Storing, can be left outside in the rain as it will not soak up water like wood will, but ideally needs some cover to stop it getting too wet and becoming difficicult to light, plastic sheet maybe?

Dust & ashes, not much to choose between coal & wood really, but coal dust can get everywhere sometimes

Penelope_Penguin

Beccatje wrote: »

Can someone give me some advice on using Coal as a fuel to heat the house?

I'm a total rookie with the stuff but do see some possibillities. My stove will burn wood but was designed for coal!.

Sooo...

Is it cheaper than wood? I get all my wood for free, so no
how far does a 25 kg supply of coal go? Is there anybody that uses coal to heat their house? Can you tell me how much you use as a rule?

How do you store it? In a coal shed

Is it very messy in terms of dust and ashes? Not really. However, wood ash is great in the garden, but coal ash has to go in the bin.

Help please??

Becca

Coal has a far higher calorific value than wood, so you need less weight. Nothing beats a crackling wood fire, though

Penny. x

msmicawber

Hi Becca - like the others, I haven't used coal for a while. I'm in a new build house with no chimney or fire place now, and I miss having an open fire. Coal can be a bit dusty when you're cleaning out the stove, but no more so than wood - in fact, the ash is quite often heavier than wood ash so less likely to float about perhaps. I seem to remember coal lasting a lot longer than wood in an open fire and I also thought it burned hotter than wood.

Round here (Oxon), smokeless coal costs about £7.50 per 25 kilo bag. I think I used to get about 1 bag every couple of weeks. It's cheaper to collect it yourself than to have it delivered.

Sorry, storage: I didn't have a coal bunker, so just used to keep it in a plastic dustbin with a lid outside.

chunky79

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=13301669&highlight=logmaker#post13301669

I saw this the other day and found it quite inetresting, it might be worth your while looking into?

Beccatje

chunky79 wrote: »

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=13301669&highlight=logmaker#post13301669

I saw this the other day and found it quite inetresting, it might be worth your while looking into?

Thanks, I've seen it talked about in other places as well. I'm afraid I just 'don't have the time for that though.
(4 kids and working part time)

:eek:
My father made those logs a for a while a few years ago and he told me it was a shocking lot of work! Very time and space consuming and I just don't have either very much.
But thank you so much for looking it up for me. i do appreciate it!

Beccatje

msmicawber wrote: »

Hi Becca - like the others, I haven't used coal for a while. I'm in a new build house with no chimney or fire place now, and I miss having an open fire. Coal can be a bit dusty when you're cleaning out the stove, but no more so than wood - in fact, the ash is quite often heavier than wood ash so less likely to float about perhaps. I seem to remember coal lasting a lot longer than wood in an open fire and I also thought it burned hotter than wood.

Round here (Oxon), smokeless coal costs about £7.50 per 25 kilo bag. I think I used to get about 1 bag every couple of weeks. It's cheaper to collect it yourself than to have it delivered.

Sorry, storage: I didn't have a coal bunker, so just used to keep it in a plastic dustbin with a lid outside.

Okay Thanks!!
I was thinking if I could keep it in a closed bin outside!
:T

Big question remains.. how much do you use on the whole.
How far does 25 kgs go? (that way I can calculate how much I need.)

Thanks everybody so far for taking the time to reply! :T

msmicawber

Becca - I've just noticed that you're in the Netherlands, so the price I gave is probably useless. In fact the price relative to wood may be completely different in the Netherlands from that in the UK.

I think it would be best if you just get a bag and see how long it lasts as the rate at which the coal will burn depends on the draught/flue, how many hours per day you're running the stove, whether you use the damper and for how long, etc.

Beccatje

msmicawber wrote: »

Becca - I've just noticed that you're in the Netherlands, so the price I gave is probably useless. In fact the price relative to wood may be completely different in the Netherlands from that in the UK.

I think it would be best if you just get a bag and see how long it lasts as the rate at which the coal will burn depends on the draught/flue, how many hours per day you're running the stove, whether you use the damper and for how long, etc.

Thanks. I do understand there are variations in usage due to a lot of factors, but if I can just get a rough estimate I'm already happy.
I know what the price of coal is here in Holland, and I also know what the price of wood is. (in general) So all i need to know now is how much of each of the fuels is used up over the same amount of time so I can make a pretty good guess as to what will be more cost affective.

What worries me is: Do I need to be commited to one type of fuel?
Or can I switch?
Maybe I'm taking it all too lightly or something or maybe I'm making things more difficult than they really are.

Just to make sure: I CAN burn wood in the coal stove without problems right?

msmicawber

I believe it's fine to burn wood in a coal stove, but not necessarily the other way round. I think the main differences between a wood-burning stove and a coal one, is that the coal one has a grate and (possibly) can deal with higher temperatures, whereas the wood-burned doesn't necessarily have a grate and may not be designed to deal with such high temperatures, so you may risk a chimney fire. If you know the make/model of the stove, why not just google it.

Certainly with my open fire, I mainly used coal but would sometimes happen upon some logs and would use both fuels at once - especially around Christmas as logs give a lovely smell and crackle and flame beautifully.

Beccatje

Thank you Msmicawber!

You are a life saver!

I'm getting some grief over this issue and you have stated just what I thought! My stove does have a grate. It's cast iron and although I think wood burning would not be ideal It will work.
It's not ideal because it's a smaller space and it won't hold a lot of logs at the same time but it WILL work.

My house was built in the coal stove era so the chimney will be able to handle it no problemn.

Thank you!
I'm getting more and more convinced that Coal would be the way to go.