Wow. Coal has jumped from £9.00 to £15.00 a bag this year!

HumphreyClinker

We buy 250kg of premium coal at a time from CPL. Spring this year it was £9 per 50Kg bag and now it's £15 p/50kg!! To fill our bunker up has gone from £45 to £75.
Coal isn't our main source of heat fortunately but it is nice in the winter to warm the front room with an open fire. Can anyone suggest a cheaper supplier? I have been looking around but no luck so far.

It seems the oil companies aren't the only ones being greedy.

A._Badger

I have just paid £12.90 per bag (in Kent). Coal does vary from region to region but, generally speaking, a local coal merchant is usually cheaper, I find.

You can find an alternative supplier via Yellow Pages or yell.com I'd imagine.

Hope that helps.

Catfriend

We had a shock this morning to discover that our house coal has risen in price from £9.50 per 50Kg sack to £13.50. I had been warned by the coalman that it would be increasing in price, but £4 per sack really seems excessive. He told me that he couldn't keep the price any lower as he is doing no more than pass on the costs from the wholesale supplier which he can no longer absorb, and he said he is making no profit himself from the increase. He seemed pretty fed up, actually, at all the grumbles he was receiving from shocked and worried householders. It is a worry, though, on top of the electricity price rises. We don't have gas available in my area, so that is not an option. We live in Cumbria, and all the coal merchants locally seem to charge the same amount so we have no choice. I am newly retired, and dreading a cold winter.

spinningsheep

Catfriend, have you considered changing to a multifuel stove of some sort? Unless you already have on of course. If you just want to convert an exsisting 16" grate, ESSE do one for about £500 that just slots in, may be worth considering, may use less coal as the heat isn't just lost up the chimmney

going2die_rich

Don't think it's greed, it's called good business sense. If Oil and Gas go up it's natural you'd think about pushing your product up as well since it's part of the same type of product.

Although I think the rise is more likely due to the increased overheads from mining the coal and also wage and inflation increases.

Lynt_3

I paid £28 more for 500k last week, and it's going up a further £28 in November.
I have a solid fuel rayburn in the kitchen (doesn't heat water), so if I can't afford to run the (very expensive) oil centraly heating, I will just live in the kitchen.

(Off to Red Cross Charity shop tomorrow to buy some cheap wooly cardies)

Optimisticpair

This has been suggested on another thread - If you aren't the only user could you organise it so that a few of you place a larger order together for a discount? It cuts the cost of the coal man having to make several deliveries.

Can anyone use wood, old pallets, fence makers, offcuts, tree surgeon branches.

smallblueplanet

Other than 'good business sense' or as I prefer to call it - greed, what other reason is their for the jump from £13.70/50kg a bag of New Flame to £17.50/50kg bag?

daveyjp

smallblueplanet wrote: »

Other than 'good business sense' or as I prefer to call it - greed, what other reason is their for the jump from £13.70/50kg a bag of New Flame to £17.50/50kg bag?

Everything we buy uses oil somewhere along the line - mining, collection, processing, shipping, final delivery. The price of oil has jumped, so everything else will do so and most UK coal is now imported.

The irony is the UK sits on thousands of years of supply of high quality coal reserves, but Mrs Thatcher ensured we'd not be mining it for years.

A._Badger

I'm not convinced. Yes, it is costing more to transport coal, but it isn't costing that much more. What is happening is that the prices are floating upward, linked to the prices of oil and gas. In that sense, it's just profiteering.

As for Mrs Thatcher, I wonder how much we would be paying if she hadn't forced the issue with the miners when, once again, they tried to hold the country to ransom?

QTC

Have you thought about wood? Ask your local firewood merchant how much..but make sure it's seasoned, better still, ask what the moisture content is. It needs to be 20% or less. Generally speaking, you use twice as much wood by weight compared to coal, but firewood prices are typically £100-150/ton,