Coal prices

abigbill

Generally speaking coal is coal is coal. I pu this up innother thread but will do the same here....

There are only 3 types, smokeless (manufactured) or house coal and athracite. You coal mercahnt will bamboozle you, but all have same KW/h rating. Clinker is the only thing taht may vary, but not from brand to brand, more likely from batch to batch. House coal has not had the volatiles burnt off, so it flames well. Thus buy cheapest. Use house coal if you want flames - for open fires, use smokless to put in a closed stove, or, athracite, if you live in a smokless zone. athracite is high grade natural coal, but is usually no better thatn manufactured, so treat as the same & buy on price.

Phurnacite is a brand, same stuuf as fireglow, which is the same as smokeless, there are only three makers in the UK. Ferguson, CPL and the other escapes me. They make it differnt sahpes and call it differtn names. All Basiclly shaped coke. Give it a brand name to kid you on. Stovebrite is an ovoid, and phurnacite to make yo think is differnt is a Square (from memory). Its all balck - it all burns. Phurnacite is dearest, and jsut has a larger bullsh*t rating, to justify the price. But if you wnat it in triangles you ahve to buy Firebrite, it fools most... Coalite is another.

I'll expain, A bag of white sugar is a bag of white sugar, like lagers, but look along the shelf and you'd think not. You'll see 30-40 lagesr in a supermarket. The reason for this is simple, and historic, schmucks like the choice. So guess what, they get it. But I defy any of them to pick their lager brand out from, a blind line up.

Same crowd buys Starbucks, and when the sub-coffee is served burnt, they call it a blend. Works everytime. And they coem back next day, becaue of the luxury! At four quid a go thye have the nerve to put it in a palstic cup. Genius!!! One born every...

My only compalint with Starbucks is that I didn't think of it.

Anyway back to coal, schmuck-coal comes in differnt shapes.

House coal coems in several sizes and large cobbles are best for flames but are hardest to light. But essentailly all the same. So, which shape did you want???

See what i mean? the schmucks, love that sort of thing.

Doubt me? ask you coal merchant for the KW/h per kg of each brand to compare. Look on hte web sitres, CPL for example, it will never be listed. I have £500. says you won't get that information easily.

Order in June, never when the sun is not shining. Pay 230 a ton in Bucks. No colfield next door?? I see, £150 a ton for poor grade houe coal in Derbys. I have 6 ton manufactured ovoids, delivered in July, whn, the coalman is twiddling his thumbs. Cheaper tahn LPG or Olil by big margins. £150 here? I'd love it.

Coal is cheap. If you buy right. Doubt thsi?

See:

http://www.coedcymru.org.uk/calculator.htm

Rant over;)

A._Badger

abigbill wrote: »

Generally speaking coal is coal is coal. I pu this up innother thread but will do the same here....

Clearly posted by someone who really hasn't a clue what he's talking about.

Here is a list of who makes what. I suspect it's slightly out of date, but the point remains.

http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/smokeless_fuels.html

There is another list you can get from HETAS, which lists some of the fuels it has tested and gives sources.

The sensible advice remains to try small samples of the various different types to see what works best for you. Bituminous coal is a very variable product and the various smokeless types perform quite differently - as anyone who has worked his way through them trying to find the best ones for his stove/chimney, will know!

coal_man

Price of all types of domestic fuel high what about long and short term supplies all types gas oil wood coal

SEE

For those on a budget trying to keep warm, I am now using this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/500KGS-UK-BRIQUETTES-FIRE-WOOD-BURNERS-LOG-FUEL-/271093874679

500kg for £100 delivery £25, but excellent speedy delivery. Cheaper than coal and smokeless, lights with a match and the ash can go on the garden.

I have an open fire and a very large stove which does the hot water and 4 radiators. I can no longer afford Coals2U who seem to have bought all the independents out that used to give good summer prices.

You get 25 bags with 20kg in each and on a bitter cold day you will typically burn a bag if you have the same set up as me. I used to burn that in coal which is twice as much as this.

Hope it saves someone some money. Stay warm!

Greenfires

That firm sent me some free samples and asked if I'd stock them earlier this year.

SEE

Greenfires wrote: »

That firm sent me some free samples and asked if I'd stock them earlier this year.

You should stock them. Its the best price and heat I've had for my money in 3yrs. Coal merchants hiking their prices just because gas/electric suppliers do it is despicable. We need a coal watchdog in this country. Some of the poorest people in Britain rely on open fires.

Greenfires

Well they might be cheap! We've done cheap briquettes before though and none of our customers bought them more than once.

SEE

Greenfires wrote: »

Well they might be cheap! We've done cheap briquettes before though and none of our customers bought them more than once.

I have to say, I have no complaints with this particular product. In my coal fire 7 of the briquettes will burn for several hours with good heat and only fall apart when touched with the poker. Its quite fascinating to watch something keep its shape and continue burning when all that is left is dust:D I load the stove up first thing, get it going and then shut it down popping a few in throughout the day to keep it ticking over. I also keep the ash in for 2 weeks before emptying as it stays so nice and hot when you keep adding to it.

YORKSHIRELASS

Just to say we have also been trying heat logs. Our local garden centre has been doing 3 x 25kg bags of Heatmax for £13.75. When I went back yesterday to get more they had nearly sold out. I reckon they will have sold 100 bags in a week.

They are very effective in both our open fire and multi fuel stove. My only gripe is that you cant keep the stove going overnight so I am going to get some smokeless fuel just for that purpose.

Thanks for the ebay link, very interesting.

Greenfires

That's one of the differences between a pressed briquette like the Hotmax (did you mean Hotmax by the way?) and an extruded one. We sell a lot to narrowboat owners who like to keep their stoves in all night, and these are about the only type of woodfuel they can do it with.