Real fire - what do you burn?

MUMMYTO2BOYS

Old pallets from factories. They'd have to pay to get shut of them.

Dozer_2

We have a couple of Victorian cast iron fireplaces in our house and live in a smoke control zone. We layer up firelighters, kindling and then homefire smokeless coal. We are careful to keep the ash pan closed tight to begin with so too much air doesn't get to the base of the fire and the kindling doesn't burn too quickly, we then open the ash pan up slightly when the coal starts glowing. We then spend the rest of the night complaining that it's too hot! :-)

usignuolo

I burn logs and coal. I used to burn Coalite for choice back when it was a sort of reprocessed coal, and burnt fast and easily but the plant was sold off by an unscrupulous businessman and closed down. The name has been sold and there is now some coal on the market called Coalite but it is not the same thing, does not use the same process.

All coals now take longer to get going, house coal particularly so. I use smokeless fuel mainly and I light mine with a compressed heat log you get from garages, garden centres and hardware shops. They are very good if you want to get a big fire going and don't want to stand over it watching if it is going out, as they burn hard and fierce for quite a while which is sufficient to get the logs and coal underway. Plus I some kindling.

My husband says I am a wimp and just uses paper, kindling and matches.

I can't emphasise too much that you need to burn seasoned (dried out) timber not stuff fresh from the wood. You can leave it to season in your garden or cellar. Otherwise the oils gum up the chimney.