Price of coal

spinningsheep

I have tried peat briquettes and I can honestly say I wasn't all that impressed, didn't give a good flame or much heat.

welshsue

I live in Mid Wales and have coal delivered by the local coal merchant. I had 5 x 50kg bags of loose tipped coal (straight into my coal bunker - premium coal) and 2 bags of morning sticks delivered and the total cost was £74.50. The coal works out to £13.90 per 50kg bag and the sticks are £2.50 per bag.
Not too bad when I read about the prices other places are charging.

EvilMonkey

Sounds like a bargain compared to my price!

Given the cost of smokeless in my area and my inability to get a good amount of heat from it, I think I'll be getting a load of seasoned wood from one of the kent suppliers. That should last me out the season and I'll redouble my efforts in finding free wood for next year!

A._Badger

Pound for pound, solid fuel should be giving you a considerably greater amount of heat than any wood. If it isn't, either your stove is faulty or you haven't got the technique right.

Can you describe the problem in greater detail?

EvilMonkey

A._Badger wrote: »

Pound for pound, solid fuel should be giving you a considerably greater amount of heat than any wood. If it isn't, either your stove is faulty or you haven't got the technique right.

Can you describe the problem in greater detail?

A number of kind people tried to help me out in another post, I managed to coax a bit more heat from the smokeless, but nowhere near as much as with logs. I know I should persevere, but at my local prices, I can get 1m3 of logs for the price of 6x25kg bags of coal. For me the logs give so much more predictable heat... Weird as I expected coal (smokeless) to be more predictable!

In a nut shell, it lights easy enough, I use the bottom vent to pull in air from underneath, riddling helps, but a 1 brickette thickness covering of coal still produces less heat than a couple of logs...

AGBAGB

Evilmonkey, your problem might be the "1 brickette thickness". Have you tried putting loads on?

A._Badger

EvilMonkey wrote: »

A number of kind people tried to help me out in another post, I managed to coax a bit more heat from the smokeless, but nowhere near as much as with logs. I know I should persevere, but at my local prices, I can get 1m3 of logs for the price of 6x25kg bags of coal. For me the logs give so much more predictable heat... Weird as I expected coal (smokeless) to be more predictable!

In a nut shell, it lights easy enough, I use the bottom vent to pull in air from underneath, riddling helps, but a 1 brickette thickness covering of coal still produces less heat than a couple of logs...

Assuming there's nothing wrong with your stove (and it doesn't sound as if there is) then AGBAGB is probably right - you're simply under-firing it.

The laws of physics don't change, so something must be wrong, somewhere. Wood gives out less heat than smokeless fuel. That said, the economics of using it vary from source to source but in absolute terms, it has to be hotter.

Hope you manage to sort it out, anyway.

make_life_easier

I need to know can I use up some charcoal on my stoves fire (hopefully getting fitted in weeks). I have 4 bags of charcoal in the shed which I was going to give away but if it's ok to use it up on my stove I will do. I will be using smokeless coal and wood that I can get for free

zharko

You can get peat briquettes from south Wales. They get shipped over from Ireland by a company called Fast Fuels. Just under a fiver for 20 briquettes collected. They do have a Leicester and a Forest of Dean depot, but I'm not sure if you can collect Peat from there.

I find that the briquettes don't flame, but they take quite easily and don't disintegrate too quickly. I use them as an added extra, and they do have a nice smell.

Tom

Ada3050

I have ordered 4 25kg bags of coal and 1 sack of hardwood logs for £53.00 from coals2u, part of CPL. An experiment, I have ordered 2 of the wildfire and 2 of the eccoal to compare the two.

I have a small open fire so normally have a bed of coal, and top up with logs and this seems to give a reasonable heat out.

I will report back on my findings when it arrives.