Cost of wood and smokeless fuel

A._Badger

spinningsheep wrote: »

I pay £18.00 for a 50kg sack of Newflame in Stoke on Trent. Good fuel, slumbers really well and great to mix with a log or 2 on an open fire but it creates an awful lot of fine grey ash. Way more than other smokeless fuels I have tried, but I empty my ash pan every day anyway so that is no problem. I have had my fire in for approx 14 hours now and I have had to take the front off the fire and "redisperse" the ash in the ashpan as it was touching the grate. No big deal.

The one complaint I have with my Hunter Herald 14 is the lack of capacity of its ash box. I have to empty it after just four or five hours burning, which is no fun in the face of a roaring 14kw fire!

In case anyone readng this is new to burning smokeless, spinninsheep's point is vitally important. If you let ash block the passage of air up through the fire bars, they will overheat and melt.

It sounds unlikely, but it happens. The previous owners of my house had a huge Yeoman stove which they had ruined in just that way.

suki1964

A._Badger wrote: »

The one complaint I have with my Hunter Herald 14 is the lack of capacity of its ash box. I have to empty it after just four or five hours burning, which is no fun in the face of a roaring 14kw fire!

In case anyone readng this is new to burning smokeless, spinninsheep's point is vitally important. If you let ash block the passage of air up through the fire bars, they will overheat and melt.

It sounds unlikely, but it happens. The previous owners of my house had a huge Yeoman stove which they had ruined in just that way.

In work where we have an open fire on all day every day for 14 hours or more, we get through a lot of grates where they melt and crack from the build up of ashes

jawjawsdad

Thanks for the info Suki. I am in Larne, so will see if they will deliver and give it a try. Been looking for a log source locally, but east antrim is not an easy area to find wood in.

suki1964

jawjawsdad wrote: »

Thanks for the info Suki. I am in Larne, so will see if they will deliver and give it a try. Been looking for a log source locally, but east antrim is not an easy area to find wood in.

Theres a place in Hillsborough does kiln dried - he may deliver out to you. I think down your end you will have more luck then I do this end.

Logs are expensive. Theres a lot of places who will sell you the trees, to cut and split yourself, but they are the pines and you need to plan ahead - and have the storage to dry them. Too much wet wood and your stove is going to get sooty/ tarry. Im burning logs I got last year and a lot of them are just sizzling as they are still too wet

welda

Today I got through to coal depot, whick appears to be like a franchise/distributer for Fergusson coal? Turns out Surefire Ovoids I want to try are £8.85 per 25kg bag, and this is me picking up!

Very strange, I'll buy a couple of bags and see how they perform, check later for other price from other outfits..........

Probably better to buy this stuff in the summer?

:beer:

w50nky

[QUOTE=
Probably better to buy this stuff in the summer?

:beer:[/QUOTE]

No doubt about it, coal merchants in my area have "winter & summer Prices".
They do offer discounts for purchase by the tonne in summer & winter though.

Foggy

I bought (1 of each) 30kg bags of Beamish Brite for £9.25 and £8.55 for coke at Par fuels near Chester le Street.

A._Badger

welda wrote: »

Today I got through to coal depot, whick appears to be like a franchise/distributer for Fergusson coal? Turns out Surefire Ovoids I want to try are £8.85 per 25kg bag, and this is me picking up!

Very strange, I'll buy a couple of bags and see how they perform, check later for other price from other outfits..........

Probably better to buy this stuff in the summer?

:beer:

That's about the going rate for pre-pack - in fact over £1 cheaper per bag than it is down South.

As for summer prices, yes, most coal merchants do offer a small discount and then, like clockwork, up it goes again in the Autumn when the distributors whack on this year's price rise - which they do to match against oil and gas.

w50nky

Just orderd 6 50kg bags of supertherm @ £14.50 a bag.
Still trying various smokeless fuels to try to establish the best for heat output/ash/cost.

Does anyone use "Burnwell" fuel in there stove? I was offered this by one dealer @ £13.00 per 50 Kg, but research on the net seems to indicate that this was designed for use in coal fired power stations! Although it is offered for sale by online merchants it states on some that it is not an approved fuel. Any viewpoints?

A._Badger

w50nky wrote: »

Just orderd 6 50kg bags of supertherm @ £14.50 a bag.
Still trying various smokeless fuels to try to establish the best for heat output/ash/cost.

Does anyone use "Burnwell" fuel in there stove? I was offered this by one dealer @ £13.00 per 50 Kg, but research on the net seems to indicate that this was designed for use in coal fired power stations! Although it is offered for sale by online merchants it states on some that it is not an approved fuel. Any viewpoints?

£14.50 sounds pretty good to me! Never encountered Burnwell.

As to which is best, my local coal merchant says a lot of his customers use Phurnacite (the most expensive and, apparently, the oldest smokeless brand on the UK market). I tried it and didn't find it much use at all, so it's clearly worth trying as many varieties as you can to see what works best for each stove/installation.

My money's still on Taybrite - though rather too much of it!