Making a coal fire

Poppycat

We recently moved house and have a fairly new coal fire. The other week we tried some cut off woods for free but we had nothing but trouble, smoke, smell etc.

We bought some coal and started using it last night, we screwed up some old paper (old tel book as we dont buy papers) and got some kindeling wood from Wilkos and firelighters. We screwed paper up, put two firelighters in and applied a small amount of coal. We let the hatch thing in the fire up so flames go up and draws air to fire but we are getting next to no heat. When we put the hatch down the smoke fills the room, any idea what we are doing wrong.

We only have Gas CH as any other form of heat and we cant afford the bills of £129 for 4 weeks, we seem to be using 4x more gas then we did in Jan in our old house and we use the boiler less

Coolhandluke

Does the chimney need swept?
Was it windy outside as you might need to have a down draught cowl fitted.

Poppycat

Unsure if it needs sweeping or not. It is windy today (we are on a hill) and I think it does have a cowl on chimney. Thanks

greyteam1959

Are you sure that the chimney is not blocked ????
Sounds like it could be to me.
If you get a couple of sheets of a large newspaper or something that will cover the whole fireplace and hold it across the fireplace ( NOT WITH THE FIRE LIT ) it should be sucked to the fireplace.
If it is not then the flue might be blocked with a birds nest or something.
You are really best getting a chimney sweep out cos it will only cost you £25 or £30 and you will get a fire certificate etc etc.
Having said all the above if sombody has fitted a cowl the maybe they have had problems before ????

Poppycat

I think there is nothing wrong because when we bought the house they had a real hot coal fire going but we cant seem to replicate it here. Thanks

vansboy

Are you using HOUSE COAL, the big chunky lumpy stuff? This will give some flame as it burns & be more smokey, possibly taking longer to light - & is it dry, fresh from a bag, or been outside, 'cos that wouldn't help.

Or is it Coalite, or a similar brand of smokeless coal. This will take some time to burn through, but give a hot glow & small flames.

If it's coal from sealed bags, there's instructions on there, too.

We used lots paper, scrunched up into balls, then the dry kindling & coal on top, so you're OK with that, but it did still take several atempts to get going!!

A couple Moneysaving tips...

Don't waste £$£$ on pre packed wood, there's plenty around once you start looking!!

& check out Homebase on 10% day for the Coalite, rather than petrol staions, or some of the dearer hardware shops!

Have fun!!

VB

navig8r

A flue that has not been used for some time is nearly always a bit smokey when you first light the fire ..ruffle some news paper and light a sheet at a time and push it high into the throat of the fireplace with some tongs to warm it a little and create some draw...also try opening a window, if the house is draft proof there will be no incoming air which a fire needs to burn .

Dave

balmaiden

The fluff from tumble dryers make excellent fire lighters.Also some paper burns better than others I know someone who doesnt buy any papers , but picks up any overflow at the re cycling bin.

roswell

Many years ago when we lived in a coal heated house my gran got us a "Blazer" sheet of metal with a handle once you got the fire light and the wood going to placed the sheet of metal across the firs place this caused a draw and saved hours of re lighting fires.

Another tip is use the ash from the bottom to put on the fire this can keep it going all night.

ormus

old pallets make great firewood, for nowt!

ManAtHome

roswell wrote: »

Many years ago when we lived in a coal heated house my gran got us a "Blazer" sheet of metal with a handle once you got the fire light and the wood going to placed the sheet of metal across the firs place this caused a draw and saved hours of re lighting fires.

That takes me back a bit - only when I were a lad, they were dustbin lids...