Gas fire v Open fire

macman

Open coal fires are hugely inefficient, 90% of the heat goes straight up the chimney. So it is certainly not cheaper than gas per actual kWh of heat input.

hubb

When you are in one room by the fire as opposed to running gas to heat it I think you will find (despite heat going up the chimney) that it is warm enough and burns fuel that is much cheaper than gas.

macman

But in that case you are not remotely comparing like with like, if heating one room instead of several.
For maximum economy you could stay in bed and just run an electric blanket-why heat a whole single room?
Coal may appear 'cheap', but if it produces a fraction of the heat then it is not economic.

hubb

It is to us because we turn the heating off when the fire is lit.

macman

So the heat output is a fraction of what your gas CH would provide, as already pointed out..

hubb

Still warmer though.

Gloomendoom

macman wrote: »

But in that case you are not remotely comparing like with like, if heating one room instead of several.
For maximum economy you could stay in bed and just run an electric blanket-why heat a whole single room?
Coal may appear 'cheap', but if it produces a fraction of the heat then it is not economic.

He's right you know!

hubb

Coal still cheaper than gas.

macman

hubb wrote: »

Coal still cheaper than gas.

So you keep saying, but without any evidence whatsoever.
Gas is approx 4.1p per kWh. Coal is 3.9p per kWh (based on 50kg bags). But smokeless coal (which is a requirement for most of us) is 5.1p per kWh.
So, based on the same efficiency, standard coal is slightly cheaper. However when you factor in the hopeless inefficiency of burning coal on an open fire (it can be as little as 10%, compared to a modern condensing boiler at 90%), gas is way cheaper per kWh.
The fact that you can adequately heat just one room by coal is not a valid comparison.

hubb

Because if we turn the heating off (unless we need to be in other rooms) and use the fire we are not paying as much for our gas. As soon as a radiator goes off it cools quite quickly. A fire stays hot for a long time, even when everything is burned. The room feels a lot warmer with a fire than a radiator to us anyway but other houses with larger rooms may vary.