wood, coal or electricity what's cheaper

Towser

Hello,
We have a multifuel Rayburn which does the water, heating, cooking and drying.
What is cheaper though wood, coal or electricity to heat your house. There are all these comparison sites for gas and electricity but can't work it out for solid fuel. I think the answer is coal but somebody must know for sure. How do you get a nice even constant room temperature too?

Ben84

Gas and electricity are great for comparison as they're usually sold by the kWh, while other fuels are sold by weight or volume and things like coal and wood are variable products of which the energy content varies. However, I do know of one site which does attempt to compare them:

http://www.confusedaboutenergy.co.uk/index.php/domestic-fuels/fuel-prices

The prices they provide are realistic from what I've seen, but I think their suggestions on the energy content per unit of wood/coal are the most useful thing and you can combine this with your local prices for a better answer. There is still some degree of uncertainty in the answers on solid fuel however, particularly with wood where the moisture content affects the energy available when you burn it. Treat the answer as a guideline rather than absolute.

After all this, you then have to consider the efficiency of the appliance being used, because even if the fuel is cheap per kWh of potential energy, an inefficient appliance can still result in a high price for every kWh delivered usefully as heating.

babyshoes

Thing is, wood grows on trees, literally. If you can find some for free, it will be cheapest! Try asking on freegle/freecycle. Old pallets are apparently good in a wood burner as they are un-treated, and often seem to pop up on our freegle group.

poppellerant

If you can find free wood (old pallets, etc), then I would use this with coal.

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi

We put a multifuel stove in our open plan kitchen/diner 10 years ago and have experimented a lot over the years with different fuels.

There are so many factors to take into account so its impossible to accurately compare like for like but for me a decent quality smokeless fuel is best in terms of its overall economy.

We have given up with traditional logs completely. Finding decent quality, dry, seasoned logs that arent silly prices is hard. Then you have to store them somewhere. We do get a bit of free timber from a friend which is useful for starting the fire but not practical for long term use.

We have been using homefire for the past couple of winters. Its not cheap but it burns for a long time and we can keep the stove going 24 hours a day.

There is always lots of discussion on this on the utilities forum. You will find lots of different opinions though and people tend to have quite strong views about their own preferences.

Towser

Where do you get fuel for free for multifuel woodburner?

I did get some pallets from our local industrial estate which are great for kindling.

I spent around £1000 this year on boiler nuts which I really want to drastically reduce.

I am ready to ask joiners to save their offcuts, tree surgeons (they chargefor their green wood) and farmers whether I can collect firewood off their land but have not picked up the courage yet. Ready for next year.

Hubby will not let me use the chainsaw until I do a course which is fair enough but where would I source the wood from in the firstplace?

Towser

wood, coal or electricity what's cheaper ?

I have revived this thread due to the shift in prices. Somebody must know the new data.

Thank-you for sharing