Multiburner coal question

mardatha

We have a Parkray Cumbria, burning only coal as wood doesn't give out enough heat. It stays on 24/7 most of the year.
Question is - in power cuts obviously the pump can't work, but if we used house coal then would it be ok to use the fire with the doors open?
I know you can't run it with open doors if you burn smokeless eggs - but surely you could use ordinary house coal like an open fire?
At present in powercuts (we get a lot of them) we just leave the fire on as normal but have to constantly run off the water as it boils. It just seems so wasteful.

muckybutt

mardatha wrote: »

We have a Parkray Cumbria, burning only coal as wood doesn't give out enough heat. It stays on 24/7 most of the year.
Question is - in power cuts obviously the pump can't work, but if we used house coal then would it be ok to use the fire with the doors open?
I know you can't run it with open doors if you burn smokeless eggs - but surely you could use ordinary house coal like an open fire?
At present in powercuts (we get a lot of them) we just leave the fire on as normal but have to constantly run off the water as it boils. It just seems so wasteful.

You should have at least one radiator that will act as a heat dump for just such occasions, normally the rad will be a big one - above the fire in a bedroom or bathroom - and it wont have trv's fitted to it.

If theres no way to let the heat dissipate then you could seriously damage the fire, to the extent of it exploding - it happens !

If you get a power cut DO NOT open the doors of the fire, this will only make the fire burn hotter which is not what you want, ideally you want to close the fire down and run it cool or let it go out until the power comes back on. If you are getting many power cuts look at getting a ups fitted to run the central heating pump and programmer that way you can leave it running http://www.systo.co.uk/electrical-equipment/power-conditioning/uninterruptible-power-supplies-ups/apc-bk500ei-uninterruptible-power-supply-ups-bk500ei.html

mardatha

The radiator in the hall stays on yes. Thanks for this link - can you tell me (in wee short words !) what this ups thing does?

muckybutt

A ups ( Uniterruptable Power Supply ) its basically a car battery and some fancy electronics.

What happens is your heating controller and pump can be fed from a unit big enough, the unit itself is always "on standby" constantly charging the battery inside, when theres a power cut the electronics inside realise there is a power cut and they then boost the 12v battery power to 240v thus giving you an interupted supply of power to what ever you chose to power from it.

Cheaper than a generator ! many offices use them to power computers etc in case of powercuts, I have a small one on my central heating pump as we often get power cuts as we live in the country.

mardatha

Brilliant thank you!