Coal suppliers

tommyedinburgh

My 'Coal Man' has retired. Any recommendations for a national supplier? I am happy to buy in bulk if needs must.

bhjm

maybe worth providing you location? i only could recommend one for blackpool area

tommyedinburgh

We are in Edinburgh.

GunJack

have a look at local web listings, yell.com still going for instance

A._Badger

tommyedinburgh wrote: »

My 'Coal Man' has retired. Any recommendations for a national supplier? I am happy to buy in bulk if needs must.

I had the same happen to me a few years ago. His customer list was acquired by the one remaining cal merchant in this area, whose but his prices are atrocious.

A bit of searching around reveled any number of suppliers on eBay, who will sell you a pallet of anything from housecoal to the numerous smokeless varieties on the market, They are all pretty competitive on price but the best I have found so far (I've had about five metric tonnes from them in recent years) is https://www.housefuel.co.uk

They are quite helpful on the phone, their prices seem about the best and their delivery is reliable.

There is a downside, (of course). All the bulk suppliers use palletised transport services, which means you get a thumping great lorry outside your house with a driver who just wants to drop a 1 tone pallet and run. They only ever seem to be equipped with hand trucks and not all of them are willing to take the pallet onto your driveway, assuming you have one.

That aside, providing you have space to store (and the energy to shift) as many as 40 25kg sacks, it will save you a lot of money.

Hope that helps.

tommyedinburgh

A._Badger wrote: »

I had the same happen to me a few years ago. His customer list was acquired by the one remaining cal merchant in this area, whose but his prices are atrocious.

A bit of searching around reveled any number of suppliers on eBay, who will sell you a pallet of anything from housecoal to the numerous smokeless varieties on the market, They are all pretty competitive on price but the best I have found so far (I've had about five metric tonnes from them in recent years) is https://www.housefuel.co.uk

They are quite helpful on the phone, their prices seem about the best and their delivery is reliable.

There is a downside, (of course). All the bulk suppliers use palletised transport services, which means you get a thumping great lorry outside your house with a driver who just wants to drop a 1 tone pallet and run. They only ever seem to be equipped with hand trucks and not all of them are willing to take the pallet onto your driveway, assuming you have one.

That aside, providing you have space to store (and the energy to shift) as many as 40 25kg sacks, it will save you a lot of money.

Hope that helps.

Had a look, this is exactly what I'm looking for, thank you.

Did you go for the Scottish or Colombian coal?

A._Badger

tommyedinburgh wrote: »

Had a look, this is exactly what I'm looking for, thank you.

Did you go for the Scottish or Colombian coal?

Glad it helped!

I use smokeless on a multifuel stove, so the choice didn't apply, but I'd always at least try a home produced product first if it were me.

Robisere

It appears that there will be a new coal mine opening on the opposite coast from Edinburgh, although supposedly to provide coking coal for the steel industry:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/19/deep-coal-mine-gets-go-ahead-in-cumbria-despite-protests

The Greens are up in arms of course, declaring that steel can be produced using electricity. Which will need huge amounts of electrical power, which needs huge amounts of generation, causing a larger Carbon footprint than the blast furnace and coking plants combined. We need steel to be produced as economically as possible, in order for our economy to grow after Brexit. If our remaining steel plants close, we will have to import even more finished products and our balance of payments will make horrifying reading. That is without mentioning the importation of coal from elsewhere, to fire the furnaces. Or the number of jobs, apprenticeships and supply jobs created, in a depressed area of high unemployment.