coal savings

destiny_star2006

Hi does anyone know any old wives tales etc on how to make coal last longer as we seem to go through it like no ones business paying £8 a bag for it at the moment so quite expensive!
Someone told me to keep all the used tea bags over a few weeks and line the fire with them or somthing along them lines and it would help make the coal last longer not sure about that lmao!!!
It also never seems to stay on for days at a time we clean it out everyday well oh does lol and still its everyday it goes out and he has to re light it any ideas or tips please xx:beer:

spinningsheep

£8 a bag!! Eek! We buy ours from local fuel merchants, after a few months of buying it from focus (never again, rubbish coal, small pieces) and we pay £6 for a 25kg sealed bag of CPL Premium Trebles, and £7 for 25kg of "Housetherm" by CPL. We have 2 recycling boxes full of coal in our understairs cupboard, and they seem to hold 25kg quite comfortably. We burn housecoal mixed with the housetherm in the day if we're at home, and bank it up with housetherm alone at night before bed, and the coal seems to last about 2 weeks, even with a 24 hour fire! Just tickle the embers in the morning and add some housecoal, give it 10 mins and off and blazing again. I have my heating on for 1 hr in the morning, thats it, so my heating comes to about £45 a month, gas and coal, which is better than £120 a month is gas alone before we reactivated the old fireplace!! As far as maing it last longer, the merchant told us that trebles last about twice as long as just ordinary premium housecoal, but you pay about £1.50 per 25kg more, which makes perfect sense to me,as obviously you burn less! Are you running a back boiler off the fire or not? Is it an open fire or a closed appliance? If you have an air control at all,try turning it to almost closed, this will slow the burn down, or if you can, just add a log or 2 as well as the coal (50/50), you will find this insulates the coal more and tends to make it glow hotter for longer, rather than flame up, but I would recommend trying some housetherm or similar, doesnt give as much blaze and flame as ordinary coal, but lasts longer, I get about a 9/10 hour burn from a shovel full overnight.

destiny_star2006

its a closed fire and this heats water etc we need fire on if we need heat water havnt got an emergen heater{ is that wot its called}
weve been to lots of dif places for our coal and its all crap tbh where do you get housetherm from if u dnt mind me asking

spinningsheep

Nah i dont mind at all! My local merchants here in Stoke on Trent is called Harrisons, the largest in the area I understand, and been going a fair while. The coal is in plastic bags from CPL, who have local depots and distributors all over the UK, but it has Harrisons details printed on them too, so I assume they must have some kind of deal with them. Oh and its called Supertherm sorry,not housetherm!

http://www.cpldistribution.co.uk/home_shopping/coal/smokeless-fuels-for-open-fires-and-multifuel-stoves/supertherm/supertherm-25kg-prepacked-[3296].cfm

And if you want a local distributor, I found one near you I think.


CPL Distribution

Denhams Field, Chilton Lane, Ferryhill, County Durham DL17 0BH
Tel: 01740 652744

danieln_2

Thanks for your response spinningsheep this is very helpful, I have been buying silly priced coal but will not sort some from CPL!

I have a multifuel burner and normally only light in the evenings when I get in from work so what type of fuel would you suggest for this? Also where I live it does not have to be smokeless if this makes a difference... I hope you dont mind helping me out!

Cheers

Daniel

spinningsheep

Not at all danieln. Id suggest a mix of trebles premium housecoal and phurnacite. Supertherm is designed for open fires, as it burns better in an open air environment. Phurnacite is designed for closed appliances, and even though you aren't in a smoke control area, the smokeless tends to last longer and burn hotter, you just dont get the same kind of flaming fire you achieve from housecoal or wood. It may take some experienting on what is right for you, so I suggest you maybe buy one bag of a couple of fuels and see what works for you.