Buring Coal

LabR@t · 23 Feb 2010 at 22:14

I moved into my house last year and one of the prerequisites was an open fire now we have had a very cold winter and after last years bills for the our 1st winter where quite high this year i have shunned the gas boiler in favour of the coal fire and have managed to source a lot of free logs so have managed to reduce my gas consumption greatly.

How many of you lot still have open/wood burners as nearly all houses have no option to do this and with rising gas prices this could be a great way to save money.
Also i have had no electricity today but as the open fire was lit the house is still getting heated otherwise I would have be frozen today.

So how many coal/burners out there?

and you can't beat an open fire.

mangobreeder · 23 Feb 2010 at 22:21

if you can come and collect it your welcome to half a coal bunkers worth of coal from my back garden

Ahleckz · 23 Feb 2010 at 22:25

Would love to, but live in a city so assume it's a smoke control area

How much do you think you are saving, if you don't mind me asking?

Frozennova · 23 Feb 2010 at 22:26

I dont however my grandparenst do and theyve just switched over to the calor gas heaters as coal has gone up in price about 25% over this winter

Tonyator · 23 Feb 2010 at 22:27

We have 2 open fires and 1 log burner in the house (well in the summer houses in the garden too), its all we use really... the heating is hardly ever on.

LabR@t · 23 Feb 2010 at 22:32

Ahleckz said:
Would love to, but live in a city so assume it's a smoke control area

How much do you think you are saving, if you don't mind me asking?

get smokeless coal, bit pricer but you can burn it in smoke controlled areas

probably not saving much but was always cold with just gas CH on.

Fourstar · 23 Feb 2010 at 22:40

My Auntie still uses an open fire as her main heating source and mainly only uses the central heating to stop the rest of her house freezing up.

Trouble is since the recession started she says the cost of wood has gone up massively. This is presumably as more people have started using it to try and cut heating costs. Coal isn't very cheap either.

Amp34 · 23 Feb 2010 at 22:41

We do, two in fact, although we have only ever used one, which isn't used any more because our tv is to close to it.

Ahleckz · 23 Feb 2010 at 22:54

LabR@t said:
get smokeless coal, bit pricer but you can burn it in smoke controlled areas

probably not saving much but was always cold with just gas CH on.

Aye, just been reading up about that.

Who would I speak to about finding out if my chimney was actually hooked up and OK to use? Would I need a survey done as I imagine it's been some time since it's been used - and possible issues with me living in a tenement.

LabR@t · 24 Feb 2010 at 20:59

just ring of chimney sweep he should be able to check it out for you.

Amp34 · 24 Feb 2010 at 21:00

Or if you have a young son...

qqg3 · 24 Feb 2010 at 21:04

1 open fire and a wood burner although we put the wood burner in place of an old open fire. So much cleaner and astonishingly efficient. Whack it on and the whole house is heated.

PermaBanned · 24 Feb 2010 at 21:21

Smoke free zone, we occasionally burn coke or one of those wierd logs you get at petrol stations.

godinman · 24 Feb 2010 at 21:31

All we've got is a wood/coal burner. Good thing tho, warms the house up

Oh and a couple of leccy ones which aren't used much.

MrMoonX · 24 Feb 2010 at 21:33

We have an open fire in the house we moved into before christmas, its great on cold nights, CH on low roaring fire in the front room all nice and warm and saves a fortune on gas.
We normally use coal and logs on the same fire, logs for the look, coal for the heat

Dave M · 24 Feb 2010 at 21:40

My brother has a wood burning stove and wood is very very cheap compared to coal or gas.

It's not as convenient of course - a lump of wood takes longer than house coal to warm up and a lot longer and less convenient than gas central heating.

If you can't get free wood but do have a yard / garden you can order a truck load that will last a year of daily use, very reasonable I understand.

burtie · 24 Feb 2010 at 21:48

We have no mains gas here just 2 gas bottles for hot water and the central heating far to expensive to run a bungalow of this size on gas bottles. So we put up with the cold and have a real fire in the living room. We live near a scrap yard so all the wood is free.

Shimmyhill · 24 Feb 2010 at 21:49

If you pay for wood or coal its dearer than gas, also open fires are 15% efficient so you send 85% of the heat up the chimney

wood burners are much more efficient upto 80% !!

We moved a year or so ago and are renovating this place, wood burner in living room and open fire in dining room - not for savings but as i love the heat they produce and the look of them - grew up with open fires and you cant beat them !!

"andy" · 24 Feb 2010 at 21:55

Fourstar said:
Trouble is since the recession started she says the cost of wood has gone up massively. This is presumably as more people have started using it to try and cut heating costs. Coal isn't very cheap either.

its because industry is buying it all and burning it because of the fortune they make from selling carbon credits

theyve built the biggest wood burner in uk just down the road and it burns 24/7. truckloads of the stuff every day. they sell the electricity it creates and sell the carbon credits it earns (as wood is classed carbon neutral)

all seems a bit 'wrong' too me

jbloggs · 24 Feb 2010 at 22:07

Have always lived in a house with an open usable hearth, except for the 5-6 years I lived in Bournemouth when I was at college...

My brother, who is a forester in Canada, has 2 wood burning stoves which heat the whole house all through the coldest parts of the year, getting the wood to feed them is straightforward, as when he is out on the ground when he sees some dead trees he simply stops his pickup truck, gets out the chain-saw and he has the back of it filled in no time...

Cheap Heat!