Coal fires

big_white_dog84

big_white_dog84

big_white_dog84

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I'm moving to a house with a coal fire, and I'm not really sure what to do with it!
Can anyone tell me the best stuff to burn in it? - wood vs coal etc. How often should I have the chimney swept, how do you store the fuel, stop cold air coming down the chimney when the fire is not on etc?
 
Well your going you use coal and wood (logs) together? If the fireplace is big enough I would store the logs and wood in the sides of the fireplace and then enough coal to last a while in a coal bucket. As for stopping the cold draught I would get a chiminey pillow :) Link here
 
Get a pic up if you've got one - that might help :)
Check whether you're in a smokeless zone, too. You might need to get Coalite or similar.
You can get a log basket and a coal bucket to store stuff in
A chimney sweep will probably advise you to sweep it annually.

But - don't panic just yet, you're not going to need /want to light it for about sixmonths yet!
 
We start it with paper, wood and coal. Paper on the bottom, then wood, then coal. You light the paper and then the rest will follow.*

* Well its supposed to, I can't do it, my mum manages to every time.
 
Ahhhh that takes me back! My old house used to have a coal fire. Used to love it in the winters. Plus my kitty cat used to curl up in front of it and snooze in the heat :)

From what I recall we used a base of scrunched up newspapers and logs and then heaped coal on top. Used firelighters on the base to get it started.

Was a pain having to scoop up all the ashes each morning though. And we got a guy to clean out the chimney on infrequent occasions. Never did it ourselves.
 
Tikkabhuna said:
We start it with paper, wood and coal. Paper on the bottom, then wood, then coal. You light the paper and then the rest will follow.*

* Well its supposed to, I can't do it, my mum manages to every time.
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What kinda paper did you use? I used to use several layers of old newspapers I think the trick is to get something that burns quite fast but not tooo fast which happens if you have too thin a layer of paper.
 
I love coal fires, miss my great grans, I used to go bring in coal and bank up the fire for her.

Went out shooting with a friend once and we went back to his mums house, it was a bit cold out and he had extra socks on. He took off his socks in front of the fire so he could warm up, rolled them up in a ball all neat taking his time then just threw them in the fire, he had a major face-palm moment.
 
Thanks for the replies. I think I will invest in one of those chimney pillows for the winter - looks like a good way of keeping the heat in.

We've got a bomb shelter in the back garden that I might turn into the main coal / wood store with buckets in the cupboard next to the fire. I wonder how much damage the coal will cause to the carpet in front of the fire?

I think I'm also going to invest in an extinguisher....dry powder or AFFF?
 
Rroff said:
What kinda paper did you use? I used to use several layers of old newspapers I think the trick is to get something that burns quite fast but not tooo fast which happens if you have too thin a layer of paper.
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It tends to work best if you scrunch up the paper but also remember to use kindling as that will catch more quickly than big logs/coal but takes longer to burn out than paper will. Newspaper will do fine though, there's no need to get anything special - if you've got a local free paper then that's always handy.

//edit it should be obvious but just in case - paper on the bottom, kindling above then logs/coal on the top so that it's got a chance to warm up and cause the higher up and harder to ignite items to start off. Just practice a bit as sometimes you don't want to add all the heavy stuff initially, just wait until the fire has caught before adding it.
 
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Rroff said:
What kinda paper did you use? I used to use several layers of old newspapers I think the trick is to get something that burns quite fast but not tooo fast which happens if you have too thin a layer of paper.
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Just newspaper. I think I scrunch it up wrong or something.
 
Tikkabhuna said:
Just newspaper. I think I scrunch it up wrong or something.
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Back in the day when we were on coal, we use to roll newspaper sheets in to Slack cigars then cross the two end and tie in a single knot. We also used kindling though, just a few bits of what ever wood was lying around, usually stuff scavenged from farms or skips. But seeing as most wardrobes are no longer just normal wood but MDF or similar I suppose less useful stuff in skips.
 
It was always newspaper we used. We scrunched them up into tight little wads and made a nest of them at the base of the fire. This tended to produce the best results.

We kept the coal in a bunker that was just outside the backdoor of our house and scooped what we needed into a metal bucket each morning.
 
Don't burn logs and coal at the same time as the moisture from the logs sticks the ash from the coal to the chimney so it will need cleaning more often.

A fire is like a child you need to nurture it and feed it, start of with newspaper scrunched up and fine kindling, then add bigger thicker pieces till you can chuck on split logs, mix wetter and dryer logs to keep it burning well as all dry wood will just burn up quickly.

For coal I find laying one deep on the bottom and using a one solid fire lighter on top then build up around it works well, you can almost light it and walk away.

Coal will give more radiant heat where as log heat will go up the chimney, I think you loose 80% of your heat up the chimney so think about a log burner which only chuck 20% up the chimney. Also don't bother lighting a fire at 6pm when you come in, by the time your going to bed it will just about be kicking out heat, it takes a while for the chimney, hearth and surround to heat up then it will radiate into the room.

We keep our ticking over in the winter at weekends by closing off the air vents and chucking a log in every other hour then open them all up and fuel it up.
 
I have a woodburning stove and a fireplace, first thing your gonna want to do is build a log store. Trust me it goes down quick in the winter nights.
 
Wood will give a nice smell, but not a huge amount of heat. Coal/smokeless coal will give a nice glow, but much more heat (depending on the type of fire you have :P)

We have an open fire with a back boiler. We use smokeless coal (Taybrite) for overnight burning, as it stays in longer. Wood heats the boiler quicker (but not the room) and smells nicer :)
 
sweep it each year at start of winter.
Keep your old newspapers and gets some kinderling.
I used around 1 tonne of coal last winter and 2 dumpy bags of logs.
 
badcompany said:
sweep it each year at start of winter.
Keep your old newspapers and gets some kinderling.
I used around 1 tonne of coal last winter and 2 dumpy bags of logs.
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Jeebus - we use about 1/2 a ton of house coal and 1/2 a ton of Taybrite every 6 weeks - along with much free wood :eek::eek::eek:

It is our only way of heating the house, however :)
 
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