[Closed] Anyone routinely set a coal fire at home?

check with your LA (or coal merchant) but you can probably burn smokeless fuel.

get a chimney sweep to come out and clean the chimney and do a smoke test.

You'll want smokeless fuel and a nice multi-fuel burner that's DEFRA compliant 🙂

Best be sure that if you have a back boiler installed that all is well and watertight before you proceed.

exorbitantly priced wood burner and underfloor heating ?

it's the stw way

depends where you are, in a rural area coal away almost certainly, another way would be go outside this evening and see if you can smell that lovely coal fire smell...

The other way is smokeless during the day and then coal at night when no-one can see which chimney its coming from, cos smokeless fuels are a bit shit...

Wood burning stoves while being very 'STW', are also ace, expensive to put in but staggeringly efficient.

They look lovely but thy are rubbish for heating yor room as most of the heat is going up your chimney and to the outside

Far more effective ways to heat your home in terms of use and cost

We have coal fire at least once a week in the winter. The smokeless coal is a bit crap TBH and never gives off the heat the "dirty" stuff does so we go with that? Only prob is the wife has a habit of loading the fire up late on in the evening then she falls asleep and we end up going to bed with a still roaring fire which is a little worrying. She also has the heating on full as well but that's women for you!!
I dont think many folk either have working fire places or can be bothered these days so thats why no smoke.

Please no coal fires on this forum has to be log burner.

Shopping around and you'll get one fitted reasonably, ours paid for itself within 2 years but that's when I could still get logs free. Stupid father having heart attacks put an end to that, he's cost me a fortune.

and get a proper fire guard that'll catch sparks if you have an open fire.

Wood burner has preferance over the boiler here .

Grew up with open coal in 2 rooms and moved on to a cassette wood burner on later years

Tis not really a hassle o light it at all once you have technique and warms te room much quicker than a radiator.

Dont understand why having a roaring fire going before bed is a bad thing - long as the guards a good fit. Close the vent and youll be able to light it again in the morning from the embers - with wood its a totally different story ! Youll also keep some heat inthe house during the night so its not as cold when you get up.

Used to be how it was done before central heating came along 😉

We're hoping to get my mums old wood burner put in our dining room this month. she's also about to have a massive tree in her front garden cut down that's dying, so free wood for at least 2 or 3 years...

We have a coal fire most nights (rather than use CH). Not sure if it really saves money. I get 6-7 fires from a 25kg bag of smokeless which costs £12 at a local DIY merchant, so about £2/fire or £2/ day cost.

The main attraction is it is so much nicer than CH and makes the living room really cosy.

We have coal fire at least once a week in the winter. The smokeless coal is a bit crap TBH and never gives off the heat the "dirty" stuff does so we go with that

From I've seen on the web, smokeless gives off more heat and burns longer than 'real' coal. My fire is still glowing most mornings....

Warton that must be gigantic tree if you're going to get 2-3 years out of it.

Thanks all - think I need the chimney sweep in.

I remember the coal fires from childhood being really warm and toasty, but very sleep-inducing. Always used to nod off in front of them. Maybe a bit of CO swirling around the living room.

Used to light them with a big sheet of newspaper held over the fireplace to create a serious updraft - tended to catch fire so you'd shove it under the grate with the poker.

Used to light them with a big sheet of newspaper held over the fireplace to create a serious updraft - tended to catch fire so you'd shove it under the grate with the poker.

Yep - every 10 fires or so the paper catches and engulfs in a ball of flame!

You're in a smoke control zone so you;ll need smokeless fuel where you live

Used to light them with a big sheet of newspaper held over the fireplace to create a serious updraft - tended to catch fire so you'd shove it under the grate with the poker.

You can get these made from metal, in our house called a Blow George but that could just be one of those funny names that no one knows what it came from, prop it agains the fire place with a poker...

We have an open fire in the sitting room which is lit every night in the winter. We burn mainly coal and occasionally a few logs. Don't find it hard work, just empty the ash pan every few days. Our house is old and pretty cold and it really warms the place up. Also kind of cheers the place up on a miserable day. If we weren't moving away soon I'd be tempted to put in a multi fuel stove like we have in the dining room which is much more efficient. If you've already got a fireplace, get the sweep round to check out the chimney, then get burning stuff!

Yep - every 10 fires or so the paper catches and engulfs in a ball of flame!

Even more exciting when there wasn't a proper hearth (numpty previous owners of our old house) and the paper fell on the varnished floor..!

We have a ubiquitous log burner in the new place. TBH, we should have gone for multifuel - coal gives off some epic heat!

We have a wood burner which is great but the faff means it is not used routinely. If CH works you tend to use it for effect as much as heating. I would imagine there is a bit more downside to an open fire (fire risk / smoke etc) but more effect, therefore less realistic as a routine way of heating a house.

I guess it depends on your life style. I am only in the living room a couple of hours each evening so messing with the fire eats in to that. In the mornings I would be out the door before it is starting to make an impact.

Be VERY careful burning proper coal, it burns much hotter than smokeless and can melt the inside of your stove. A neighbour has the same Dovre 250 as us and she got a chimney fire (had never had it swept and was burning coal) and the powerful updraft generated so much heat that it melted the baffle plate, which collapsed onto the grate like chocolate. Took me a hell of a long time to get it out and remove all the orange soot ash choking the stove and it cost her £170 to replace the baffle and two cracked liner bricks.

I grew up with coal fires, lovely! I'll always have fond memories of burning my fingers trying to get into roasted chestnuts.

I also remember sitting for what seemed like hours with a sheet of newspaper blocking the top of the hearth. In the end we went posh and got a gas poker, not as much fun but gets the fire going well. I'm not sure you'd be allowed to have a gas outlet next to an open fire these days though.

Multi fuel here Charnwood Country 6, unless you've got your own woodland then go the multi fuel way.
Burning a mix of house coal, smokeless and occasional wood. smokeless real bitch to light so always start with house coal

Oh and lit most days/ nights through colder weather

Best of all, bring back a bag or two of peat next time you go riding or skiing in Scotland. Smells beautiful especially when you nip out to pee on the lawn and glows all evening giving off little sparks.

Some coal merchants do sell bagged Scottish peat nuggets but peat travels badly and you'll find lots of dust at the bottom. The last lot we had from a merchant in Greenmount, just outside Bury, was too earthy and didn't burn well at all.

I'm sitting in front of a coal fire now!
I do miss the wood burner from the last place, but anything with a flame will do me. The dust is bad tho.

Wood burning stoves while being very 'STW', are also ace, expensive to put in but staggeringly efficient.

Is the primary justification for a wood burning stove not just that it "looks nice", rather than being an efficient domestic heating system?

As noted above, I thought around 90% of a coal fire's heat energy just goes straight up the chimney, so even less effective as a heating solution. £2 a day, as suggested above, sounds like a very expensive way of heating one room.

I understand that people would like to have a nice focal point for their room; just don't understand the efficiency/effectiveness argument for coal or wood burning stoves.

Warton that must be gigantic tree if you're going to get 2-3 years out of it.

Huge, there are two massive trees in her front garden, one is crazily big, it has 4 or 5 big trunks coming out of the main trunk. and has 20 or 30 smaller trees growing up out of its roots. The one coming down is nearly as big

As noted above, I thought around 90% of a coal fire's heat energy just goes straight up the chimney, so even less effective as a heating solution. £2 a day, as suggested above, sounds like a very expensive way of heating one room.

With an open fire about 85% of the heat goes up the chimney, with a decent closed fire, about 85% is radiated into the room and only 15% up the chimney. Hence, they pay for themselves over time.

Running my coal fire is probably as expensive as using the CH, but feels a lot more cosy.

Our coal fire is lovely but largely cosmetic as our house has central heating and insulation. Still lovely to sit in front of on a dark winters night.

I can really recommend glass fire guards too. As you start to get sleepy/drunk but still want to see the fire just put it in front. Most the heat still reaches you, they pretty is still there but sparks and embers are kept off the carpet.

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but sparks and embers are kept off the carpet.

One of the advantages of smokeless is you don't get any sparks - it has a very even burn / glow.

They're supremely effective at heating a room IME, blazing hot, just not very efficient (as said).

Problem with our house appears to be that the CH hasn't been thought out that well and isn't up to the job. So starting up a coal fire sounds like a good idea if only in the short term whilst we figure out the CH.

I know smokeless doesn't spit but you have to have a few logs on top for the best effect and they can spit

Agree about being effective not efficient but when you go upstairs after sitting in front of the fire, the bedroom feels REALLY cold unless you had the heating on earlier

"
have to have a few logs on top for the best effect and they can spit"

what effect is that ?

glass fireguard - sounds like a good way to deflect even more heat up the lum....

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we always had them when i was younger , but the enclosed fire does give off much more heat and burns more controllably and thus longer than either of the open fires we had .

as for the bedroom feeling really cold - thats the beauty of it , i cannot sleep in a hot room.

"Problem with our house appears to be that the CH hasn't been thought out that well and isn't up to the job."

sounds like the previous owner used alot of coal fires and thus didnt feel the need to spec accordingly - previous owner did the same in mine - pidly wee radiator in a retarded position in the living room. and a boiler that could barely cope with the number of rads it was supplying.....

certainly didnt manage hot water AND heating - took about 2 hours to get the system up to temp before it thought about radiating heat out to the house !

Every house we stayed in when i was growing up (7 houses) had fires in every room as they were always old style farm cottages or old style council houses (1970's/80's) with no central heating to speak off and it was a daily/nightly ritual to clean out the fires in the morning, light them when i got home at night from school and keep them going otherwise you'd wake up to ice on the inside of the windows, this was darkest Galloway and Argyll btw. My house at the moment had a coal fire as it's only source of heating till i recently fitted a multifuel stove and the stove is much easier to light, much easier to keep burning overnight and it's also much cheaper to run and kicks out much more heat than my coal fire - my coal fire used to get through a load of hardwood logs a week, which thankfully cost nowt as i used to collect them myself and maybe 2 to 3 bags of coal so i'd be spending £30+ a week on heating in the winter and the house was always baltic in the morning to such an extent i used to sleep in a hat/gloves/thermal top and trousers.

Coal fires are nice for decoration but as a means of heating a house they're useless, most of the heat - 70% goes right up the chimney so they're incredibly inefficient at burning and with no control.

If your chimney is okay then it's worth investing in one of these
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About £640. Really nicely made stoves which will turn your open fire into a proper heater rather than just sucking hot air up the chimney.
By far the most popular stove I fit these days as fitting is so cheap compared to pulling everything out and putting a freestander in.
[url= http://www.aarrowfires.com/public/pdfs/brochures/aarrow-multi-fuel-and-wood-burning-stoves-brochure.pdf ]page 19[/url]

Watch clearance to combustibles if your suround is wood though.

I'd be interested if someone did a closed unit that you could retro-fit into a Victorian surround:

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/8243243925/ ]Jeff in front on the fire[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr