Your experience with solid fuel heating

[NotSoThinLizzy]

So we've been offered a bigger house much needed 3 bedrooms but its solid fuel heating by means of coal. Me and my DD suffer from asthma so does it affect that. Also not very keen on the idea of a fire with a 11 month. Any advice appreciated

We live in the USA, where winter is -20C, we burn wood October-April.

Fires draw fresh air in from outside so can help asthma as the air is cleaner.

We stoke up the fire before we leave for the day and most the time it’s going when we get home. Same thing at night, however if DH get up for a pee he will throw a log on.

Coal is easy, with wood we spend probably 4 weekends in the summer cutting down 6-7 trees, then cutting splitting and stacking.

I have had two houses with solid fuel central heating and I'm asthmatic, no problems at all. Coal can be expensive though.

If you're in the UK you may not be able to buy regular coal for much longer... I don't know the cost difference for "cleaner" coal but have a read of this www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45225406

We live in the most northerly point in Scotland winters can be very harsh and we can go weeks without having any bread or milk as the snow gates gets closed so I don't know how that would work with coal

If you live without mains gas and in an area where electricity is subject to regular power cuts due to bad weather, solid fuel systems are a lifesaver. When we first moved to a rural property there were severe storms on Boxing Day which saw us without electricity for four days - the kitchen Rayburn gave us hot water for bathing/washing/thawing out, and heated the kitchen, and allowed us to prepare hot meals, while the backboiler in the livingroom heated that room and took the chill off the rest of the house as hot water slowly percolated even without electricity for the pump. Our all-electric neighbours spent the days with us and only went home at bedtime.

You do need a reasonable supply of coal in, but it's a lot cheaper by the tonne than buying those wee bags at the petrol station.

Yes, whatever you do try to buy a seasons worth at a time.

How much is a season worth?

It depends on your usage. For us burning wood we get through 5-6 chords of wood (1 chord = a stack of logs 8x4x4ft) in a heating season (Oct-April) we don’t burn in the summer

At a guess I would say you would want at least a ton of coal maybe more but that depends on how hot you like your house etc

What kind of heating is it? Is it a boiler / wet system with radiators or is it a solid fuel stove with a back boiler? Or a series of open fires?

I liked solid fuel... Always knew where I was financially so never hit with a big bill. Coal was cheaper but I always kept peat in because it heats up so quickly. I had a burner rather than an open fire. No problems with breathing... But the living room did get dusty.

To my knowledge it's a fire that's connected to heaters through the house. If that makes any sense

In that case you might have double luck if it's a back boiler. The fire heats the water tank and then flushes it through to the radiators and you get tons of hot water for baths. During a power cut (far north of Scotland I was like you) I was always warm. if it's starting from cold then it could potentially be a couple of hours to burn hot enough to flush through which is why the peat was so handy.

They're usually adjustable in terms of the temperature needed to flush through and burn rate. So for example I'd turn it right down at night so it'd not need re-lighting in the morning... And if I'd not lit it for a while if turn the thermostat down so it started working sooner. Hopefully someone can show you knobs and buttons.

Emptying the grate can be lucky in high winds.

Gosh I hope so too. I'm used to pushing a button and it's sorted 😂

Are you talking islands north?

Yeah

Village beginning with C?

Nah 😊 sorry. Take it that's where you used to be?

Just be aware of the fact that its labour intensive.

We have a log fuelled system which generates our heating and hot water. We also have an oil boiler as a back up for emergencies. I am so glad we have the oil boiler too since there are times when I really don't want to be waiting hours for the whole tank to heat before we can have any heating/water.

We spend a lot of time chopping wood and stacking/moving logs.

Yeh. was thinking it'd be a weird coincidence but at least I'd be able to tell you the secret hidden location button for the immersion heater!

It's brilliant. We have rubbish storage heaters, so also have electric so not quite the same. But the storage heaters don't last all day and have a log fire is a lifesaver so we don't freeze in the evenings

We're looking at a couple of houses with solid fuel back boilers. However, we're also making sure they're multifuel and exempt from smokeless zones.

We have a solid fuel Rayburn. I love it. We tend to use wood as we have a free supply. The only draw backs are getting chimney swept very regularly, don't want chimney fires and keeps it burning efficiently. The other problem is if we are away we come back to a freezing cold house. Takes quite a while to heat an old house right through. Luckily we are rarely away

fatbottomgirl67

A set of brushes is £30 on Amazon, very easy to do yourself

That's what we do every 3 weeks in the winter

We go away fairly often. What flooring do you guys put down? Like I don't want to buy a nice new carpet for it to get holes in