Multi fuel fires....

[LifeIsBusy]

We have a multi fuel fire that heats our radiators and hot water. We currently burn smokeless ovals but our supplier is putting the cost up again.

What have people found works the best for their fires? I'm keen to get the most out my heating system especially with the rise in costs.

My husband's a coal merchant so hopefully I can help.

The reason your supplier has put the prices up is because it is costing us more now to get our coal in - the manufacturers have increased their prices, and with the cost of diesel rising, getting it into the yards is also costing more.

Do you buy your coal in 20kg prepack or 50kg open sacks? And are you buying from a local merchant or an outlet? It will likely be cheaper to get open sack deliveries from your local merchant than buying prepack from a garage.

There are a variety of smokeless options available and the prices differ too - they're all much of a muchness though so don't be hung up on brand and try some cheaper options if you can. You may be pleasantly surprised :)

If you have a large enough bunker buying in bulk can make a big difference (until it needs two lorries).

If you don’t strictly need smokeless traditional house coal is a good bit cheaper and gives out more heat.

@ruralwanderer Whilst I understand the reason for the increased costs its quite eye watering considering we moved here 3 years ago and the price has increased by 45%

@Asdf12345 Thats quite interesting! We currently use smokeless ovals but are not currently restricted to do so and can use traditional house coal. Perhaps we were doing it wrong but when we moved in there was house coals didn't seem to heat our heating well so we switched over. It is conceivable that we were doing it wrong as in the early days we had many failed attempts at lighting the fires and didn't really know how the gauges worked.

Housecoal for us is about 20% cheaper than smokeless, and last time we ordered we got
15% off advertised price for buying just over three tons as that was what would maximise a load going our direction.

I'm amazed how much it has gone up in the last few years. Like everything else I suppose. We're lpg now but on solid fuel we would buy 10 bags at a time which was cheaper.

As others have said house coal is cheaper, however, you need to offset that against the effect on your stove. You may find you get more tar and other build up from impurities which could cost you. Plus there are environmental and health implications. Smokeless is not exactly ideal on that score but it is better than coal.

Unfortunately just like any other utility you are pretty much stuck. On the other hand at least solid fuel is efficient in that you don't really waste anything. You put the fire on to heat water then it also heats your home. If it is cold now I'll stick on a load of jumpers before thinking about the heating but with solid fuel I could put the fire on knowing that it would mean I didn't need to use the immersion for hot water or the electric shower and could use the shower on the main water system instead so balance the cost that way.

@Asdf12345 I'm pretty sure house coal is also cheaper per 50kg bag but I didn't know if that would mean it was more efficient to burn as I thought it might have been burning through faster than the ovals.

Does anyone have any experience of peat or using other solid fuels? Does it work out more or less expensive?

@OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea Thanks for your insight. Agreed we are all pretty much in the same boat, I just want to make sure i'm getting the most bang for my buck

Oh goodness done use peat. The environmental considerations!

Although trickier does to the nature of the heating then insulating to the max in any way you can and then adapting your use of the fire to burn less coal is likely your best solution so when you have it on 24hrs a day have it lower etc. Things like draft excluders and putting a thick curtain across external doors makes a huge difference. Charity shops often have some long, thick curtains. If you line it with a cheap, fleece blanket then even better.

@OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea Already insulated and we changed our external doors this year which has made a massive difference.

Mine is just a stand alone logburner/defra multifuel, not attached to radiators. I prefer kiln dried logs (have tried coal and ovals but the smell makes me nauseous🤷) but have found the manufactured logs called 'Hotties' burn for longer, just not as pretty. I keep real logs either side of it and the hotties hidden in the cupboard😊

@lifeisbusy, 45% is a significant increase! Have you shopped about at all to see what prices other merchants are offering?