Best fuel for a solid fuel stove

nicol

Hi,

just had a solid fuel stove installed and wanted to get people's opinion on the best fuel to use for it. I'm thinking of a combination of smokeless coal and wood logs. I also remember my dad using coal slack in an old stove we had at home to keep it burning for a hours at a time with very little added. Anyone use it in modern stoves??

Cheers,

nicol

Sorry mods, probably better suited to the Plumbing and Heating forum. Can someone move it please?

Carlow52

nicol wrote: »

Hi,

just had a solid fuel stove installed and wanted to get people's opinion on the best fuel to use for it. I'm thinking of a combination of smokeless coal and wood logs. I also remember my dad using coal slack in an old stove we had at home to keep it burning for a hours at a time with very little added. Anyone use it in modern stoves??

Cheers,

nicol

Sorry mods, probably better suited to the Plumbing and Heating forum. Can someone move it please?

is it a wood burner or multifuel?

Slack will create loads of tar and soot and reduce the heat output



If using coal be careful you dont let it burn mad as you can damage the inners through excess heat

paddy147

wood/logs or briquettes.

Coal will eventually destroy the stove and linner/chimney over time.

Its also very very messy to clean out a stove that has burned coal in it.

demanufactured

Smokless coal burnt in a stove.isnt messy at all and will do no.harm to the chimney or liner.

Smokey.coal on the other hand is very dirty and.would def damage your stove over time


I use a coal called ecoglo its similar to cosyglo but I.find.it burns for longer and doesnt choke the grate with ash.

heinbloed

Most stoves which had ever been build and used where designed to fire coal. Not timber or peat. Smokeless or smokey coal or lignite where the standard solid fuels during the previous century.

The OP should study the manual of the stove installed. The wrong type of fuel could ruin the stove as well as the flue liner, causing harm to man and material.

ballymac676

We have a Stanley Erin stove for 10 years and burn ecobright (and timber when we have it). Never any problems and great heat ouput.

r.oneill

Nicol,

Firewood is my recommendation. Very low ash content - less cleaning out. Ensure that use very low moisture content wood - 'kiln dried' firewood or special 'heat briquettes' are best to ensure the glass remains clean.

Also will be doing your bit for the environment as is fully renewable and carbon neutral.

<Snip>

R.O.N

nicol

nicol wrote: »

Hi,

just had a solid fuel stove installed and wanted to get people's opinion on the best fuel to use for it. I'm thinking of a combination of smokeless coal and wood logs. I also remember my dad using coal slack in an old stove we had at home to keep it burning for a hours at a time with very little added. Anyone use it in modern stoves??

Cheers,

nicol

Sorry mods, probably better suited to the Plumbing and Heating forum. Can someone move it please?

Thread moved as requested.

Stove Fan

Last winter we used all premium polish coal on our boiler stove last winter (the cold one) with no ill effects.

It worked well but it is a dusty/dirty fuel.
We burnt 50 40kg bags over 7 months.

This winter we have used 10 cubic metres of spruce logs with a bit of turf and 10 bags of coal.

The logs are very green but recon we spent 300 euro more than just using coal this winter.

We take the grate out of our villager berkley stove to burn the logs on the base of the stove. It recommends this and it has a firebrick lined base.

We tried using some smokeless fuel, ecobright, cosyglow gems and the heat output to water time was pants:mad: took 2 hours to get the rads warm whereas the wood or coal took 1 hour to get the rads hot.

I think the smokeless is fine for non boiler stoves mixed with wood. The cosyglow jems had a good flame though.

If you can afford the cost the logs are great, but if this is your only form of heating then coal, either smokeless or if manufacturer/council says it's ok smokey coal. The coal is definately cheaper to run especially if you use your stove to heat the rads/hot water. We only use the stove and dont have any other boiler.

Stove Fan:)

KoolKid

r.oneill banned for repeditive pimping.

TPM

heinbloed wrote: »

Most stoves which had ever been build and used where designed to fire coal. Not timber or peat. Smokeless or smokey coal or lignite where the standard solid fuels during the previous century.

The OP should study the manual of the stove installed. The wrong type of fuel could ruin the stove as well as the flue liner, causing harm to man and material.

There are a lot of wood burning stoves which are designed only to burn wood, burning coal in them will burn out grates and the boiler quickly.

As said check the manual, it is the only way to know what the manufactures specify

Most stoves, if not all only recommend dried wood not the "green" stuff we normally get here

ftnbase

We use compressed wood shavings in the form of a log in a non-boiler inset stove which heats a 60 sqm room toasty warm for €3.30 per day - we put on the fire at 3-4 ish until 10-11 ish. Very clean and very little ash. Very impressed. We buy by the ton to get good value.

Tipperarymike

Hope it is ok to have brought this thread back up but like the OP I am curious about what to burn in a stove we just had installed this week.

We have an insert stove with no boiler and the guys that installed it were adamant about how much better hardwood were for the stove. I have a plentiful supply of timber that I cut the last few years here on the farm but not a lot of it is hardwood. My query is this, is it more important to use hardwood and maybe buy kiln dried logs or would the stuff that I have cut already do. I checked a good bit of it today and the moisture level was below 20% on all of what I sampled so would that be acceptable I wonder?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Mike

Gypsy Roman

Burn a mixture of Polish Coal and when the fire gets warm enough Antrocite,cheapest around I have seen is 14 Euro a bag of Polish and 16 for Antrocite in place opposite Mac Donagh Junction Shoping Centre. If ya burn Coal alone it will cost u a fortune as it will burn off alot quicker then Antrocite will.

Tipperarymike

Cheers Gyspy,

Thanks for the reply. I should have been more specific (am still getting used to understanding about stoves) but our stove is wood burning only so I wonder if I should steer clear of using any coal in it altogether?

hillviewfarm

What difference does using Antrocite make? Excuse my ignorance.

dpofloinn

Anthracite has the highest calorific content of all types of coals ie.when burned it gives of more heat than ordinary coal,Anthracite ignites with difficulty so that's why the fire is started with the coal

herself123

ftnbase wrote: »

We use compressed wood shavings in the form of a log in a non-boiler inset stove which heats a 60 sqm room toasty warm for €3.30 per day - we put on the fire at 3-4 ish until 10-11 ish. Very clean and very little ash. Very impressed. We buy by the ton to get good value.

I live in West of Ireland.
I used use Ecologst up to last year. They were supplied by Beatty in Enniskillen, They no longer supply the republic.
Where do you buy your logs.

Sean55

We had a Boru multifuel boiler stove installed last May. We started with a mix of locally cut pine and some ash—most of this was fresh cut (within last 12 months) but to begin with we had some older drier wood (more than 12m old). We find the freshcut wood leaves a lot of tar deposit and ash, needing much cleaning. Suggest if you have to use locally cut wood, let it dry out for at least 12m.

Recently we ordered a kiln-dried palette of ash logs from WoodIreland in Kinvarra. This is much better, much less ash in pan, hardly any tar deposit compared to the freshcut. Plenty of heat thrown off. We'd get through 6 or so logs a day, keeping the air draught down low.

We've also got a trial pack of compressed hardwood logs from them, but haven't tried these out yet. Will post results (if I remember!)

To keep the stove alight overnight we add some Ecoal50 nuggets. Works a treat.