Wood burners have became increasingly popular over the past decade with more and more UK homes opting for these wood burning stoves over other forms of heating option such as house coal and smokeless fuels, however not every home is suitable for a wood burning or wood burning stoves due to the flu type.
Some homes such as pre war terraced houses and older council homes are ideally suited because of the full open chimneys these homes where built with. The installer simply runs an aluminium flu liner up the already open chimney and attaches a nose cone and rain cap.
It’s more difficult with more modern homes built without full chimneys and to be honest I’ve seen some awful installs where solid aluminium flu is run up through the ceiling in the middle of the room or run up the outside wall much to the alarm of the neighbours wanting to keep their estate clean and tidy.
This is one of the reasons that many councils are now banning wood burners, another reason for the ban is that rather than purchasing proper Kiln Dried Logs from reputable merchants, people started burning any old scrap wood, wood covered in paint or oils which produced black toxic smoke.
So you have the correct type of flu, your council hasn’t banned wood burners! should you still get one?
Get a stove that can burn coal or smokeless fuels as well as wood, Coal is a fare superior material; I mean why do you think it was mined in the first place when we had all that wood lying around? The fact is that coal burns hotter and longer and it the most cost effective solid fuel around.
Before burning wood should be seasoned, or air-dried, to about 20 percent moisture. This takes about 6 months or even longer which is why reputable merchants can sell it at a premium.
Coal needs no seasoning because its moisture content is virtually zero. Nevertheless, coal should be bought from a reliable dealer who supplies anthracite free of excess material and dust.
Coal ignites at a temperature more than 100 degrees higher than wood, and it requires a hot bed of wood coals to get it started. Being far denser than wood, coal burns more steadily and for a lot longer. .
Are There Still Coal Merchants in The UK?
Of course there are still coal merchants in the UK. Just because most of the UK coal mines where closed in the 1980’s doesn’t mean that the fuel isn’t still sold here, in fact retail and wholesale coal sales are big business.
One of the UK’s biggest wholesale and retail coal suppliers, Bryn Coal Limited, based near Wigan, Lancashire has recently expanded it’s operation to the south and now delivers house coal and smokeless fuels to Halifax, Beverley, Scarborough, York, Goole, Doncaster,
Nottingham, London, Southampton, Cambridge,
Peterborough, Oxford, Skipton, Selby, Wetherby, Birmingham, Wrexham, Swansea, Milton Keynes, Bristol,
