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Smokeless fuel prices


Ianws

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28 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

With goliaths useage, I think I would have been freezing my nuts off lol. I dont do cold, central heating is on now in the house, has been for three weeks. Off at night though, dont like to be too hot in bed.

I’ve only a 48’ boat, warms up quickly.

Maybe be I’m being a tad optimistic in saying 75kg a fortnight 🤷‍♀️but I’m sure I don’t get through 50kg a week.

 

 


 

 

 

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My stove is rated, at a fairly low setting, to use about 4.5 litres if on 24 hours. This heats 3 rads (very hot) and gets the hot water tank to warm (not much use). So say £1.50 a litre about £6.75 a day, about the cost of a third of a bag of coal. Added benefits for me, and can’t really cost them, no heavy lifting, no coal dust, no ash pan to sort, easy to light, instantly off at the turn of a button - and I personally just feel it is safer than coal, the area around the stove (I know this sounds daft but is true) does not get anywhere near as hot as a coal fire, but the radiant heat is the same. In other words, the wall and ceiling around it is only warm to the touch but the room is toasty.

So diesel is still a little dearer than coal, but for me the added benefits more than make up for it.

 

eta - just saw Goliaths comment - for the sake of comparison our boat is 70’ with, as Matty describes, a ‘lump’

 

Edited by Mike Tee
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My stove is in the middle too, I think that makes a bit of difference to heating the whole boat.

 

Sometimes I wish I had something cleaner than the stove.

Its messy and needs plenty of tending.

And it’s a chore buying coal

And storing coal can be troublesome 

And yeah it’d be great to have an on off switch for it.

But...it feels good to come inside to,

gives me something to stare at

And I can cook on it, so a little saving now and again on the gas.

 

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

With goliaths useage, I think I would have been freezing my nuts off lol. I dont do cold, central heating is on now in the house, has been for three weeks. Off at night though, dont like to be too hot in bed.

Mind, didn’t you rave about using an eco fan?

That’s what really kept you warm, having to fire up the stove to crank up the blades on the fan

That’ll be why extra coal was needed, I bet 😃

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5 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

 

That's actually the price for Ecoal50.

 

Normal smokeless (Brazier) is £24 for 3 bags.

 

See my previous post.

 

Note these are 10Kg bags, so those are prices for 30Kg - OK, but not stonkingly good value.

Bloody spill churches!

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9 hours ago, tree monkey said:

That must be a horrendously expensive way of buying wood, those little net bags that get sold in garage forecourts have the nickname "yuppie bags" in the trade

I was running out of kindling, they got the fire going, which was a not easy, just a one off.

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34 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I was running out of kindling, they got the fire going, which was a not easy, just a one off.

Fair enough, I wouldn't want to rely on bagged timber for anymore than emergency Firelighting, I know I have bought those firelogs in the past for exactly the same reason

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Last year I bought a tonne of smokeless for £288 delivered. That's £7.20 for 25kg bag. This year the same coal from the same supplier was £499 which is about £12.50/bag. That was back in August. I thought it was expensive at the time but compared to some of the prices I'm seeing here it seems like it was still a good deal.

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10 hours ago, Mike Tee said:

 

My stove is rated, at a fairly low setting, to use about 4.5 litres if on 24 hours. This heats 3 rads (very hot) and gets the hot water tank to warm (not much use). So say £1.50 a litre about £6.75 a day, about the cost of a third of a bag of coal. Added benefits for me, and can’t really cost them, no heavy lifting, no coal dust, no ash pan to sort, easy to light, instantly off at the turn of a button - and I personally just feel it is safer than coal, the area around the stove (I know this sounds daft but is true) does not get anywhere near as hot as a coal fire, but the radiant heat is the same. In other words, the wall and ceiling around it is only warm to the touch but the room is toasty.

So diesel is still a little dearer than coal, but for me the added benefits more than make up for it.

 

eta - just saw Goliaths comment - for the sake of comparison our boat is 70’ with, as Matty describes, a ‘lump’

 

Be careful about how safe you think it is. We had a brand new diesel stove fitted to our new build boat in 2020, I had read the hype and after over 10 years of morso stoves thought lets go diesel. It was very expensive and I had it fitted professionaly so all was done properly. One evening we went to the pub whilst moored on the G and S canal. On returning a couple of hours later we opened front doors to be confronted by acrid thick smoke, our poor dog legged it outside. We couldnt even see into the boat. The stove had " Run away " the fail safe device to stop it happening had er failed!! 

Anyway, for the next twenty plus years it was back to good old, dirty but easy to manage and for me safe multi fuel stoves. 

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I get your point and its the nature of things that somewhere, whatever the safety precautions and devices, something will fail. I think in your case you were just plain unlucky. Don't know if there are statistics anywhere on boat fires about coal v diesel, but I do know that if a coal / wood fire goes wrong it can mean catastrophic damage, whereas normally if a diesel goes wrong it will cut off the supply and then just a case of clearing out the smoke - most times a diesel will blow out due to hard wind gusts, and there is an overfuel device in the regulator that will turn off the supply. But yes, I know, shit happens, and you've been put off diesels for life. Bet your dog wasn't too impressed either! 

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47 minutes ago, Mike Tee said:

I get your point and its the nature of things that somewhere, whatever the safety precautions and devices, something will fail. I think in your case you were just plain unlucky. Don't know if there are statistics anywhere on boat fires about coal v diesel, but I do know that if a coal / wood fire goes wrong it can mean catastrophic damage, whereas normally if a diesel goes wrong it will cut off the supply and then just a case of clearing out the smoke - most times a diesel will blow out due to hard wind gusts, and there is an overfuel device in the regulator that will turn off the supply. But yes, I know, shit happens, and you've been put off diesels for life. Bet your dog wasn't too impressed either! 

As you say I think we were unlucky, it was a brand new stove lol. Dog was certainly unimpressed 😂

 

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2 hours ago, blackrose said:

Last year I bought a tonne of smokeless for £288 delivered. That's £7.20 for 25kg bag. This year the same coal from the same supplier was £499 which is about £12.50/bag. That was back in August. I thought it was expensive at the time but compared to some of the prices I'm seeing here it seems like it was still a good deal.

 

Supertherm £17.50 per 25kg bag from my coal merchant (free delivery).

 

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1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

Be careful about how safe you think it is. We had a brand new diesel stove fitted to our new build boat in 2020, I had read the hype and after over 10 years of morso stoves thought lets go diesel. It was very expensive and I had it fitted professionaly so all was done properly. One evening we went to the pub whilst moored on the G and S canal. On returning a couple of hours later we opened front doors to be confronted by acrid thick smoke, our poor dog legged it outside. We couldnt even see into the boat. The stove had " Run away " the fail safe device to stop it happening had er failed!! 

Anyway, for the next twenty plus years it was back to good old, dirty but easy to manage and for me safe multi fuel stoves. 

Many moons ago, we owned a house that had a diesel stove in the living room. Gravity fed from a tank in the garage. Occasionally it would go out (extinguish itself) but would stop drain diesel into the tray. Very basic. First time, no realising the amount of fuel in the tray & unknowing what would happen, we relit it. 
Those that know about diesel fires, would know it gets hotter and hotter and more of the fuel joins in. Anyway, the unit in the living room started dancing and shaking, black smoke out of the chimney. Very hot, efficient I guess. On the brink of calling our friends in the fire brigade, thankfully the diesel had burnt out and life returned to as normal as we could get. A close shave some might say.

Bloody frightening thou.

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2 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Be careful about how safe you think it is. We had a brand new diesel stove fitted to our new build boat in 2020, I had read the hype and after over 10 years of morso stoves thought lets go diesel. It was very expensive and I had it fitted professionaly so all was done properly. One evening we went to the pub whilst moored on the G and S canal. On returning a couple of hours later we opened front doors to be confronted by acrid thick smoke, our poor dog legged it outside. We couldnt even see into the boat. The stove had " Run away " the fail safe device to stop it happening had er failed!! 

Anyway, for the next twenty plus years it was back to good old, dirty but easy to manage and for me safe multi fuel stoves. 

That is why I added on of these to my Dickinson Cooker

image.png.307b68a09cdaea0866b23bf5a8a32a72.png

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5 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

... We had a brand new diesel stove fitted to our new build boat in 2020, .... Anyway, for the next twenty plus years it was back to good old, dirty but easy to manage and for me safe multi fuel stoves. 

Back from the future?

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On 22/10/2022 at 22:00, mrsmelly said:

 


 

On 22/10/2022 at 21:52, Mike Tee said:

I just wondered how that would compare with my diesel stove. On a lowish setting, with diesel at £1.40, it would burn for almost 70 hours for £19, so compatible with using 2 bags a week. It actually raises the temp in the back cabin so quite efficient plus we have the added benefit of turning it off instantly, like tonight, don’t need it on when we go to bed. The rads down the boat are now well hot (lit it about 6:30} so will retain heat for an hour or so. Also don’t need to light the multi fuel stove at the back (until we get ice on the canal, then we might).

Don’t want to start a ‘diesel or coal/wood’ heated (!) debate, just wondered what the maths were for my own interest. I know diesel may well start going up, but on balance, not a lot in it. Although Goliath makes my stove look expensive to run.

 

My diesel stove uses about 6 litres per 24 hours on its lowest setting.

 

As it has a dedicated tank, once I have used up the diesel in it,  I am going to try kerosene.

 

Currently £1.15 a litre from this supplier in Erdington who is happy to sell it in 29 litre containers.

 

So £6.90 per 24 hours.

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5 minutes ago, cuthound said:


 

 

My diesel stove uses about 6 litres per 24 hours on its lowest setting.

 

As it has a dedicated tank, once I have used up the diesel in it,  I am going to try kerosene.

 

Currently £1.15 a litre from this supplier in Erdington who is happy to sell it in 29 litre containers.

 

So £6.90 per 24 hours.

Kerosene worked well in my bubble stove after adjustment better than diesel and cleaner plus hotter?

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