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Coal / anthracite


Boaty Jo

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This may be a useful site for you for multi-fuel smokeless products.

 

http://www.coalmerchantsfederation.co.uk/products/solid-fuel-selector

 

Just a question too:

 

I can only get hold of anthracite - has anyone used that?

The site above does recommend it for multi-fuels but says it burns with 'a high heat output'.

Hopefully it doesn't burn too hot as I know my Becton Bunny advises against using petrocoke (or a petrocoke mix) which can be very fierce.

 

Just to add that it's 16 euros for a 40 kg sack which is pretty good.

Edited by Boaty Jo
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Unless it has changed, anthracite used to be known as hard coal, it was a bit of a buxxer to light but once going was very very hot, when I was a child our neighbour had a little stove to heat his hot water tank, he used to get anthracite from work and you could hear the water boiling in the back boiler....... eventually he melted the poor little thing

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This may be a useful site for you for multi-fuel smokeless products.

 

http://www.coalmerchantsfederation.co.uk/products/solid-fuel-selector

 

Just a question too:

 

I can only get hold of anthracite - has anyone used that?

The site above does recommend it for multi-fuels but says it burns with 'a high heat output'.

Hopefully it doesn't burn too hot as I know my Becton Bunny advises against using petrocoke (or a petrocoke mix) which can be very fierce.

 

Just to add that it's 16 euros for a 40 kg sack which is pretty good.

We used anthracite until supplies from Tower Hill colliery ran out and a satisfactory alternative couldn't be found anywhere where we could get hold of it.

 

When using it we cut the fuel consumption by about 40/45%, using just over one bag per week instead of slightly over two bags a week. After about eight months of use (1.5 winters) the central "riddling" part of the grate burned through and had to be replaced. Cost of grill £35.00, saving in fuel around 32 bags at around £7.50/£8.00 per bag.

 

We would use it again if we could get hold of it. There is anthracite available but it isn't like the old stuff, or the Russian stuff we bought from Devizes.

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Unless it has changed, anthracite used to be known as hard coal, it was a bit of a buxxer to light but once going was very very hot, when I was a child our neighbour had a little stove to heat his hot water tank, he used to get anthracite from work and you could hear the water boiling in the back boiler....... eventually he melted the poor little thing

I love stories like that.

 

My wife's family are all from Stoke on Trent. And her grandad worked in the mines. And every day in the winter he would eat his sandwiches and then put one pice of coal in his lunch box and get home and chip it away on the stove and it would last all night ready for the next day's nicking.

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We would use it again if we could get hold of it. There is anthracite available but it isn't like the old stuff, or the Russian stuff we bought from Devizes.

 

Hard Anthracite is available here

 

http://www.nationalcoal.co.uk/buy-coal-from-national-coal/coal/anthracite-energy-plus

 

If you scroll down the page there is an assortment of Anthracites shown right-hand-side towards the bottom of the page.

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Hard Anthracite is available here

 

http://www.nationalcoal.co.uk/buy-coal-from-national-coal/coal/anthracite-energy-plus

 

If you scroll down the page there is an assortment of Anthracites shown right-hand-side towards the bottom of the page.

Since posting I did a search for anthracite locally and found a knowledgeable guy who is happy to arrange for a bag of hard anthracite to be delivered to us for a try out.

 

Apparently Tower Colliery was soft anthracite, he said. It has been so long since I tried to get anthracite I had forgotten about it. So thanks to the OP.

 

Thanks for the link Alan. I did seem that they were keen to sell in by the tonne and I don't think our fuel locker will hold that much.

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Jacko AKA Coalboat Roach can supply anthracite. The genuine Wesh stuff:

 

http://www.coalboat.co.uk/fuels-available.html

 

I've used it but didn't get on with it so I changed to the processed nuggetty stuff.

I found the fire takes much more looking after so it's more of a fiddle to keep it in overnight.

Edited by andywatson
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Anthracite is a beautiful coal to burn, hot, (but not like petcoke), it is smokeless, leaves very little ash.

 

However, it will only burn with a reasonably good air supply, so you cannot keep it in overnight with the air damper closed.

 

So we use Anthracite during the day, early evening, and an ovoid (Excel/Supertherm or similar) last thing at night (damper closed) in order to keep the stove alight.

Following morning, open the air up, and refuel with anthracite.

 

It's a cracking combination

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My Supertherm is poo this year. Dunno why but it's harder to light and seems to be producing more ash than last year's batch did. The Taybrite however is same as always.

 

I might try something other than Supertherm once I've used up the current batch. I only use it because (in the past) it lights fast and gets up to heat quicker than Taybrite which suits me when I get home late from work. I then use Taybrite to keep it in all night and the daytime. What might be a good fast to light and quick to get nice and hot alternative to Supertherm?

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Anthracite is a beautiful coal to burn, hot, (but not like petcoke), it is smokeless, leaves very little ash.

 

However, it will only burn with a reasonably good air supply, so you cannot keep it in overnight with the air damper closed.

 

So we use Anthracite during the day, early evening, and an ovoid (Excel/Supertherm or similar) last thing at night (damper closed) in order to keep the stove alight.

Following morning, open the air up, and refuel with anthracite.

 

It's a cracking combination

 

Yes, I'd probably go with that combination but so far not been able to find any sort of alternative to pure anthracite - of which there are two alternatives, German or Belgian.

I did try 'bricks' made from brown coal once which was a mistake. Brown coal I understand is the 'sweepings up' with a high moisture content and when I fired up in the morning following a smoulder overnight you could actually hear the residue bubbling within the flue.

Interestingly some of the smokeless ovoids (as they term them on the CMF website) are based on anthracite. Presumably there is quite a cost to mixing anthracite dust with cement (or whatever they let it down with) but gives increased usability.

Wood here in Belgium, oak for example, is 95 euros a stere (cubic metre) as opposed to 40 in Burgundy. Availability of course.

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My Supertherm is poo this year. Dunno why but it's harder to light and seems to be producing more ash than last year's batch did. The Taybrite however is same as always.

 

I might try something other than Supertherm once I've used up the current batch. I only use it because (in the past) it lights fast and gets up to heat quicker than Taybrite which suits me when I get home late from work. I then use Taybrite to keep it in all night and the daytime. What might be a good fast to light and quick to get nice and hot alternative to Supertherm?

 

There has been lots of duff Supertherm around for a couple of years. It seems there are two specifications for Supertherm. The "duff" stuff burns reasonably when mixed 50-50 with Pureheat but still produces an awful lot of ash.

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What might be a good fast to light and quick to get nice and hot alternative to Supertherm?

You could try Excel. It lights very easily and can be kept in low, ticking over or can be burnt hot when given a little bit of air. An all around decent fuel.

 

it does have an unusual smell when burning which puts some people off.

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Pureheat

A top quality ovoid with a high petroleum coke content - produced by Aimcor Ltd - easy to light with a high heat output - suitable for room heaters, closed appliances and cookers, but not AGA cookers.

 

Excel

An economy ovoid containing petroleum coke - produced by Aimcor Ltd - easy to light and suitable for open fires only.

 

Newheat

An economy ovoid with a high petroleum coke content - produced by Aimcor Ltd - easy to light with a good heat output - suitable for room heaters, closed appliances and cookers, but not AGA cookers.

Interestingly the three above (taken from the Coal Merchants Federation web site) are all produced by Aimcor. All are based on petroleum coke Although we (and others) have used excel in our NB it clearly says fop open fires only.

 

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I love stories like that.

 

My wife's family are all from Stoke on Trent. And her grandad worked in the mines. And every day in the winter he would eat his sandwiches and then put one pice of coal in his lunch box and get home and chip it away on the stove and it would last all night ready for the next day's nicking.

In steam powered railway days a driver would often if passing close to his house shovel off the engines tender a few big lumps of coal onto the trackside and go and collect it when he got home.

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