Newbie to open fires - what do you burn?
Discussion
Just a query really, we have our first house now with an open fire and have been in a month. It's not a massive grate - approx 25cm deep by 42cm wide at the front and so far we've tried heat logs (compressed wood shavings) which burn very well but at £7 a bag they're expensive and last at most 3 days. Coal - currently normal coal which smokes like buggery when first put on or topped up - how much better is the smokeless stuff as it's twice the price?
Logs from the local garage in the orange nets, despite almost 3 weeks left in the garage we cannot get these things to burn, they'll burn down if placed on coal but won't go themselves.
What sort of logs/timber should i be aiming for? Happy to pay a visit to my local woods if required but is there any particular type of stuff I should try and find?
Any other tips would be gratefully received, we can get a decent fire going (barr the petrol station logs) but as a newbie to this sort of pyromania any other hints etc would be good.
Logs from the local garage in the orange nets, despite almost 3 weeks left in the garage we cannot get these things to burn, they'll burn down if placed on coal but won't go themselves.
What sort of logs/timber should i be aiming for? Happy to pay a visit to my local woods if required but is there any particular type of stuff I should try and find?
Any other tips would be gratefully received, we can get a decent fire going (barr the petrol station logs) but as a newbie to this sort of pyromania any other hints etc would be good.
First off - if it's a normal open fire with a grate then most of the heat will go up the chimney.
Coal will burn fine, BUT the chimney probably needs to be drawing air up it to work, ie hot.
Smokeless will produce loads of heat (to go up the chimney!)
Wood burns best in low draught, so if you are going to burn seasoned wood only, it will burn best directly on a heap of ashes on the hearth - ie no grate. Wood burns fine on top of coal as well. Wood in an open fire needs to be about a year old really before it will give out heat.
I used to have a calor gas poker to light my fires with - magic!
Coal will burn fine, BUT the chimney probably needs to be drawing air up it to work, ie hot.
Smokeless will produce loads of heat (to go up the chimney!)
Wood burns best in low draught, so if you are going to burn seasoned wood only, it will burn best directly on a heap of ashes on the hearth - ie no grate. Wood burns fine on top of coal as well. Wood in an open fire needs to be about a year old really before it will give out heat.
I used to have a calor gas poker to light my fires with - magic!
I've had open fires for years and only use logs.....
The best logs are silver birch and hazel. The latter being the best of the two. Never use pine or sappy wood - not only will it spit and burn holes in your carpet, but could damage your chimney too. Most normal fireplaces, in my experience, won't get hot enough to burn oak well enough....
The trick with logs (apart from selecting the right type) is to make sure they're seasoned (a year or so old and very dry), use lots of kindling wood and smaller split logs to get some heat going. Don't use round logs, make sure they're quartered, otherwise they can be difficult to get going. Use your grate for the logs, I have had a fire without a grate, but it's more tricky, and have a fireback too (big lump of decorative iron behind the grate) to reflect the heat back.
If you live anywhere near me I can give you a load of hazel and birch to get you going!
Hope this helps a bit.
The best logs are silver birch and hazel. The latter being the best of the two. Never use pine or sappy wood - not only will it spit and burn holes in your carpet, but could damage your chimney too. Most normal fireplaces, in my experience, won't get hot enough to burn oak well enough....
The trick with logs (apart from selecting the right type) is to make sure they're seasoned (a year or so old and very dry), use lots of kindling wood and smaller split logs to get some heat going. Don't use round logs, make sure they're quartered, otherwise they can be difficult to get going. Use your grate for the logs, I have had a fire without a grate, but it's more tricky, and have a fireback too (big lump of decorative iron behind the grate) to reflect the heat back.
If you live anywhere near me I can give you a load of hazel and birch to get you going!
Hope this helps a bit.
We use smokeless coal on our open fire, Its called roomheat and looks like a bar of soap. We can't use normal coal as we live in a smokeless zone (bizarre considering the industrial nature of the area).
We buy from a merchant at £20 for a large sack, we have a bunker that will hold 5 sacks.
We buy from a merchant at £20 for a large sack, we have a bunker that will hold 5 sacks.
Thankyou all for the advice. To answer a couple of questions;
Chimney was swept and certificated at the end of December following fitting.
The fire looks like this (albeit this pic was before the lounge was finishedand front bars installed);
It's a steel front so does utilise a lot of heat to radiate out before it escapes up the chimney.
Heat logs were an experiment to see what would burn well. The coal we have has already started to create a thin layer of soot on the ceiling despite a very good draw from the chimney so is being consigned to the bin from now on - does the smokeless stuff spit or ash up as much as the cheaper coal? The coal burns very well its just soooo smokey when initially put on or topped up and with a small grate it doesn't all go up the chimney.
I'll start looking for some local log suppliers though need to sort out a shelter for them first of all - presumably it just needs to be watertight but also well ventilated? Would a timber lean to on the side of the house suffice?
NDA - thankyou for the kind offer of the wood, though living in St Neots Cambs I doubt I'm close enough. Thankyou anyway.
Chimney was swept and certificated at the end of December following fitting.
The fire looks like this (albeit this pic was before the lounge was finishedand front bars installed);
It's a steel front so does utilise a lot of heat to radiate out before it escapes up the chimney.
Heat logs were an experiment to see what would burn well. The coal we have has already started to create a thin layer of soot on the ceiling despite a very good draw from the chimney so is being consigned to the bin from now on - does the smokeless stuff spit or ash up as much as the cheaper coal? The coal burns very well its just soooo smokey when initially put on or topped up and with a small grate it doesn't all go up the chimney.
I'll start looking for some local log suppliers though need to sort out a shelter for them first of all - presumably it just needs to be watertight but also well ventilated? Would a timber lean to on the side of the house suffice?
NDA - thankyou for the kind offer of the wood, though living in St Neots Cambs I doubt I'm close enough. Thankyou anyway.
Soir said:
how much is a load? and how would I know what type of tree it came from (apart from them telling you..)
we pay £110 a load, which is basically whatever truck they have piled high. Usually come from whatever trees they have cut down, but that lot is mostly oak and beech.
We just cut down a 50m copper beech which ive cut up and split so we now have about 15 times that amount.. should keep us going for a while.
1 load usually lasts us about a winter. 3 fires running pretty much all day.
for storage anything that is dry is fine. just stack it up and burn the f
kers. We have been using our open fire for about 7 years on smokeless and never noticed soot on the ceiling, but our ceilings are 10foot high and being a Victorian house IRS its very well ventilated (draughty).
It doesn't spit much and we use a spark guard for the first half hour till it gets going, generally we light it when we get in from work, and it's dying down by the time we head to bed, we do put the spark guard back overnight just in case.
We get through about £80 of smokeless coal a month during the winter, and none in the summer.
It doesn't spit much and we use a spark guard for the first half hour till it gets going, generally we light it when we get in from work, and it's dying down by the time we head to bed, we do put the spark guard back overnight just in case.
We get through about £80 of smokeless coal a month during the winter, and none in the summer.
koolchris99 said:
p.s. you need one of these bad boys
True, a stove will be 5 times as efficient as an open fire.Why not call these people http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LOGS-4-SALE-50-00-TON-BAG-DE... and ask when the trees were felled. If summer 2009 or earlier, and they've been stacked aired and covered, give them a go.
-Pete- said:
koolchris99 said:
p.s. you need one of these bad boys
True, a stove will be 5 times as efficient as an open fire.Why not call these people http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LOGS-4-SALE-50-00-TON-BAG-DE... and ask when the trees were felled. If summer 2009 or earlier, and they've been stacked aired and covered, give them a go.
Thanks for the e-bay link as well but unfortunately we're too far away.
+1 for the stove.
Ours is the reason we looked at/bought our house. It's only little but it's like a blast furnace when it's been going for a while.
Clean dry wood only our 'sweep said, "NO PAPER, NO PAINTED/STAINED WOOD, NO COAL and most important NO CHRISTMAS TREES... and you'll never need to call me again".
Boring but better for it.
We've found the best burning is wood from old pallettes, especially the cube blocks between the slats. Not as pretty in a pile as logs but the BiL is a Haulier (delivers Bananas to pretty much the whole UK) so he gets them for us for free.
Ours is the reason we looked at/bought our house. It's only little but it's like a blast furnace when it's been going for a while.
Clean dry wood only our 'sweep said, "NO PAPER, NO PAINTED/STAINED WOOD, NO COAL and most important NO CHRISTMAS TREES... and you'll never need to call me again".
Boring but better for it.
We've found the best burning is wood from old pallettes, especially the cube blocks between the slats. Not as pretty in a pile as logs but the BiL is a Haulier (delivers Bananas to pretty much the whole UK) so he gets them for us for free.
danger mouse said:
+1 for the stove.
Ours is the reason we looked at/bought our house. It's only little but it's like a blast furnace when it's been going for a while.
Clean dry wood only our 'sweep said, "NO PAPER, NO PAINTED/STAINED WOOD, NO COAL and most important NO CHRISTMAS TREES... and you'll never need to call me again".
Boring but better for it.
We've found the best burning is wood from old pallettes, especially the cube blocks between the slats. Not as pretty in a pile as logs but the BiL is a Haulier (delivers Bananas to pretty much the whole UK) so he gets them for us for free.
Pah, we burn everything and anything that burns on our open fire! Tetrapacks for lighting (great as we cannot recyle them) and all my office workpapers go on there, for destruction once finished with, we burned our old staircase on there etc. We have a motto in our house, "if it burns, it burns!"Ours is the reason we looked at/bought our house. It's only little but it's like a blast furnace when it's been going for a while.
Clean dry wood only our 'sweep said, "NO PAPER, NO PAINTED/STAINED WOOD, NO COAL and most important NO CHRISTMAS TREES... and you'll never need to call me again".
Boring but better for it.
We've found the best burning is wood from old pallettes, especially the cube blocks between the slats. Not as pretty in a pile as logs but the BiL is a Haulier (delivers Bananas to pretty much the whole UK) so he gets them for us for free.
Mind you we did get the neighbours knocking when I experimented on getting rid of my old engine oil....!!
I think they thought we had just picked a new Pope.We are not in a smokeless zone thankfully!
Small offcuts & newspaper to get things going. (And usually just 1 match!)
Split logs stored outside in an uncovered stack that the air can get round about & through. (Getting a little wet outside with the rain is not the same as burning "wet wood")
Also Peat
Coal if I want some real heat (but not smokeless)
Paper, Cardboard & bark all create more ASH meaning it needs to be emptied more often so I try to minimise burning these things.
Split logs stored outside in an uncovered stack that the air can get round about & through. (Getting a little wet outside with the rain is not the same as burning "wet wood")
Also Peat
Coal if I want some real heat (but not smokeless)
Paper, Cardboard & bark all create more ASH meaning it needs to be emptied more often so I try to minimise burning these things.
Zippee said:
Thankyou all for the advice. To answer a couple of questions;
Chimney was swept and certificated at the end of December following fitting.
The fire looks like this (albeit this pic was before the lounge was finishedand front bars installed);
It's a steel front so does utilise a lot of heat to radiate out before it escapes up the chimney.
Heat logs were an experiment to see what would burn well. The coal we have has already started to create a thin layer of soot on the ceiling despite a very good draw from the chimney so is being consigned to the bin from now on - does the smokeless stuff spit or ash up as much as the cheaper coal? The coal burns very well its just soooo smokey when initially put on or topped up and with a small grate it doesn't all go up the chimney.
I'll start looking for some local log suppliers though need to sort out a shelter for them first of all - presumably it just needs to be watertight but also well ventilated? Would a timber lean to on the side of the house suffice?
NDA - thankyou for the kind offer of the wood, though living in St Neots Cambs I doubt I'm close enough. Thankyou anyway.
Phone this number 07721 508383 - I spoke to him this morning and he's arranging a load of 2 year old oak and ash to be delivered to me in the next few days.Chimney was swept and certificated at the end of December following fitting.
The fire looks like this (albeit this pic was before the lounge was finishedand front bars installed);
It's a steel front so does utilise a lot of heat to radiate out before it escapes up the chimney.
Heat logs were an experiment to see what would burn well. The coal we have has already started to create a thin layer of soot on the ceiling despite a very good draw from the chimney so is being consigned to the bin from now on - does the smokeless stuff spit or ash up as much as the cheaper coal? The coal burns very well its just soooo smokey when initially put on or topped up and with a small grate it doesn't all go up the chimney.
I'll start looking for some local log suppliers though need to sort out a shelter for them first of all - presumably it just needs to be watertight but also well ventilated? Would a timber lean to on the side of the house suffice?
NDA - thankyou for the kind offer of the wood, though living in St Neots Cambs I doubt I'm close enough. Thankyou anyway.
He's in Royston and is one of the few around here that has seasoned logs right now. He'll also make sure you get the right size for your fire as well - very helpful.
His smallest load is just under 2 cubic metres for £90.
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