Open fire, which fuel will give off the most heat???

[Streetrod]

Hi folks, having been in our current house for 6 years we decided to try the fire place for the first time. So we first got the chimneys swept and yesterday I lit our first fire with some smokeless fuel I got from my local petrol station.

Now to say I was under whelmed by the heat output would be an understatement. It looked great but all the heat disappeared up the chimney. Now I don’t know why I was not surprised by this but I was expecting more heat in the room.

What am I doing wrong and am I using the wrong fuel?

[Thurbs]

Coal is best... I use normal regular smokey coal and it warms me up a treat.

Are the vents in the grill open? Do you have air bricks or some other way of allowing air in to your house?

Fires need good ventilation to work properly.

[W66OCH]

by smokeless fuel do you mean coal?

I tend to get ours going with wood/logs and then chuck on some coal after a couple of hours, coal kicks out more heat but you end up with lumps of ash which is a PITA Also logs need to be seasoned, the stuff you get from garages is st!

[BoRED S2upid]

Coal everytime. You can buy heat bricks to line the back of the grate / where the grate meets the chimney, these soak up the heat to stop it going up the chimney and escaping

[W66OCH]

BoRED S2upid said:

Coal everytime. You can buy heat bricks to line the back of the grate / where the grate meets the chimney, these soak up the heat to stop it going up the chimney and escaping

Possibly a stupid question ... how do you light a fire with just coals?, my place has the small victorion fireplaces upstairs, so presumably i was pretty simple in the olden days of no heating

[Plotloss]

W66OCH said:

BoRED S2upid said:

Coal everytime. You can buy heat bricks to line the back of the grate / where the grate meets the chimney, these soak up the heat to stop it going up the chimney and escaping

Possibly a stupid question ... how do you light a fire with just coals?, my place has the small victorion fireplaces upstairs, so presumably i was pretty simple in the olden days of no heating

Firelighters and kindling.

[Magog]

Depending on where you live, particularly if It's a metropolitan area, you might not be allowed to use good old fashioned smoking coal due to the clean air act. Someone more knowledgable than me might be able to elaborate,

[Tony*T3]

open fires should have a metalic plate placed behind them to help reflect the heat. These were often brass and decorative.



look here, good example:


Makes the heat radiate out into the room rather than go straight up the chimeny.

[Streetrod]

Here you go guys, As you can see we have a LimeStone fireplace, in fact we have two, the other one is in the kitchen. The basket is steeland can be opened at the bottom to clear out the ash.

Could someone please explain what heat bricks and air bricks are as I have no idea and how do these effect the heat output.

There are no vents in the chimney that can be opened. Thanks in advance:

[pacman1]

Anthracite. hth.

[Streetrod]

Tony*T3 said:

open fires should have a metalic plate placed behind them to help reflect the heat. These were often brass and decorative.



look here, good example:


Makes the heat radiate out into the room rather than go straight up the chimeny.

Thats interesting Tony, I will check those out.. Ta

[Thurbs]

Streetrod said:

Could someone please explain what heat bricks and air bricks are as I have no idea and how do these effect the heat output.

Fire needs fuel, oxygen and heat to work. If you have a new house with double glasing, uPVC doors it is quite likely you dont have enough ventilation in order for your fire to get enough oxygen to chuck out some real heat.

If you stick your hand just below the chimney, can you feel a slight draft? I can on mine which means my house is old, costs a fortune to heat and I get good hot fires!

On a fire like yours I would stick with 50/50 coal logs to get the best from it.

To improve ventilation you can use these:



...but it depends on how your house was built.

Personally, stick the heating on and use the fire to supplement it when its really cold or you want to create a nice warm atmosphere.

[Simpo Two]

It seems that 1,000,000 years of experience lighting fires has been undone by 40 years of central heating...

[Streetrod]

Thurbs said:

Streetrod said:

Could someone please explain what heat bricks and air bricks are as I have no idea and how do these effect the heat output.

Fire needs fuel, oxygen and heat to work. If you have a new house with double glasing, uPVC doors it is quite likely you dont have enough ventilation in order for your fire to get enough oxygen to chuck out some real heat.

If you stick your hand just below the chimney, can you feel a slight draft? I can on mine which means my house is old, costs a fortune to heat and I get good hot fires!

On a fire like yours I would stick with 50/50 coal logs to get the best from it.

To improve ventilation you can use these:



...but it depends on how your house was built.

Personally, stick the heating on and use the fire to supplement it when its really cold or you want to create a nice warm atmosphere.

I have a 30's house and we currently have underfloor heating. I have checked and yes we have air bricks, we also have vents in the floor for airflow. The fire will be a suppliment our normal heating

[saleen836]

I have a 30's house with an open fire in the lounge, burn mostly wood but top it off with normal coal, with doors to both hallway and dining room wide open the temp in the lounge reaches approx 25c, even at this temp Mrs Saleen is led on the sofa with her feet by the fire and a blanket over her and she tells me she is comfortable!! im sat away from the fire in a t-shirt sweating.

[anonymous-user]

Streetrod said:

Here you go guys, As you can see we have a LimeStone fireplace, in fact we have two, the other one is in the kitchen. The basket is steeland can be opened at the bottom to clear out the ash.

Could someone please explain what heat bricks and air bricks are as I have no idea and how do these effect the heat output.

There are no vents in the chimney that can be opened. Thanks in advance:

Looking at that fire it looks more of a decorative type fire designed to give you the feel of a lovely open fire rather than a functional one to kick out loads of heat!

[MrV]

Thurbs said:

Coal is best... I use normal regular smokey coal and it warms me up a treat.

+1

Out of the two types the smoky stuff defiantly seems to give out more heat than the smokeless stuff and its cheaper to as an added bonus

[sherman]

How to make a coal fire and light with one match.

Clean out the ash form the last fire

Scrunch up a load of old paper into balls. Enough to cover the bottom of the grate (dont over lap the balls to aid airflow)

Place your kindling carefully making a raft on top of the paper and (crisscross the sticks)

Put your coal on top of your raft of sticks

Now you are ready to light the fire.

Diagonally tightly roll up a piece of news paper and then use your match to light your newly made taper. Now use your taper to light the paper in the fire in several locations.

Chuck the used taper in the fire before it burns your hand

The fire should be now be lit

[Beedub]

i also use the normal coal and i honestly can say its gets so hot at times i have to go in the other room, its a near unbearable heat!! even cooler is i dont need to worry about kindling wood, why?? ive got a gas poker or i like to call it the flame thrower!!! fill up the fire stick the poker in, by the time ive made a cuppa its alight!! absolutly fab contraption.

[jjones]

MonkeyMatt said:

Looking at that fire it looks more of a decorative type fire designed to give you the feel of a lovely open fire rather than a functional one to kick out loads of heat!

the 3 piece hearth and 3 piece in-lay say different