Susan, Do you use 'smokeless' coal? I know you can get wood burners that are within regulations, ie Smokeless zones etc and the wood has to be dried before use. 

We had multi fuel burners (wood and coal) installed when renovating our victorian house. Its lovely sitting in front of a real fire in the evening. They do give off lots of heat, and if you use fire lighters with some wood, then add the coal when you have a really nice flame, it will heat your home all evening. You will still find red embers in the fire the following day so be careful when cleaning them out and empty ashes into a metal container

We bought a wood burner last year from B and Q as we were looking for more cost effective ways to heat our home. It has definitely made a difference to our back room but doesn't really heat the rest of the house so our heating bills haven't necessarily gone down, especially this winter. Gathering wood can occasionally be an issue, as that is also costly to buy but if you spread the word that you're after wood people always seem to find some, even if its an old bench to burn!

 

Would definitely recommend getting a wood burner, they do make a difference to the warmth of  a room and they also look very nice! 

We had a log burner installed recently and its wonderful, it warms up most of the house is lovely and warm and our gas bill has been reduced by 25% too..... Coal can be expensive but the modern day burners don't use that much.. I would recommend them to everyone.

The problem with any type of solid fuel is that it has to be stored in bulk somewhere, then physically carried and placed in the grate as it is needed. Unless the fire is kept burning continuously then it has to be relit every time that it is needed, using sticks and paper or a gas poker, if such still exist. There is also the problem of disposing of the ash produced.

 

Open coal fires tended to go out of fashion when smokeless zones were introduced during the late 1950s and 1960s. Smokeless fuels were more expensive than coal and coke was becoming scarce due to the decline of the traditional gas works, production switching from coal to oil and then to natural gas from the North Sea in quick succession. Domestic central heating systems, powered from a single central boiler, started to become popular at the same time. Even if it was powered by solid fuel, topping up a single boiler was much more convenient than tending several open fires and oil or gas fired systems looked after themselves.

 

Finding a constant supply of suitable scrap wood for burning might be difficult in an urban area, then there is transporting it home, drying it and then cutting it to size to consider before it can be burnt. There is also the consideration as to whether or not burning wood in domestic grates complies with the smokeless zone legislation in Urmston.

 

When I was a youngster, several decades ago, we lived out in the sticks. (Urmston meadows before the motorway was built). We had a large coke burning range in the kitchen, with two ovens and two hotplates, which also provided hot water and heated the whole house. It also served to dry out youngsters who had fallen into the 'Tanks' (part of an abandoned sewage works on the meadows) whilst catching sticklebacks and tadpoles!

Back then gas coke was dirt cheap, it was a by-product of gas production, as was gas tar. The Gas Board used to deliver it by the ton from Longford gas works in Stretford for next to nothing. When coal gas production ceased coke suddenly became much more expensive to source from commercial suppliers. We could also burn wood or coal in the range but then the flues had to be cleaned and swept regularily.