Not sure if Steaming coal for Loco's is being banned like bagged house coal?:shrug:

Looks like I’ll have to start burning the old tyres then...

The ban only applies to domestic consumption.
To put that in perspective that is only around 5% of our coal usage, with the other 95% not affected. ;)

On a wider scale the UK only accounts for about 0.5% worldwide consumption of coal and China, alone, uses over 50%.
Our annual consumption of domestic coal can be measured in minutes when compared to China's massive coal eating power stations.
I suppose they have to get all that power from somewhere to make all of those batteries for our green vehicles. :duh:

I personally think that this is nothing other than environmental green propaganda, so people in the street think that good things are going on.
It is good for moral, rather like ripping up all of the wonderful Victorian railings around our parks, cemeteries and houses. Telling people that they are going to build Spitfires out of wrought iron, then dumping it all in the sea.

Rant over, I am now off to spark up the woodburner. :D:getmecoat:

You don't say what you're using now?





Well you can still burn solid fuels, even coal if you have it (no-one will be able to sell it to you though). The main issue with solid fuels are that they are too energy dense, burn too hot and eat through the grate... but then that justifies the price compared to coal.



Seems to be some confusion. These bans have zero to do with carbon emissions (at least on paper) and are supposedly about local particulate pollution. No-one in their right mind burns wet wood deliberately unless that's all they've got it's hard to light, half the energy goes towards self drying (so doesn't give much heat). Most people that used to buy wet wood was for seasoning at home (often for 2 years). When buying a sizeable quantity there's a distinct saving over buying seasoned fuel from the log supplier. Solid 'smokeless' fuels are more energy dense than coal, but burn sometimes too hot, the burner and/grate used needs to be rated for it.
Both Coal and wet wood produce a lot of fine ash which goes up the chimney to come down somewhere else when it cools. I'm not sure why dry wood is different for airborne ash production.

Just less than a half mile from me we have a coffee roasting plant....... That creates a ton of dust (and an especially strong burnt coffee bean stink) whenever they do a dark roast session. The fallout over the neighbourhood puts all the local log burners to shame.

Gel fire open fires
 

As Avulon says - this ban is little to do with CO2 and all about particulates.

Can I suggest those that like an open fire have a look at alcohol gel fires. We had one in our last house and loved it in the winter.

Relatively cheap and an be installed anywhere as they do not need a chimney or flue.

We bought ours with us as funnily enough the couple that bought our old house wanted a log burner!!

So we know have our stainless steel Gel Fire on an outside wall in the Garden where we light it in the evening and sit round it when the weather is good but a bit of heat is nice. We buy bottled ethanol online, 12 bottles in a box - not expensive

Do check them out. The ability to have an open fire on any wall in your home - and one you can easily move - and even take with you if you move - is quite a bonus.

I cannot post pics on here so if anyone wants to see ours in operation PM me with your email and I’ll send some pics. I’m happy for the pics to be reposted on here.

The downside is that the heat generated is not a “roaring fire” by any stretch. But the background heat is excellent. Similar to the alcohol gel pots caterers use in Chafing trays.

The alcohol tank on ours is a bit small. But lasts about an hours and a half. If I were doing it now I would order two trays so that of an evening, when the first runs out, a few minutes to cool, then take the empty one out and replace with the filled second one.

www.biofires.com

Is a site worth a look.

[QUOTE=Avulon;2879676]....You don't say what you're using now?....../QUOTE]

Coal. But we can only store about 1/2 ton at a time so we get most in "sacks" straight off the lorry into the bunker and then the balance of the order in bags.

[QUOTE=AndyN01;2879711]
Unfortunately you will be affected by this. You'll be forced to switch to 'artificial' 'smokeless' coal or coal substitutes. Yes they do cost more, the bonus is you don't use as much for the same heat value. But I can't say if it balances out or not. Our last home we had a multi-fuel burner and used a mix of coal and solid fuels. With these solid fuels it's vital that your burner or grate is up to the job of coping with the heat or you'll face issues. Our multi fuel need the internal baffle breaking to remove it for sweeping after about 3 years and needed replacing. Further back in time on an open fire the grates would last no more than 2 winters on solid fuels before wearing too thin.

Just ordered two builders bags of wood from my local estate supplier, cannot see the legislation affecting this cash in hand sort of small scale business. His wood is mostly ash which is very dry anyway.

Well it's unlikely to affect this sort of sale. the majority of 'propper' log merchants only sell seasoned or kiln dried logs anyway. Some of the bigger operations will, during the summer months, sell green wood for seasoning at home, but that is usually in larger qty's. Green wood seasoning naturally can take 2+ years to dry out. As far as logs are concerned the main target of this new legislation is the forecourt and similar sales of cheap netted logs that are sometimes of dubious provenance, and not guaranteed sufficiently dry enough (<20% moisture).