Coal Fired Boilers .... Anyone Know Anything About Them Plzz ????

[Gizmonster]

With the perpetual rise of gas and electricity prices, I was wondering if a coal fired boiler was a viable alternative.
Would it be able to fully replace my boiler and supply my home with hot water and power my central heating, with a good level of efficiency, etc ??
Does anyone have any costs, etc ...... or beter still, does anyone have any experience/knowledge of coal fired boilers ..... do they actually work as good as modern gas boilers for instance ??

[paddywak]

Not boilers as such, but up till I finished at the pit I had several solid fuel units with back boilers and we never had any real problems with them, both with regards to domestic water or central heating. We never had problems with fuel as we got a coal allowance of 10 ton/year which was more then ample. The big disadvantages were (1) having some where to store your fuel, solid fuel is quite bulky and needs to be stored in a dry place (2) disposing of the ash and the dust produced. Some of my friends had free standing boilers and most seemed quite happy with them, especially if they had an attached garage or a building they could use as a boiler house. Most of the boilers burnt anthracite pearls and were hopper fed with a full hopper lasting 2-3 days depending on usage. Its over 23 years since I last had solid fuel so I'm sorry I can't give you any idea of the price and running costs of modern SFB but all in all I never had any major complaints with solid fuel apart from the ash problem. I nearly forgot the boilers were worm fed and had a shear pin in case anything got jammed and if that happened you had to clean the hopper out to replace it which could be a bit of a job.

[Mass_Hysteria]

Price of a 25kg bag of anthracite is approx £10.

If you want a back boiler to heat radiators/water remember, the fire has to be lit all the time, even in summer. Can get a bit sauna-ish!

[Old_Geezer]

Surely one would supplement/replace the coal burning in the summer ? Heating goes off, immersion heater on as required. Better still wash & bathe in the cold months only.

[starone]

I have gas central heating and fire. There is no way I would go back to coal - dirty stuff, and there's cleaning out the ash and clinkers and re-lighting it if the damn things gone out. All right if someone else is doing it, but if it is you I should think twice, or even thrice before I took the plunge.

[Mass_Hysteria]

I agree starone, dirty, smelly, a thin layer of dust on everything. My Mother always had coal fired CH/water and NO gas. Had it taken out years ago. Her Father was a coal merchant. (Sentimental I guess, but really inconvenient)
Used to go outside midsummer to cool down it was so warm inside.

It's probably nice at first but becomes such a chore.

[Gizmonster]

Hmmm .... looks like I'll be stopping with gas then - thanks for the replies peeps :)