What Preps are you doing this week? Part 5.

[diamond lil]

Jansman we use 6 bags of ovals at £18 each and 2 bags of anthracite at £20, per month. I could get a month's supply as backup, I think that makes sense as it will still be cold up here then.

[jansman]

Given your location,that sounds right.My wood is free,my coal about 40 quid, and the electricity £100 .nothing is free.

[grenfell]

We use daily to have a coal house in my parents house as did all the houses on the estate of originally council houses. Like an awful lot of others the interior wall was knocked out , a window put in and the resulting space turned into a decent sized kitchen. Having the coal inside meant there was a gradual build up of dust and slack or small pieces of coal . I can remember my father periodically sweeping it all up and mixing it with a bit of cement to create "bricks" . Evidentially the bricks were common at one time as the pits sort to sell as much as possible including all the dust.
I agree that putting wet coal on a fire isn't the best idea but long term it won't hurt it to be outside , after all it's been sat in the ground for millions of years already. To be fair when my parents got rid of the coal house they were already burning less as the cost was rising but they did have a bunker which in reality was little more than an open topped brick enclosure. When it came to clearing the house there was still several bags worth lefft in it and a fair bit of the dust and slack which I used as my father had done to make brick
I still keep several bags behind the workshop as an emergency backup more than anything else as we very rarely use any being normally just wood is used but it's nice to have a reserve "just in case".

[diamond lil]

I've had a coal fire most of my life, hated the time in a flat on all-electric.
We've got 2 coal bunkers, one for the ovals and one for anthracite. I think the local councils are moving away from coal though, it's not fashionable any more and they will want us all to go electric (no mains gas up here). I will refuse unless they leave my chimney intact, so I can keep an open fire.
We only pay £16 a month for the electric, we only use that for lights laptops fridge freezer etc, cook with Calor gas. It works up here as we have a lot of bad weather and that brings power cuts.
My idea of hell is a cosy small tidy flat in a city, with electric heating

[jansman]

I've had a coal fire most of my life, hated the time in a flat on all-electric.
We've got 2 coal bunkers, one for the ovals and one for anthracite. I think the local councils are moving away from coal though, it's not fashionable any more and they will want us all to go electric (no mains gas up here). I will refuse unless they leave my chimney intact, so I can keep an open fire.
We only pay £16 a month for the electric, we only use that for lights laptops fridge freezer etc, cook with Calor gas. It works up here as we have a lot of bad weather and that brings power cuts.
My idea of hell is a cosy small tidy flat in a city, with electric heating

Totally agree! We have had coal fired heating all our lives.We store in two bunkers and rotate religiously to avoid too much dust ( which I too,turn into bricks!).Incidentally,wet coal,when piled at 3m + high,can spontaneously combust.I know,I know,not many people have a stack that high,but it can happen.

[Yorkshire Andy]

We are in a council house no way we can afford to buy ....

The powers that be decided to save £60 a year per house by ripping out the gas fire :/

Anyways we are reliant on the leccy for heat via our new gas boiler a mate sorted before they left the council...

We have a stand alone bio ethanol fire place and my trusty 4kw calor as immediate fall back ...

If needed it would be a 10 min job to hook my generator up to run the boiler but it's far from subtle been a site generator


As for today I've made the most of the warm weather and tidied the shed and garden so if it snows we are all in order outside..(sledge and snow shovel to hand.. just need to take the outside Christmas lights down but they can stay till April if it gets cold

Replaced a aging dry powder extinguisher in the car with a afff unit it had dropped a bit of pressure when I tested the gauge making me not want to trust it..... Knowing my luck this cold weather will stay and I'll be buying a powder before long as foam will freeze ...

[Yorkshire Andy]

Well an hour to go till the new year! So new thread started for 2019!


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