Coal deliveries

[Tinbum]

With a change in legislation, effective the 1st May 2021, House Coal in England can only be delivered in open sacks by an Approved Coal Merchant.

So:

When you order House Coal the fuel will be delivered by hand, in 25kg Plastic Bags.
The House Coal can be tipped into a suitable coal bunker or store and the empty bags taken away for recycling.
Alternatively the House Coal can remain in the bags. However, please note, that the bags will be cut open before our delivery partner leaves your premises, in order to comply with the new legislation.

[Mr Gus]

Delivered sealed, but cut open before they are left.. why? likely they are delivered wet as is.

[Bugtownboy]

Serious question - is house coal still a thing ?

My only recollection was as a child circa 60 years ago and the ‘Coal Man’ (is that PC anymore ) stopping outside the house and tipping coal, from presumably hemp or jute sacks , down the coal hole to the cellar.

How my parents, without car, phone or internet, arranged it, who knows ?

[Stinsy]

Yes. Still a thing. Plenty of people round my way still burn coal.

IMO this is another case of blaming consumers. Housecoal is a total irrelevance while we still burn vast quantities coal/gas for electricity.

[Paul_F]

Yes. Still a thing. Plenty of people round my way still burn coal.

IMO this is another case of blaming consumers. Housecoal is a total irrelevance while we still burn vast quantities coal/gas for electricity.

Ummm... we don't actually burn all that much coal and gas for electricity.

• The last DUKES data I can find is 2019 (so very strongly pessimistic) and has 2.89 million tonnes of coal and 245 TWh of gas, for a total of 325 TWh of generation.
• Domestic consumers used 103.8 TWh of electricity, so are "responsible" for 923,000 tonnes of Coal and 78 TWh of gas.
• By comparison, per DUKES domestic consumers burned 492,000 tonnes of coal at home.
• That means 35% of all domestic coal consumption in 2019 was home heating - certainly not an irrelevance, and when DUKES data for 2020 comes out I suspect the figure will be a lot higher given the rate at which coal fired power stations are closing down.

[nowty]

Serious question - is house coal still a thing ?

My only recollection was as a child circa 60 years ago and the ‘Coal Man’ (is that PC anymore ) stopping outside the house and tipping coal, from presumably hemp or jute sacks , down the coal hole to the cellar.

How my parents, without car, phone or internet, arranged it, who knows ?

I too remember the coal man turning up on a flat bed truck and as a child in the north of England having to go into the outhouse coal bunker in the middle of winter and crawl onto the bed of coal and fill the coal scuttle up for the Rayburn.

Don't have a photo of it cos its 40 something years ago , but photographic memories are flooding back into my head.

[Stig]

Serious question - is house coal still a thing ?

Sadly, yes. My Mother's neighbour burns it (you can smell the smoke) despite the house being barely 20 years old!

[Mr Gus]

I admit to having got a very good deal on a few pallets of coal when we still had an open back monstrosity in the house, & the early days of our multifuel stove ..part of the reason was to wean her off her perception of coal, ..ie the massive clean up compared to a tiny bit of wood ash after days of WB ..never looked back.

[Tinbum]

I admit to having got a very good deal on a few pallets of coal when we still had an open back monstrosity in the house, & the early days of our multifuel stove ..part of the reason was to wean her off her perception of coal, ..ie the massive clean up compared to a tiny bit of wood ash after days of WB ..never looked back.

I've found with coal it depends on the coal. Columbian leaves practically no ash at all.