Coal price

[Geo]

With the various fuels, both heating and petrol/diesel dropping in price has the wholesale price of coal stayed the same? I notice that coal prices never seem to go down at retail when the other fuels do.

[groater]

We were told couple a couple of months ago price was going up due to transport costs from Wales now price up again because of the euro? what reason next (and when did Wales change to the euro anyway :lol: )

[ciderally]

mine went from 15.50 a bag to 18.00 because of the hike up on petrol, that was couple months back ...not came down any with the petrol prices?? must be making a fair profit these coal merchants......

[Kevin Milkins]

I have been doing a little survey of my own on the cost of fuel (coal, electricity etc) and have come up with some results that I did not expect.

I have been learning to use spreadsheets and decided to do a meter reading on a daily basis for the last 2 months and make changes as need be.

See this thread Electricity Usage (http://forum.caithness.org/showthread.php?t=66423)

at the end of the first month reading I had used 556 units @ 12.75P = £71-11.

After the first month the changes we made were to turn the emersion heater off as we were led to believe it was cheaper to leave them on 24/7 and we bought a remote to turn off all our plug sockets when not in use.

This months reading was 433.8 units @ 12.75P = £55-31, so we saved £15-80 a month without trying to hard and the last month has been very cold.

The most remarkable finding was the use of coal.

It was a guess that we used about 2 bags of Chinese doubles a week at a total cost of £36-00 so in an attempt to cut down we bought a load of logs from Dunnett Forrest and some dross to try and eak out our supply and we still used 2 bags of doubles a week

When the snow came it was not favorable to saw logs and we run out of dross so it was top quality coal only for one week and we used 1-1/2 bags of Chinese doubles.:eek:

The conclusion we came to was that Chinese doubles burn better, cleaner, and for longer when not mixed with other fuel and we have better control over the burn.

Having said all that our coal man has now informed me that we may have to go to German coal because the China man keeps putting his price up and it is not acceptable.

[oldmarine]

It would be nice to get away from burning fossil fuels for heat and to find a cleaner form of heat. I wonder if that will ever happen.

[Penelope Pitstop]

I have been doing a little survey of my own on the cost of fuel (coal, electricity etc) and have come up with some results that I did not expect.

I have been learning to use spreadsheets and decided to do a meter reading on a daily basis for the last 2 months and make changes as need be.

See this thread Electricity Usage (http://forum.caithness.org/showthread.php?t=66423)

at the end of the first month reading I had used 556 units @ 12.75P = £71-11.

After the first month the changes we made were to turn the emersion heater off as we were led to believe it was cheaper to leave them on 24/7 and we bought a remote to turn off all our plug sockets when not in use.

This months reading was 433.8 units @ 12.75P = £55-31, so we saved £15-80 a month without trying to hard and the last month has been very cold.

The most remarkable finding was the use of coal.

It was a guess that we used about 2 bags of Chinese doubles a week at a total cost of £36-00 so in an attempt to cut down we bought a load of logs from Dunnett Forrest and some dross to try and eak out our supply and we still used 2 bags of doubles a week

When the snow came it was not favorable to saw logs and we run out of dross so it was top quality coal only for one week and we used 1-1/2 bags of Chinese doubles.:eek:

The conclusion we came to was that Chinese doubles burn better, cleaner, and for longer when not mixed with other fuel and we have better control over the burn.

Having said all that our coal man has now informed me that we may have to go to German coal because the China man keeps putting his price up and it is not acceptable.

That's interesting, thanks for sharing that with us.

What's a remote that turns off all your plugs when not in use??

[TheOldByre]

Well if yee want to cut yir coal bill.....cut peats.

(I think I've just come up with a slogan for the Peat Marketing Board)

There's thousands of disused peat banks all over the county and but for a bit of sweat and graft you can have your heating for free.

How many people are still cutting peats in the county ? The only peat stack I've seen in a while is a hooise beside the A9 around Ramscraigs.

[teenybash]

Well if yee want to cut yir coal bill.....cut peats.

(I think I've just come up with a slogan for the Peat Marketing Board)

There's thousands of disused peat banks all over the county and but for a bit of sweat and graft you can have your heating for free.

How many people are still cutting peats in the county ? The only peat stack I've seen in a while is a hooise beside the A9 around Ramscraigs.

I would love to have a peat bank but, how do you go about getting one?

[TheOldByre]

I would love to have a peat bank but, how do you go about getting one?

Here's your handy cut-out-and-keep guide to cutting peats:

1 - Drive to the nearest piece of open moorland, preferably one already scoured with old banks

2 - Take spade out of car and cut out peats, and leave to dry on the heather for a couple of months.

3 - Cart them home (whilst getting eaten to death by midgies).

4 - Burn them in your fire.

Only monetary cost is fuel to transport them.

And before I get an environmental earbashing for suggesting the removal of peat, Caithness has so much of it that if every man, woman, child and dog in the county were to open up a peat bank it would probably still last longer than my pint when it's my turn for the next round.

[teenybash]

[quote=TheOldByre;507922]Here's your handy cut-out-and-keep guide to cutting peats:

1 - Drive to the nearest piece of open moorland, preferably one already scoured with old banks

2 - Take spade out of car and cut out peats, and leave to dry on the heather for a couple of months.

3 - Cart them home (whilst getting eaten to death by midgies).

4 - Burn them in your fire.

Only monetary cost is fuel to transport them.

And before I get an environmental earbashing for suggesting the removal of peat, Caithness has so much of it that if every man, woman, child and dog in the county were to open up a peat bank it would probably still last longer than my pint when it's my turn for the next round.[/quote
Thanks for that, though I have cut peats before etc but not here in Caithness.............Do you not need permission from someone to cut peats as the land must belong to someone..........or are things different here?

[Kevin Milkins]

That's interesting, thanks for sharing that with us.

What's a remote that turns off all your plugs when not in use??

As a result of many our power sockets being in awkward places ( behind a settee or cupboards ) we bought a set of Remote Controlled Power Sockets from Lidl.

They consist of a small remote control transmitter (like a small TV control) and 4 plug in receivers that you plug into your sockets.

My home entertainment centre (for the want of a better description lol) has the TV, DVD, Amplifier, VCR, Wii, and a table lamp plugged into an anti serge extension tower and the tower is now plugged into one of the plug in receivers.

I have one that has a couple of lamps connected to it and one in the kitchen that has a TV, DVD, tooth brush charger, and lamp and the other one is not in use yet.

On the control you have the option of switching everything on or off at the same time or on and of as individual and the transmitter will work from anywhere in the house.

My first 3 days readings did not include this new set up and shows on the spreadsheet as follows. The average cost for electric per day for the three days without the plug ins were £2-38 and the average for the rest of the month per day was £1-72.

[Geo]

I love the smell of a peat fire but it's just so messy, with the ash being so fine.

[Miss Mack]

Coal prices are far to high, We're paying nearly £50 a week to keep an open fire burning[evil]. Started burning logs now, you get a lot more for your money !

[highlander]

Peat is good to bank down the fire, but you have to get your lum cleaned more often if you use it a lot.