What to buy for a first real fireplace
This is for someone lighting a real fireplace for the first time, including anyone who has just moved into a house that has one. Start with a bag you can carry, a fuel the appliance is allowed to burn, and something that will actually catch light.
Before any fuel
- Work out what the opening is. An open fire, a multi-fuel stove and a wood-only stove take different fuels. The stove manual is the authority. A wood-only stove should be left on wood unless the maker says it can burn smokeless coal.
- If the house is in a smoke control area, the fuel has to be authorised, or the appliance has to be exempt. The fuels on this board are authorised smokeless fuels. Confirm the postcode on the Defra map or with the council. The outline is in smoke control areas and what you can burn.
- If you do not know when the chimney was last swept, have it swept before the first fire. A cold flue with an unknown history is how a first evening fills the room with smoke.
The first order
Buy one 20 kg or 25 kg bag from the bags table on the price board. Leave the pallet until you know how the fire behaves and where a tonne would live.
For an open fire, a medium briquette is the straightforward start: Homefire Brazier or Oxbow Red. They sit on a grate and leave air through the bed. Supertherm, Homefire Ovals and classic Homefire are larger. They suit many open fires, and some smaller stoves find the big pieces awkward. Fuel grades and which appliance they suit goes through the list.
Buy kiln-dried kindling and a few small dry logs in the same trip. Smokeless fuel needs a hot fire under it. A match on a cold briquette does not do that job. How to light smokeless fuel is the order that works.
Fit a carbon monoxide alarm if the room does not already have one. An alarm is required when a solid fuel appliance is newly installed. On an existing open fire it is still worth having. Landlords have to provide one in any room with a fixed solid-fuel appliance.
Leave these until the fire is familiar
- A pallet. Storage, lorry access and the right grade matter more than the lowest pence per kWh on the first day. Which pack size to buy is the guide once you know how fast a bag disappears.
- A 50 kg sack, unless you are happy lifting it. The cheapest bag on the board is often this size, and it is a poor thing to discover halfway up the stairs.
- House coal. It is not an authorised fuel in a smoke control area, and the sale of traditional house coal for domestic use is restricted in England.
After a few evenings you will know whether you are lighting a Sunday fire or heating with it. The pack size and the board can take it from there.