Apologies if this is in the wrong thread, and it is a long one so bear with me.....
I will start with my setup; A 5kw multi-fuel (ACR Malvern) with a lined (single, flex) 12m chimney that runs up through the middle of the house. I generally burn 12-18 month old CSS silver birch/pine and 24-30 month old CSS eucalyptus. A newly split piece reads 20% or less in the middle.
As it is a small stove that takes fairly small splits (and we live in a smokeless zone) in an effort to keep the fire "in" overnight I gradually bank up at night with smokeless coal. This means there is often plenty of coal and heat in the stove and chimney come the AM to restart with.
Now to the meat of this post, I noticed a reduction in draw last week while burning. I thought this was odd, as I had it swept in April and have only really had 2 good months burning what I thought was wood that as in the right zone. So I called the sweep out, who done his thing and produced the largest amount of soot I have ever seen come out of my chimney (a builders bucket full).
Straight away he asked me if I burnt smokeless coal. Apparently even smokeless will clog your chimney much quicker than even wet wood. I am aware of the use of bituminous and house coal doing this but I had always been under the impression that smokeless was effectively unable to produce soot/clog chimneys.
It is worth noting that the material coming out the chimney was very fine dull dust (I reckon it would be 95% passing a 0.063mm sieve) and had no discernible odour. It reminded me of mineral filler. Also we have burned no more than 50kg of coal since September.
He has warned me about using smokeless coals in the future, which will put a kick in the boll*cks of my overnight burns if I follow his advice.
Has anyone else found this?
I will start with my setup; A 5kw multi-fuel (ACR Malvern) with a lined (single, flex) 12m chimney that runs up through the middle of the house. I generally burn 12-18 month old CSS silver birch/pine and 24-30 month old CSS eucalyptus. A newly split piece reads 20% or less in the middle.
As it is a small stove that takes fairly small splits (and we live in a smokeless zone) in an effort to keep the fire "in" overnight I gradually bank up at night with smokeless coal. This means there is often plenty of coal and heat in the stove and chimney come the AM to restart with.
Now to the meat of this post, I noticed a reduction in draw last week while burning. I thought this was odd, as I had it swept in April and have only really had 2 good months burning what I thought was wood that as in the right zone. So I called the sweep out, who done his thing and produced the largest amount of soot I have ever seen come out of my chimney (a builders bucket full).
Straight away he asked me if I burnt smokeless coal. Apparently even smokeless will clog your chimney much quicker than even wet wood. I am aware of the use of bituminous and house coal doing this but I had always been under the impression that smokeless was effectively unable to produce soot/clog chimneys.
It is worth noting that the material coming out the chimney was very fine dull dust (I reckon it would be 95% passing a 0.063mm sieve) and had no discernible odour. It reminded me of mineral filler. Also we have burned no more than 50kg of coal since September.
He has warned me about using smokeless coals in the future, which will put a kick in the boll*cks of my overnight burns if I follow his advice.
Has anyone else found this?
