Fake chimney pots, why?

Just checked a coal merchant in the Forest of Dean:

Please be aware that it is no longer legal for coal merchants to sell housecoal or high sulphur briquettes in England, so all of the products that we sell are fully smokeless and of the highest possible standards to safeguard your health, the environment and your chimney liner.

And another:
FAQ
^Has the Government banned use of coal and wet wood?
Prepacked housecoal cannot be sold from 1st March 2021 from retail outlets however as Approved Coal Merchants, we can still deliver your housecoal until February 2023 in open sacks.^

Anthracite and manufactured smokeless fuels are not affected.

Welsh and Scottish merchants are allowed to sell non-compliant products to their local customers but should not supply customers based in England with these non-compliant products as their sulphur content exceeds that specified by the Clean Air legislation.

Talking of FC, the only two of our GC to not have an open fire or wood burner and therefore no chimney, insist on staying here on Christmas Eve so he can visit

They are convinced they will get nothing in their stockings if they stay home.

A local exemption also exists for house coal mined and sold by Freeminers in the Forest of Dean.

But presumably you're not allowed to burn it outside of the Forest of Dean.

WithNobsOnIt

I think the acid test for these chimneys is if you see Dick Van Dyke near these houses with a chimney sweep.brush..Then you know the chimney is kosher.

In the true spirit of Mary Poppins!!

We won't have to wait long to see FC on a rooftop looking puzzled!

This is why I worry what will happen when we go Net Zero and are completely dependent on electricity for all domestic energy.

In the past, and still for some, for those in gas supply areas - which are the majority of us, there was often a gas fire in the living room and/or a gas cooker in the kitchen that could be used for warmth if the electricity went down.

As Elbelle has discussed, in rural area people have solid fuel appliances for all or back up heating and cooking. However in the future, when the power goes down, that is it, the old and ill and other vulnerable people will have no alternative energy source for any use; neither heating, hot drinks, nor washing.

We have just moved into an old house with large open fireplaces and our first thought was, on environmental grounds, that we would fit a coupleof electric looklike wood burners in a couple of the fireplaces, but then the problems listed above occurred to us and in our last home we did experience 2 weeks without gas and six months of interupted gas supplies and we were very grateful for our wood burner. We even used the top of it as a slow cooker.

There isn't always an easy alternative to solid fuel. We live in a rural area in the North of England where there is no gas supply and often power cuts. During the winter we use a Rayburn stove for heating and cooking and a small electric oven and hob sparingly during the summer. The stove runs best and most cleanly on anthracite but this is nigh impossible to source and very expensive when we can. An Aga/Rayburn dealer told me that solid fuel, and I think oil, stoves are no longer being made to sell here but only for export.
It concerns me that the different needs of rural communities are often not understood or considered. A couple of years ago communities quite close to us were without power for a couple of weeks. A home that had a solid fuel stove provided hot water, showers/baths, hot food for others in the small village who were all electric. At times it isn't wise, or possible, to put all your eggs in one basket.

I think the acid test for these chimneys is if you see Dick Van Dyke near these houses with a chimney sweep.brush..Then you know the chimney is kosher.

In the true spirit of Mary Poppins!!

WithNobsOnIt

Lathyrus3

Hmm. Should we be building new houses with fireplaces, I wonder?

You know, pollution, climate change.

My sentiments entirely.

Think l have asked this before.

Can you still buy coal products?

Or me maybe they are for wood burners which are so loved.

👎🔥🏚️

According to AI You cannot buy traditional house coal in England for domestic use, as its sale for homes was banned in May 2023. However, house coal can still be legally purchased for domestic use in Scotland and Wales, and there are exemptions for certain coal products like anthracite, semi-anthracite, and low-volatile steam coal. A local exemption also exists for house coal mined and sold by Freeminers in the Forest of Dean.

You cannot burn any kind of coal, legal or otherwise in a wood burner stove. To do that you would have to buy a grate specifically for coal burning. This is because coal burns at a far higher temperature than wood and if burned on a grate suited for wood brning the metal settles and distorts.

I learnt this the hard way. When we had a holiday home in France, my sister went over taking coal with her because it produced more heat, the weather was cold and we did not have central heating. She ruined the grate and we ended up having to buy a new one at some expense.

Coal effect gas fires?
Although a balanced flue could be fitted as an alternative.

Lathyrus3

Hmm. Should we be building new houses with fireplaces, I wonder?

You know, pollution, climate change.

My sentiments entirely.

Think l have asked this before.

Can you still buy coal products?

Or me maybe they are for wood burners which are so loved.

👎🔥🏚️

Bazza

There’s a relatively new build near us called Three Chimneys without a chimney in sight. Perhaps it’s a joke!

That sounds like it could be a Two Ronnie's sketch! 😊

Just something that will need to be maintained and won't be cheap either.

Lathyrus3

Hmm. Should we be building new houses with fireplaces, I wonder?

You know, pollution, climate change.

We'll all be needing fireplaces soon as all the fantastic investment in AI data centres that Starmer has signed up to will be needing several gigawatts and oceans of clean water to keep them running. As if there isn't enough demand for our domestic supplies.

How do you know they are fake chimneys?

karmalady

Houses need provision for at least a flue and I am glad that many new house builders are doing that, even if the flue is enclosed in a chimney pot

The new builds here have chimneys and real provision for fires be it stoves or gas or electric. All the fittings are there and well done to those builders

Even if you have a gas fire a flue is necessary.

Having a fireplace is a really good insurance against power cuts. I wouldn't want not to have one whatever Greenies say.

There’s a relatively new build near us called Three Chimneys without a chimney in sight. Perhaps it’s a joke!

Houses need provision for at least a flue and I am glad that many new house builders are doing that, even if the flue is enclosed in a chimney pot

The new builds here have chimneys and real provision for fires be it stoves or gas or electric. All the fittings are there and well done to those builders

Our neighbour across, had a wood burner installed a few years ago.
Our houses don’t have chimneys, so they had to have a hideous metal chimney constructed, like what you would see on a takeaway shop.
I would much rather look at a fake chimney stack all day long.

It seems there’s nothing new under the sun. A link to this article arrived in my Inbox this evening and apparently fake chimneys have been a thing since the 1600’s. 😂

www.essexrecordofficeblog.co.uk/2025/09/

The fire in my bungalow is electric which has a flue the back of it. My bungalow was build in 1972 so it probably had real fire. My chimney pot was broken but I had a new one build . I don't use the electric fire as I have radiators. But the bungalows across the road where build in 1990's they have pipes for the flues sticking out of there roofs . I much prefer my chimney pot. Plus I have fake grass which has padding under it to protect me when I fall.

Allira the problems caused by coal fired power stations extended beyond particulates to other chemicals and the scale of a 600megawatt power station to a wood burner is like a match to the sun.

I was on the local Liaison Committee of a coal fired power station for 20 years. They would regularly get complaints about dust and particulates on cars and garden furniture. Each time this happend the Environment Agency would go and collect the dust and analyse it. In 20 years it was never dust coming from the power station. Usually it was red Sahara sand, sometimes from other industrial processes in the area, but not from the power station.

A simple solution would be for the stove makes to develop a particulate filter that removes the particulates before they leave the stove. They did that for coal fired power stations in their later years, so it should not be beyond the power of science to devlop one for a wood burning stove.
Yes, then shut them down.

We lived in a big village near Oxford, but we had a fortnight without gas a few years ago and an uncetain supply for a whole winter.

To have heated our house using electric heaters would have been incredibly expensive. We did, one winter have to heat the kitchen with an electric oil filled radiator. our electricity bill went up by over £200, to do the whole house didn't bear thnking of. so we were very glad indeed of our wood burning stove.

A simple solution would be for the stove makes to develop a particulate filter that removes the particulates before they leave the stove. They did that for coal fired power stations in their later years, so it should not be beyond the power of science to devlop one for a wood burning stove.

SueDonim

Lathyrus3

Hmm. Should we be building new houses with fireplaces, I wonder?

You know, pollution, climate change.

No gas and regular power outages in a rural area where you can be cut off by snow or floods means people rely on solid fuel in many parts of Scotland, Lathyrus. They need something reliable.

The electric used to go down quite often in Bedfordshire too🙄😬

I won’t pretend I didn’t enjoy the log fire when I visited family outside Inverness😊