Sunday, January 20, 2013

#012 You Might Live in Scotland If...

 ... you burn coal to heat your home!

Since we moved to our flat here in Aberdeen, we have been heating our place with radiators and a fire place. There's no central heat, well at least in our place or actually in any of my friend's places for that matter.

Because of the cost of heating, we only heat the rooms when we are in them. Each room, including the kitchen and living room has a door to help keep the heat in. So that definitely helps, but at the same time exponentially ups the number of times Tim says to the girls, "Close the door; you weren't raised in a barn!"


Our living room has a fire place, so this winter we have been burning coal for heat. It's our first time using coal for a fire. Coming from central Pennsylvania, Tim and I had a pretty good idea how start and keep a wood fire going, but coal has been a bit of a learning curve.

But after some practice now I think we have the hang of it and are really enjoying the chance to sit by that warm glow in the evenings with a book and a cuppa tea when the kids are in bed!




4 comments:

Suz said...

Looks so cozy!!! :) Love to all our Scottish peeps.

Katie Barker said...

weird - I didn't know coal was/could be burned in a fire place. What do you do? What the difference? We need more info!

jeileenbaylor said...

Yea- so I guess I should have included that ;) It's harder to get lit. It's called, "house coal". We basically have to make circle of coal, then put newspaper and kindling in the middle of the circle and light it. We often have to add more kindling until the red embers are hot enough to begin to burn the coal. Once you get it going, it really creates nice heat and lasts a long time. We also have burned peet. But it doesn't last nearly as long, so we have stopped using it.

Katie Barker said...

ooh - thanks for all the details! :)